Lisa Helem, editor-in-chief of The National Law Journal

Shutdowns. Stalemates. Regulatory Change.

In our cover story, Ryan Lovelace examines how Washington, D.C., law firms are navigating the new normal.

Next, in our second feature, Erin Mulvaney provides the 2019 outlook on the labor and employment law front. Among the issues to watch? LGBT workplace protections take center stage in U.S. Supreme Court cases such as Altitude Express v. Zarda and Bostock v. Clayton County. And what's next for the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission? As of January, the five-member EEOC was down to two commissioners and lacked a quorum.

As National Law Journal readers, we know you share our interest in a good Washington insider scoop. Marcia Coyle has you covered in 1 on 1: Conversations with Newsmakers, where she catches up with Sen. Dianne Feinstein's former lead counsel for judicial nominations, Marc Hearron. The former Morrison & Foerster partner details his time dealing with document negotiations and prepping questions in a Dirksen Senate office building "war room" during the contentious Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh. And he also has some thoughts about the confirmation process. Read more in Coyle's story.

And think you can't learn anything from watching football? Think again. In this month's Commentary, "Why We Should Adopt a Rooney Rule for Law Clerks," U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria of the Northern District of California challenges his comrades on the federal bench to take a new approach to diversity in clerk hiring, extrapolating from the way the National Football League hires coaches. Check out his column for more.

Lastly, take a gander at the latest legal moves from around the globe in Movers, compiled by Pearl Wu.

As always, we love to hear from you. Email me at the address below or reach out on Twitter via @lhelemNLJ. Thanks as always for reading!