Want to get this daily news briefing by email? Here's the sign-up.

WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

MULTIPLE CHOICE - The bar exam sure took a beating this year, with calls for its complete eradication growing louder than ever in the spring and fall as states struggled to choose between the equally icky options of holding the grueling test in person or online during COVID-19. But now that the smoke has cleared and the seats have dried, it's time to assess what the future may hold for the divisive exam. As Karen Sloan reports in the first installment of a new series called "The True Test: How COVID Is Changing the Course of Legal Education," the bar exam is probably not going away any time soon, but it is poised for a (possibly) extreme makeover. The pandemic intensified existing scrutiny of the test, as multiple stakeholders continue to study its efficacy in training future lawyers to be actual lawyers. Just how radical the overhaul will be remains to be seen, but as Kellie Early, chief strategy officer for the National Conference of Bar Examiners, put it, the exam of the future will "be different in what it tests and how it tests."

NOTHING NEW - Law firms have proudly touted their innovation efforts in recent years—including this year—but their clients? Not impressed. After first surveying in-house counsel and senior executives at nearly 200 companies in 2017, Cleveland-based Am Law 200 firm Thompson Hine checked back in with buyers of legal services at 107 businesses. And, as Dan Packel reports, survey found that 72% of respondents believed their law firms had not done anything to alleviate the pressures faced by in-house legal departments in that three-year span. "There seems to be a big gap between what the law firm sector says it's doing and the value that clients say they're receiving from law firm innovation," said Thompson Hine managing partner Deborah Read. "I thought that gap would be closed but it hasn't."

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME -  Lawyers at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher on Wednesday removed a civil rights class action against Amazon.com to California Central District Court. The case was filed by Scherwin Law Firm on behalf of applicants who wish to become third-party sellers on Amazon, but claim their respective countries of origin are not represented on the application's drop-down menu. The case is 2:20-cv-10955, Pashaei v. Amazon.com. Stay up on the latest litigation with the new Law.com Radar.