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Millions of people across the United States desperately need free or reduced-cost legal services, and attorneys and law firm leaders want to make a difference. Here, Law360 Pulse looks at firms' pro bono priorities.
Law firms are often eager to burnish their social responsibility credentials by leveraging their training and experience to help communities that don’t have the resources to pay BigLaw billing rates. See which firms are leading the pack in pro bono hours.
A continuing onslaught of legislation and litigation opposing corporate environmental, social and governance actions has created a fork in the road for law firms, with some choosing to scale back efforts and others pushing ahead with their internal ESG and diversity, equity and inclusion goals.
Law firms are being heavily scrutinized for their social responsibility efforts, with attorneys, clients and critics all pushing for accountability. Find out which firms made Law360 Pulse's list of firms that are taking the greatest strides on social responsibility.
Attorney discipline, much like the criminal justice system, is rarely a simple math equation where authorities can plug in a type of wrongdoing and an appropriate punishment is spit out.
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP has added a former Massachusetts federal prosecutor who oversaw numerous high-profile cases in recent years, including the "Varsity Blues" college admissions scandal.
The U.S. Supreme Court will be closed Monday, but the justices will return to the bench Tuesday to hear arguments over whether the federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act allows litigants to pursue claims of economic harm tied to personal injuries, and how specific pollutant discharge limits have to be under the Clean Water Act.
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP will get $92 million in fees from a $3.7 billion win in two class actions against the government over risk corridor payments under the Affordable Care Act, a U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge ruled Thursday, trimming the firm's renewed $185 million request.
A Massachusetts federal judge's public comments praising the jury that delivered a conviction and death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev disqualify him from reviewing alleged juror misconduct, the defendant's lawyers said in a filing unsealed Friday.
Girardi Keese's former Chief Financial Officer Christopher K. Kamon pled guilty Friday in California federal court to two counts of wire fraud, admitting that he conspired with the firm's disgraced co-founder Tom Girardi to steal millions from a client, while also stealing millions from the firm behind Girardi's back.
The Ninth Circuit upheld a nearly $14 million attorney fee award to Planned Parenthood after the reproductive health service provider won its suit claiming the Center for Medical Progress unlawfully recorded abortion service providers, saying Friday the award was not unreasonably disproportionate to the jury's $2.4 million damages award.
A Pennsylvania federal judge has ordered attorneys representing a plaintiff in a civil rights suit to go door-to-door and issue written apologies to residents and business owners after subjecting a South Philadelphia neighborhood to a looped recording of a woman screaming as part of an acoustics test last month.
Prosecutors asked a New York state court judge to consolidate Harvey Weinstein's 2018 rape indictment with newly filed sexual assault charges ahead of his retrial, panning the former Hollywood producer's "creative" arguments for separate trials.
The New Jersey Supreme Court has issued an order spelling out the grounds for a judge's recusal in relation to an amicus group, stating that the involvement of a judge's former law firm in an amicus filing is not grounds alone for disqualification.
Chief North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Paul Newby on Friday gave litigants in the state's western counties another two-week extension on their court deadlines as they deal with Hurricane Helene, writing in his order that the region is still plagued by "catastrophic conditions" due to the severe weather and flooding.
The U.S. Supreme Court opened its new term with arguments in five cases, including one over a decadeslong death penalty case and another about whether the federal government can regulate so-called ghost guns. Here, Law360 Pulse takes a data-driven dive into the week that was at the U.S. Supreme Court.
David Bauman, formerly a presiding judge in the Monmouth County Superior Court, spoke to Law360 Pulse about his plans to mentor attorneys at Bressler Amery & Ross PC upon his return to the firm where he began his legal career.
Three outlier megadeals pushed funding for legal technology companies to $1.57 billion in the third quarter of 2024, up from $392.5 million in the same period last year, but the number of mergers and acquisitions fell by about 50%.
This was another action-packed week for the legal industry as BigLaw firms made a slew of hires and a state judge was admonished for lip synching "Jump" by Rihanna in a TikTok. Test your legal news savvy here with Law360 Pulse's weekly quiz.
The D.C. federal judge overseeing the case that charges Donald Trump with scheming to subvert the 2020 election results will allow the public disclosure of some evidence related to the issue of his potential immunity, but will give the former president time to challenge the disclosure.
A former attorney in Washington is accused of embezzling more than $570,000 from a client's insurance settlement after she was severely injured in a motorcycle accident, according to a federal indictment that said the victim was forced to sell her home after her trust account was drained.
A North Carolina county is urging a federal judge to toss a suit alleging that a courthouse monument commemorating "faithful slaves" deemed loyal to the Confederacy during the American Civil War promotes racially discriminatory speech, saying state law prohibits removal.
A slew of lawsuits related to the Gaza war in the Middle East have already yielded mixed outcomes and, in the view of some, contradictory rulings as they've moved through the courts, revealing a tension between free speech and college campus safety while also stoking concerns over the fairness of the judicial system.
A former assistant U.S. attorney left the public sector after four years to join Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP's Birmingham, Alabama, office, this week.
Prosecutors helming the sex trafficking case against Sean "Diddy" Combs told a Manhattan federal judge Thursday they could file more charges against the jailed hip-hop mogul and rejected his accusations of grand jury leaks as "a means to try to exclude a damning piece of evidence."
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Ask A Mentor: How Can Firms Coach Associates Remotely?Practicing law through virtual platforms will likely persist even after the pandemic, so law firms and senior lawyers should consider refurbishing their associate mentoring programs to facilitate personal connections, professionalism and effective training in a remote environment, says Carol Goodman at Herrick Feinstein.
As the U.S. observes Autism Acceptance Month, autistic attorney Haley Moss describes the societal barriers and stereotypes that keep neurodivergent lawyers from disclosing their disabilities, and how law firms can better accommodate and level the playing field for attorneys whose minds work outside of the prescribed norm.
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.
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Ask A Mentor: Should My Law Firm Take On An Apprentice?Mentoring a law student who is preparing for the bar exam without attending law school is an arduous process that is not for everyone, but there are also several benefits for law firms hosting apprenticeship programs, says Jessica Jackson, the lawyer guiding Kim Kardashian West's legal education.
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.
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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.
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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.