The Morning Minute: Latest Big Law Layoffs Illustrate Inconsistency in Market
The news and analysis you need to start your day.
February 16, 2024 at 06:00 AM
4 minute read
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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING
TOO MUCH, TOO FAST - Despite impressive gains at the top of the Am Law 200 charts and a mindset geared more toward growth, layoffs and cuts continue to rattle the industry. Productivity and utilization remain a problem, observers and analysts have told Law.com's Andrew Maloney , as some firms expect deal work to improve only "incrementally" and the tech sector in particular just hasn't shown enough resilience. Those assessments come as Fenwick & West told employees on Tuesday that it was laying off "just under" 10% of its professionals, including attorneys and staff. The firm cited a surge in demand from 2020 through early 2022 that caused Fenwick & West to hire "quite aggressively," said Richard Dickson, the firm's chair, in a memo viewed by Law.com. "It felt necessary at the time. But, with the benefit of hindsight, it represented a deviation from our core principle of managing for the long-term," Dickson said.
LEGAL ORGANIZATION - From the casinos on the Las Vegas Strip to Hollywood's writing rooms, workers are turning to their unions to seek protections against the risks that emerging technologies like genAI may pose to their jobs. Could a growing movement by employees to prepare for the impact of generative AI spread to an industry that hasn't traditionally been prone to unionization, like legal? As Law.com's Cassandre Coyer reports , in many ways, the legal industry is now at an inflection point. Stuck between the prospect of roles being transformed, if not entirely threatened, by the technology, an ongoing push toward business-oriented structural changes, and questions around the longevity of the billable hour, some believe this could be the industry's first real opportunity to meaningfully consider collective bargaining.
ON THE RADAR - Attorneys from Latham & Watkins and Morrison & Foerster have stepped in to represent OpenAI Inc., developer of the ChatGpt AI language generator and Dall-E AI image generator, and other defendants in a pending copyright class action. The suit, filed Dec. 27 in New York Southern District Court by Susman Godfrey and Rothwell Figg Ernst & Manbeck on behalf of the New York Times, accuses the defendants of using copyrighted news articles to train OpenAI's large language and generative artificial intelligence models. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein, is 1:23-cv-11195, The New York Times Company v. Microsoft Corporation et al. Stay up on the latest state and federal litigation, as well as the latest corporate deals, with Law.com Radar.
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Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
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