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An American Bar Association ethics opinion released Wednesday offers new guidance on when a lawyer's conflict of interest after meeting with a prospective client should be considered to impact the whole firm and how lawyers can try to avoid sparking that whole-firm conflict.
Amid concerns from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce about third-party litigation funding, including from potentially hostile foreign entities, state legislatures in Indiana and West Virginia have recently passed bills imposing restrictions on the practice.
Law360 Pulse recently caught up with James Bennett, co-founder of boutique litigation firm Dowd Bennett LLP, to discuss the firm's expansion this year in Chicago and Dallas.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday lauded the Judicial Conference's updated policy on random case assignments to prevent litigants from judge-shopping, saying that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing back against the policy since it'd make it tough for hard-right partisans "to hijack our courts for their purposes."
The policymaking body for U.S. courts provoked a stir last week when it proposed a rule designed to curb "judge shopping," with observers saying that the policy does address one type of the practice but that it remains to be seen if individual federal district courts will be willing to adopt even that limited reform.
Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP has strengthened its finance and restructuring practice in Dallas with partner Deanna Reitman, an experienced commodities lawyer who previously worked at DLA Piper.
Kilpatrick is turning to the leader of its intellectual property department in Atlanta to succeed the firm's longtime chair when he steps down from the role later this year.
Despite heavy representation in the legal operations field, women in this area continue to be underpaid compared to men, earning as much as 25% less total compensation than their peers, a new survey has found.
Kirkland & Ellis LLP wants to bring down the hammer on a racketeering lawsuit claiming the firm "conspired" to profit from a Texas bankruptcy judge's secret romance scandal, saying the "flimsy" suit should be dismissed, and both the plaintiff and his attorneys at Bandas Law Firm PC should be sanctioned for filing it.
The number of civil lawsuits filed in federal court grew significantly in 2023, but much of that growth was deceptive, as it was driven by a small number of mass torts in just a handful of individual districts.
The Fifth Circuit has revived a proposed class action against Louisiana law firm Shows Cali & Walsh LLP regarding its efforts to recoup grant funds awarded in connection with Hurricane Katrina, saying a reasonable jury could find the law firm violated the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act.
A former securities defense leader at Holland & Knight LLP has moved to Hilgers Graben PLLC's Dallas office to lead the firm's government investigations and regulatory enforcement group.
The promise of generative artificial intelligence remains outside the gates of many small law firms, but that hasn't stopped some from using this time to evaluate and test products before securing access to this new technology.
Following years of declining lawyer headcount, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP has confirmed that it is conducting a restructuring that will impact approximately 50 jobs in the U.S. and U.K., marking the second round of layoffs the firm has conducted in the past year.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a case challenging a Dallas city ordinance requiring sexually oriented businesses to close during the early morning hours that was enacted in an attempt to reduce crime.
The Judicial Conference of the United States said Friday that its updated policy aimed at preventing litigants from shopping for the judge of their choice is not intended to overstep judges' authority or discretion under the law, issuing guidance one day after Republican senators pushed back against the policy.
The Texas Supreme Court on Friday agreed to review a split appellate decision that tossed a real estate brokerage's $22 million malpractice award against a Dallas law firm after finding that improper jury instructions influenced the verdict.
Over three years of legal delays and a tortured case that was "actually arguing mere descriptiveness under the guise of genericness" somehow failed to persuade a judge in Houston to unseat a trademark owned by a small company on the phrase "Texas Tamale."
An experienced finance attorney has joined Vedder Price PC's Dallas office after spending seven years at Dorsey & Whitney LLP.
A Texas state judge in Houston's Harris County who lost his Democratic primary election on March 5 has dropped his lawsuit challenging his opponent's eligibility to take the bench.
To boost its deflating stock price, the legal technology company CS Disco Inc. is launching a share repurchase program.
Keker Van Nest's representation of Meta in a suit against a former executive and Morrison Cohen's work on behalf of a venture capital fund lead this edition of Law360 Pulse's Spotlight On Mid-Law Work, recapping the top matters for Mid-Law firms from March 1 to 15.
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP has seen several high-profile partner departures in recent months, including multiple department and firm leaders. Despite hiring 206 lawyers globally since the start of 2023, the law firm's headcount contracted 6%, with former partners pointing to "balance sheet issues" and sluggish profitability as drivers.
The legal industry marked the Ides of March with another busy week as BigLaw firms expanded their practices and headcounts. Test your legal news savvy here with Law360 Pulse's weekly quiz.
U.S. law firms in 2023 took on nearly 17 million square feet of office space, an unprecedented level of leasing activity driven by major law firm moves into trophy buildings in New York City, according to a report from commercial brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield.
Many legal technology vendors now sell artificial intelligence and machine learning tools at a premium price tag, but law firms must take the time to properly evaluate them as not all offerings generate process efficiencies or even use the technologies advertised, says Steven Magnuson at Ballard Spahr.
While chief legal officers are increasingly involved in creating corporate diversity, inclusion and anti-bigotry policies, all lawyers have a responsibility to be discrimination busters and bias interrupters regardless of the title they hold, says Veta T. Richardson at the Association of Corporate Counsel.
Every lawyer can begin incorporating aspects of software development in their day-to-day practice with little to no changes in their existing tools or workflow, and legal organizations that take steps to encourage this exploration of programming can transform into tech incubators, says George Zalepa at Greenberg Traurig.
As junior associates increasingly report burnout, work-life conflict and loneliness during the pandemic, law firms should take tangible actions to reduce the stigma around seeking help, and to model desired well-being behaviors from the top down, say Stacey Whiteley at the New York State Bar Association and Robin Belleau at Kirkland.
As clients increasingly want law firms to serve as innovation platforms, firms must understand that there is no one-size-fits-all approach — the key is a nimble innovation function focused on listening and knowledge sharing, says Mark Brennan at Hogan Lovells.
In addition to establishing their brand from scratch, women who start their own law firms must overcome inherent bias against female lawyers and convince prospective clients to put aside big-firm preferences, says Joel Stern at the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms.
Jane Jeong at Cooley shares how grueling BigLaw schedules and her own perfectionism emotionally bankrupted her, and why attorneys struggling with burnout should consider making small changes to everyday habits.
Black Americans make up a disproportionate percentage of the incarcerated population but are underrepresented among elected prosecutors, so the legal community — from law schools to prosecutor offices — must commit to addressing these disappointing demographics, says Erika Gilliam-Booker at the National Black Prosecutors Association.
Series
Ask A Mentor: How Can Associates Deal With Overload?Young lawyers overwhelmed with a crushing workload must tackle the problem on two fronts — learning how to say no, and understanding how to break down projects into manageable parts, says Jay Harrington at Harrington Communications.
Law firms could combine industrial organizational psychology and machine learning to study prospective hires' analytical thinking, stress response and similar attributes — which could lead to recruiting from a more diverse candidate pool, say Ali Shahidi and Bess Sully at Sheppard Mullin.
Series
Ask A Mentor: How Can Associates Seek More Assignments?In the first installment of Law360 Pulse's career advice guest column, Meela Gill at Weil offers insights on how associates can ask for meaningful work opportunities at their firms without sounding like they are begging.
In order to improve access to justice for those who cannot afford a lawyer, states should consider regulatory innovations, such as allowing new forms of law firm ownership and permitting nonlawyers to provide certain legal services, says Patricia Lee Refo, president of the American Bar Association.
The Texas Supreme Court's recently proposed rule change allowing substituted service through social media and email could take effect in December, and practitioners will need to know how to establish that the defendant received notice through a technological method, says Marcus Eason at McGinnis Lochridge.
Law firms will be hiring conservatively well into 2021 and beyond, but associates eyeing a new firm or market can successfully make a move if they are pragmatic about their requirements, say Rebecca Glatzer and Kate Reder Sheikh at Major Lindsey.