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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

PORTENTOUS PIPS - No news is good news if you're a Big Law associate short on hours this summer. As layoffs roll through the Am Law 100 this summer, many of the recent cuts framed as "performance-related" have been tied to negative midyear reviews—reviews that didn't exist at many firms when demand was high, Law.com's Dan Roe reports. In slow practice areas, not all associates who escaped with their jobs are in the clear yet. Increasingly, associates and recruiters report law firms' use of performance improvement plans or PIPs as a means of creating pretext for firing an associate for cause in the coming months. "Right now, I do think PIPs are being used in a way they haven't been used in the past in giving firms a strategy to facilitate layoffs without having to call them that," said Summer Eberhard, a partner in Major, Lindsey & Africa's associate practice group.

TECH TEMPTS TALENT - Legal departments battling for talent increasingly are finding that if they're not fully embracing the power of technology to boost efficiency and automate rote, dull legal work, the most-sought-after up-and-coming attorneys are passing them by, or becoming so frustrated they quickly exit, Law.com's Trudy Knockless reports. Danielle Sheer, GC of the data-protection company Commvault, has seen a big shift since she started her legal career in 2006. Today, she said, often one of the first three questions a younger lawyer interviewing for a job asks is, "Do you use any legal technology?" "They're not looking to recreate the wheel and spend 20 hours of their week on manual tasks because I don't have technology to help them be more efficient," she said. "If they are not provided with the tools that can make them work more efficiently, they're going to look for another job."

ON THE RADAR - Sirius XM Satellite Radio was hit with a wage and hour class action Friday in New York Southern District Court. The lawsuit, filed by Brown LLC and Sommers Schwartz, alleges that the company failed to compensate hourly-paid customer service representatives for required pre- and post-shift activities. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendant. The case is 1:23-cv-06092, Mitchell v. Sirius XM Radio. Stay up on the latest state and federal litigation, as well as the latest corporate deals, with Law.com Radar.   

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