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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

THE CLIENT IS ALWAYS RIGHT? - Unreasonable and inhumane demands from clients are stressing lawyers out and damaging their mental and physical health, according to a recent American Lawyer survey on mental health in the legal profession. But, if that's the case, who's really to blame—the clients for making those demands or law firm leadership for catering to them? If you ask law firm attorneys, the problem is largely clients' responsibility to solve. But, as Law.com's Dan Roe and Trudy Knockless report, clients see things a little differently, with some suggesting that it's the firms themselves that are putting unreasonable demands on their lawyers. "I wouldn't be surprised if that's more so the expectations of the law firm partners as to how they think the client has to be serviced rather than what the client demands," Timothy Brown, CLO at Venerable, said. "But for law firm partners, that's how they came up. That's what they did and it worked for them."

(MACHINE) LEARNING TO COEXIST - Exactly how generative A.I. technology will impact non-legal roles is an open question. But some are already preparing for the changes they see coming, Law.com's Cassandre Coyer reports. While some expect non-legal law firm roles to continue on in a different fashion—provided they can learn how to apply their skills in a new way—others predict a broader reshuffling of firms' organizational charts. But the outlook isn't all bleak. For example, Julia Bennett, CMO at Brown Rudnick, sees generative AI not only growing the firm's marketing efforts, but also making the department more productive overall. "Legal marketers have to do a lot of writing … that may not be extremely difficult to write but may be very time consuming," Bennett says. She adds, "The ability to use AI technology to draft an invitation to a webinar a law firm is holding … [or] write an invitation text could be a three-minute task that normally maybe it would be a 30-minute or an hour-long task."

ON THE RADAR - Data storage device company SanDisk and parent company Western Digital were slapped with a consumer class action Aug. 17 in California Northern District Court. The suit, filed by Bursor & Fisher, alleges that a defect in certain solid-state drives or 'SSDs' causes the drives to lose all stored data. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendants. The case is 5:23-cv-04206, Jafri v. SanDisk LLC et al. Stay up on the latest state and federal litigation, as well as the latest corporate deals, with Law.com Radar.   

EDITOR'S PICKS

Following Mass Departures, Lewis Brisbois Spinoff to Shutter 5 Months After Launch By Jessie Yount

The Law Firm Disrupted: Where's the Proof of the In-Office Premium? By Dan Packel

Too Risky to Follow or Cutting Edge? Inside the Minds of Legal Influencers By Cedra Mayfield | Aleeza Furman