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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

CUT IT OUT - If you're into this sort of thing, you might be wondering to yourself: are clients looking to spread their work among a growing group of specialized law firms or are they really converging their outside counsel relationships? Turns out, it's the latter and has been for some time. But the pandemic might have accelerated the trend. During that period, law firm clients weren't going out to the market to test new firms during the lockdown, but continued to have needs and saw benefits of shrinking outside counsel lists, Paul Schmidt, chair of Baker & Hostetler, told Law.com's Andrew Maloney. Post-pandemic, Schmidt said, "there certainly is a trend among consumers of our services to try and manage their outside spend and the firms they work with, by creating a finite number of firms—always with the opportunity to make exceptions where they need to." In fact, several law firm leaders, corporate counsel and industry analysts pointed to convergence as a best practice now and for at least the last decade.

FROM METAVERSE TO RISK-AVERSE - Cryptocurrency, the metaverse, generative AI—tech sector obsessions seem to come and go like TikTok trends. And with AI hogging all the attention right now, the tech industry's newfound cost-consciousness—what Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg dubs "the year of efficiency"—could result in industry players underinvesting in the metaverse, a study from KPMG suggests. As Law.com's Hugo Guzman reports, the April survey of 767 tech, media and telecom executives worldwide found respondents had high hopes for the emerging field, which uses virtual reality, augmented reality and other advanced internet technologies to create lifelike personal and business experiences online. The survey highlighted that while 60% of respondents believed the metaverse can drive revenue, 70% said their companies were investing less than 5% of their technology budgets into the metaverse, and 27% were investing nothing.

ON THE RADAR - Lincoln National Life Insurance was hit with an ERISA lawsuit Friday in California Northern District Court. The lawsuit, which challenges the defendant's denial of short- and long-term disability benefits, was filed by attorney Scott E. Shaffman on behalf of Doina Tania Gorie. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendant. The case is 5:23-cv-03294, Gorie v. Lincoln National Life Insurance Company. Stay up on the latest state and federal litigation, as well as the latest corporate deals, with Law.com Radar.   

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