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Data from Law360 Pulse's law firm survey reveals that while firms are continuing to diversify their attorney ranks, progress has slowed. Just 15.6% of firms top the benchmarks for the 2024 Diversity Snapshot ranking — a lower percentage than last year. Here’s the latest look at how diversity in law firms' headcounts compares with what it could be based on the potential marketplace of new hires.
Law360’s law firm survey shows that firms' efforts to diversify their equity partner ranks are lagging. But some have embraced a broader talent pool at the equity partner level. Here are the ones that stood out.
Have initiatives and programs to address work-life balance reached the equity partnership, or is it still the exception in the legal industry?
Usha Chilukuri Vance, the wife of vice presidential candidate J. D. Vance, has resigned as a litigator at Munger Tolles & Olson LLP, her now-former law firm told Law360 on Monday afternoon, presumably to trade her Washington, D.C.- and San Francisco-based litigation career for the campaign trail.
Ninth Circuit judges appeared skeptical Monday that a Houston lawyer could represent a prominent Napa Valley vintner while also claiming partial ownership rights to the name of its popular cabernet sauvignon, with one judge saying that conflict of interest rules for attorneys operating in California are "very strict."
A California federal judge has rebuked both sides of a suit alleging Twitter violated federal labor laws amid a mass layoff in late 2022, ordering lead attorneys to attend a meet and confer session in August to work through ongoing conflicts that have arisen since the claims were filed in April 2023.
Disgraced lawyer Tom Girardi's defense attorneys want to push back his closely watched wire fraud trial to October from its current August start date, claiming they've been "misled" by "sharp-elbowed" federal prosecutors who have unexpectedly sought to expand the scope of their case against Girardi in recent weeks.
American Vanguard Corp., a specialty and agricultural products company with operations in 21 countries, has replaced its chief executive officer with a group of executives that includes its top lawyer.
A former BigLaw attorney who was lead defense counsel for Theranos' former president Ramesh Balwani has joined Los Angeles boutique Foundation Law Group LLP to lead its white collar practice, the firm announced Monday.
Seyfarth Shaw LLP announced Monday that it has brought on a five-member team of labor and employment lawyers who previously practiced with Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP.
Many lawyers of color say they are included in their law firm's client pitches but are not assigned to the resulting work, pointing to some firms' "window dressing" approach to diversity and inclusion, according to a report reviewed by Law360 Pulse that will be released publicly on Tuesday.
U.S. law firms have been working to reduce the amount of office space allocated per attorney. Despite these efforts, a recent report by the real estate services company Savills Inc. found that the average square footage per attorney still remains higher than the occupancy ratios most firms aim for.
A litigation funding company is urging a Delaware federal judge to transfer Apple Inc.'s bid for documents related to a patent dispute with Finnish company MPH Technologies Oy. to California federal court, saying the motion to compel should be adjudicated in the Golden State.
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP can no longer represent social media giant X Corp. in the company's lawsuit against Bright Data Ltd., with a California federal judge finding the law firm violated its duty of loyalty to Bright Data after previously representing it in a "substantially related" case.
Merger talks between Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP and Locke Lord LLP are progressing, with the deal on track for a late summer partner vote and a hoped-for year-end closure, according to sources close to the deal who spoke to Law360 Pulse on the condition of anonymity.
A longtime real estate attorney from Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP has moved her practice to Dentons' Los Angeles office, where she'll work on transactional and tax-focused matters as a partner, Dentons announced Monday.
Law360 is pleased to announce the Rising Stars of 2024, our list of 158 attorneys under 40 whose legal accomplishments belie their age.
After a slower first quarter, lateral recruitment at law firms appeared to find more solid footing in the second quarter, with both associate and counsel hires showing signs of recovery from the previous quarter, according to recent data provided by legal data company Firm Prospects LLC.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge received public admonishment by the Commission on Judicial Performance on Thursday for making insulting and gratuitous remarks to litigants, which included likening two of them to "pigs in the trough, fighting," comparing a dispute to a "Jerry Springer case" and warning another, "You're lucky you weren't shot."
Brad Karp, chairman of Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, shared in a podcast published Thursday that the firm has followed a new two-track partnership compensation model as a means to combat retention issues plaguing similar firms.
Spencer Fane LLP announced Friday that a pair of experienced real estate attorneys from Silicon Valley firm Hopkins & Carley have been added to Spencer Fane's San Jose, California, office as partners.
Saul Ewing LLP has added as a partner in its Los Angeles office a trial attorney with a nearly 30-year track record of representing public and private companies, along with executives and investors in entertainment and real estate disputes.
Parsons Behle's work on a Salt Lake City renewable energy project and Schwabe Williamson's challenge to a federal mining permit lead this edition of Law360 Pulse's Spotlight On Mid-Law Work, recapping the top matters for Mid-Law firms from June 22 to July 12.
The legal industry had another action-packed week as attorneys took on new roles and law firms reshaped practices following the holiday. Test your legal news savvy here with Law360 Pulse's weekly quiz.
Funding for legal technology companies totaled $2.422 billion in the first half of 2024, nearly matching the $2.443 billion in capital raised during the same period in 2023, a positive sign for the sector after years of declining investments.
Legal organizations struggling to work out the right technology investment strategy may benefit from using a matrix for legal department efficiency that is based on an understanding of where workloads belong, according to the basic functions and priorities of a corporate legal team, says Sylvain Magdinier at Integreon.
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My Nonpracticing Law Job: RecruiterSelf-proclaimed "Lawyer Doula" Danielle Thompson at Major Lindsey shares how she went from Columbia Law School graduate and BigLaw employment associate to a career in legal recruiting — and discovered a passion for advocacy along the way.
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Ask A Mentor: How Do I Balance Social Activism With My Job?Corporate attorneys pursuing social justice causes outside of work should consider eight guidelines for finding equilibrium between their beliefs and their professional duties and reputation, say Diedrick Graham, Debra Friedman and Simeon Brier at Cozen O'Connor.
Mateusz Kulesza at McDonnell Boehnen looks at potential applications of personality testing based on machine learning techniques for law firms, and the implications this shift could have for lawyers, firms and judges, including how it could make the work of judges and other legal decision-makers much more difficult.
The future of lawyering is not about the wholesale replacement of attorneys by artificial intelligence, but as AI handles more of the routine legal work, the role of lawyers will evolve to be more strategic, requiring the development of competencies beyond traditional legal skills, says Colin Levy at Malbek.
Legal writers should strive to craft sentences in the active voice to promote brevity and avoid ambiguities that can spark litigation, but writing in the passive voice is sometimes appropriate — when it's a moral choice and not a grammatical failure, says Diana Simon at the University of Arizona's James E. Rogers College of Law.
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Ask A Mentor: How Can I Help Associates Turn Down Work?Marina Portnova at Lowenstein Sandler discusses what partners can do to aid their associates in setting work-life boundaries, especially around after-hours assignment availability.
Although artificial intelligence-powered legal research is ushering in a new era of legal practice that augments human expertise with data-driven insights, it is not without challenges involving privacy, ethics and more, so legal professionals should take steps to ensure AI becomes a reliable partner rather than a source of disruption, says Marly Broudie at SocialEyes Communications.
With the increased usage of collaboration apps and generative artificial intelligence solutions, it's not only important for e-discovery teams to be able to account for hundreds of existing data types today, but they should also be able to add support for new data types quickly — even on the fly if needed, says Oliver Silva at Casepoint.
With many legal professionals starting to explore practical uses of generative artificial intelligence in areas such as research, discovery and legal document development, the fundamental principle of human oversight cannot be underscored enough for it to be successful, say Ty Dedmon at Bradley Arant and Paige Hunt at Lighthouse.
The legal profession is among the most hesitant to adopt ChatGPT because of its proclivity to provide false information as if it were true, but in a wide variety of situations, lawyers can still be aided by information that is only in the right ballpark, says Robert Plotkin at Blueshift IP.
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Ask A Mentor: How Can I Use Social Media Responsibly?Leah Kelman at Herrick Feinstein discusses the importance of reasoned judgment and thoughtful process when it comes to newly admitted attorneys' social media use.
Attorneys should take a cue from U.S. Supreme Court justices and boil their arguments down to three points in their legal briefs and oral advocacy, as the number three is significant in the way we process information, says Diana Simon at University of Arizona.
In order to achieve a robust client data protection posture, law firms should focus on adopting a risk-based approach to security, which can be done by assessing gaps, using that data to gain leadership buy-in for the needed changes, and adopting a dynamic and layered approach, says John Smith at Conversant Group.
Laranda Walker at Susman Godfrey, who was raising two small children and working her way to partner when she suddenly lost her husband, shares what fighting to keep her career on track taught her about accepting help, balancing work and family, and discovering new reserves of inner strength.