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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

LAW FIRM DEMAND(S) - The push by Big Law firms to mandate more time in the office isn't only a logistical issue about where lawyers are working and billing hours. As Law.com's Christine Simmons writes in the latest Law.com Barometer newsletter, it's a sign that, amid lowered law firm demand and some continued alarms of a potential recession, firm leaders are attempting to take the power back. The talent war appears to be simmering down and law firm management has regained leverage, which some are using to make demands without fear of serious consequences from the associate ranks. "Yes, some lawyers will leave those law firms that are increasingly mandating more time in the office," Simmons writes. "But as long as demand remains depressed, especially in transactional work and big deals, there's less work to go around and the 'war for bodies' is over, other elite firms will have leverage to make office attendance mandates." And hey, why not, right? Well…

NICE FIRMS FINISH FIRST? - … a new study suggests high-growth law firms aren't just better than their peers at generating revenue and profits, they also generally invest more in their people, and at the same time, might be getting a boost from remote work. "Dynamic" firms—those that had the highest compounded annual growth rates in profits per lawyer and revenue per lawyer over the last decade—increased overhead costs associated with personnel while shrinking occupancy costs in the age of remote work, analysts for Thomson Reuters noted in their 2023 Dynamic Law Firms Report. Michelle Fivel, co-founder of the legal recruiting firm Hatch Henderson Fivel, told Law.com's Andrew Maloney that while RTO policies themselves aren't always the deciding factor for lawyers on the move, they do speak to other aspects of firm culture, including how they approach benefits and flexibility—things that also separate dynamic and static firms.

ON THE RADAR - LTRAC LLC d/b/a ProspectNow, a real estate data and analytics company, filed a lawsuit against former owner and employee Steven Wayne on Thursday in Idaho District Court over a contract dispute. The suit, filed by Stoel Rives and Jones Day, arises from a dispute over the term 'revenue' for purposes of calculating a bonus and seeks a declaration that the company did not generate sufficient revenue to trigger the bonus. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendant. The case is 1:23-cv-00336, LTRAC LLC v. Wayne. Stay up on the latest state and federal litigation, as well as the latest corporate deals, with Law.com Radar.   

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