While the first few conversations I've had about what's changed for litigators over the past couple of years have centered on shifts in the culture of litigation, one thing that's different for Sheppard Mullin partner Kent Raygor is the nature of the cases he's handling themselves.

Raygor, a veteran in the firm's Century City, California, office who served a spell as the head of the firm's intellectual property department around the turn of the millennium, handled a string of right of publicity cases earlier in his career defending media companies and retail brands. The work touched on First Amendment issues which, in turn, led to more Constitutional work. Over the past two years, he has put that Constitutional law experience to work handling issues at the cutting edge of the law related directly to the pandemic—primarily litigating for the County of Los Angeles in challenges to its COVID restrictions and defending local mask and vaccination mandates.