Residential

Expert Analysis

• 5 Tips For Adding Value To Legal Clients' Experience In 2023

  

  Faced with a potential economic downturn this year, attorneys should look to strengthen client relationships now by focusing on key ways to improve the client experience, starting with a check-in call to discuss client needs and priorities for the coming year, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

• Legal Standing For Nature: The Road Not Taken

  

  Fifty years have passed since former U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas asked whether natural objects like trees and rivers should have standing — and while the high court has since narrowed access to the courtroom for potential environmental plaintiffs, Douglas' vision is worth revisiting, says Ninth Circuit Judge Margaret McKeown.

• Where ESG And Director Fiduciary Duty Overlap

  

  Despite ideological arguments to the contrary, directors and officers' fiduciary duties do not preclude their consideration of environmental, social and governance principles in corporate decision making, say Luis Fortuño at Steptoe & Johnson and Evan Slavitt at Paper Excellence.

• Preparing For Congressional Oversight Of Chinese Trade

  

  Attorneys at WilmerHale discuss China-related priorities for the new Congress, including likely areas of focus for the new select committee on strategic competition between the U.S. and China, and suggest steps potentially affected businesses can take to prepare for heightened scrutiny.

• What To Expect In Builder's Risk Insurance Claims In 2023

  

  The builder's risk insurance industry is in store for more complex claims this year due to rising interest rates, labor and materials volatility, and externalities complicating project scheduling, say Jane Warring at Zelle and Michael Haugen at J.S. Held.

• US May Soon Have New Weapons In Sanctions Enforcement

  

  As the U.S. government operates at breakneck speed in its sanctions enforcement against Russian oligarchs, multiple legislative and regulatory efforts may give prosecutors new teeth to pursue charges against the facilitators of sanctions evasion, who have largely avoided indictment due to statutory limitations, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.

• 10 Environmental And Energy Issues To Watch In 2023

  

  After a year of transformative changes in the environmental and energy space, 2023 promises more big developments — including greenwashing litigation, finalized environmental, social and governance regulations, further scrutiny of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, and an ongoing focus on environmental justice, say attorneys at ArentFox.

• What Will Keep Legal Talent Professionals Up At Night In 2023

  

  Hybrid work environments, high demand for lateral hires and a potential slowdown of the economy defined 2022 in the always-busy marketplace for legal talent, and as BigLaw looks at the year ahead, there are five major sources of concern for the teams charged with securing and retaining that talent, say advisers at Baretz+Brunelle.

• The Most-Read Legal Industry Law360 Guest Articles Of 2022

  

  A range of legal industry topics drew readers' attention in Law360's Expert Analysis section this year, from the "great resignation" to potential expansion of attorney-client privilege.

• What 3 Legal Industry Trends From 2022 Mean For Next Year

  

  Kate Reder Sheikh at Major Lindsey & Africa looks back on the year in legal recruiting, including practice areas that saw the most movement, which regions seemed most ripe for new office openings and who was promoted to partner, and makes some look-ahead predictions for 2023.

• The Future Of Legal Ops: AI Has Important Role To Play

  

  Though the debut of OpenAI's ChatGPT has prompted some fears about negative impact on lawyers, artificial intelligence technology can be a powerful tool for legal operations professionals if used effectively to augment their work, say Justin Ben-Asher and Gwendolyn Renigar at Steptoe, and Elizabeth Matthews at TotalEnergies.

• 4 Proactive Strategies For 'Rocket Docket' Discovery In SDNY

  

  With more than half of Southern District of New York judges now allowing four or fewer months for fact discovery, civil litigators in this aspiring "rocket docket" jurisdiction should prioritize case management methods that make the most of this compressed timeline, say Jaclyn Grodin and Nicholas Cutaia at Goulston & Storrs.

• Increasing Law Firm Polarization Will Degrade Rule Of Law

  

  As evidenced in recent instances of law firms separating from attorneys who represented certain industries or espoused certain views, firms and the legal practice itself have grown troublingly polarized and intolerant of dissent, says Rebecca Roiphe at New York Law School.