Trends Legal Industry Marketers Need to Know
- Law Firm Bonuses: Firms are juggling two different kinds of bonuses this fall. First, there are the “pandemic” bonuses given out in recognition of the hard work lawyers have done in the midst of a highly unusual and challenging situation. But firms are also still handing out their customary end-of-year bonuses, creating a situation at some firms in which lawyers are getting two bonuses, some at the same time like Cravath and Paul Weiss’ double bonus announcements.
- Public Scrutiny of Law Firm Work: Law firms are feeling pressure from the glare of the public spotlight—and taking the unusual step of actually responding to it. The attention that Porter Wright got for its role in election litigation led it to step away from the case. In the wake of that decision, Dylan Jackson wrote about whether firms are growing more susceptible to public scrutiny.
- Firm Legal Tech Investments: There’s a lot of buzz about law firms not only investing in internal technology, but investing in/becoming interested in the wider legal tech market. Orrick launched a legal tech directory for clients, DLA Piper launched a blockchain tokenization platform to wide release. Here’s an analysis of what firm investment means for startups, and a slideshow of legal tech companies with firm investment.
- Corporate Counsel Advice for 2021: Check out how current and former chief lawyers for major companies, including WWE, Panera Bread Co. and Boehringer Ingelheim, view and structure their legal departments for success. In addition, experts are saying that in-house compliance leaders should prepare for a spike in employee misconduct in the coming months.
- A Re-Focus on Regulatory. Ripple general counsel Stu Alderoty spoke out about the “tension between regulation and innovation” in the U.S. and what he sees as the SEC’s failure to provide the cryptocurrency industry with clear regulatory guidance. A survey from Baker McKenzie found while companies have increasingly looked to technology to help mitigate the business obstacles, compliance personnel may not be getting the opportunity to consult on new purchases before they potentially trigger regulatory problems.
- Tech Transformation & ALSPs. The economic ravages of the pandemic aren’t discouraging legal departments from pursuing technological transformation, and it may even be driving more into the arms of alternative legal service providers, according to the 2020 Legal Department COVID-19 Survey by Deloitte.
- Lawyers Behaving Badly: Conduct issues have reemerged with several regulatory investigations going on. The most talked-about issue was a UK High Court ruling that reversed a regulator decision to fine a Freshfields partner (who has since left) for sexual interaction with a colleague after she was judged to have been too drunk to consent. Here’s an analysis.
- Law.com Litigation Trendspotter: As Remote Work Drags On, the Threat of a Trade Secret ‘Crisis’ Only Grows – Since the start of the pandemic and the widespread shift to remote work, attorneys have been warning of the heightened threat to companies’ trade secrets and the potential avalanche of litigation that could be on the horizon.
- Law.com Litigation Trendspotter: Plaintiffs Get Biggest Win Yet in COVID-19 Business Interruption Litigation – A recent pair of rulings out of North Carolina may have handed plaintiffs their biggest win yet in a COVID-19 business interruption insurance case—one that could definitively change the trajectory of similar litigation nationwide.
- Law.com Trendspotter: Outsourcing Is Big Law’s Next Big Thing—but Its Staying Power Is Already In Question – Farming out law jobs has always had its drawbacks, and a recent high-profile lawsuit has highlighted just how wrong these types of arrangements can go. All of which begs the question: Is outsourcing the wave of the future for Big Law or is it already on its way out?
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Keith Edwards,