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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

WORKING THE MARGINS - Pop quiz, hotshot: How do you calculate the value of a partner's practice? If you said, "Based on the revenue it brings in," thanks for playing—but no. Well, at least not anymore. As Law.com's Andrew Maloney reports, law firms are increasingly focusing on profitability when setting and evaluating partner compensation, which means taking a hard look at metrics like realization rates, frequency of discounts and the degree of leverage. "I can tell you it was always a frustration among the managing partners that we dealt with—some of the very successful partners didn't care about what their book was and what profitability was. In their minds, they had a $10 million practice, and they wanted to be compensated as such," said Jeffrey Lowe, global practice leader for Major Lindsey & Africa's law firm practice. "And management finally learned how to go back to them and say, 'Yeah, it's a $10 million practice, but it costs us $8 million to service."

POST-PANDEMIC PROGRESS -  In-house experts say that, in the wake of the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor last year, they've seen a greater push for diversity and inclusion in legal departments and their outside counsel. And, as they told Law.com's Dan Clark, they expect that momentum to continue in 2021, with some help from the incoming presidential administration and, interestingly, the pandemic. President-elect Joe Biden is expected to reverse an executive order President Donald Trump issued last year banning diversity training. Meanwhile, the rise of remote work over the past year has removed one of the main excuses corporations and law firms have long relied upon to cover for their diversity deficiencies: that they couldn't find qualified candidates in certain areas of the country. "People can do their work from a variety of different locations and you don't need to be clustered in or around a metropolis in order to contribute at a professional level," said Veta Richardson, president and CEO of the Association of Corporate Counsel.

L'EGGO MY LOGO -  North Face Apparel and VF Corp. were slapped with a trademark lawsuit Tuesday in California Central District Court. The court case was filed by Erikson Law Group on behalf of Leonard McGurr, a well-known street artist who goes by the name "Futura." The suit alleges that North Face is invoking McGurr's artwork by using a copy of the artist's characteristic atom design as the logo for a new line of North Face apparel. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendants. The case is 2:21-cv-00269, McGurr v. The North Face Apparel Corp. et al. Stay up on the latest deals with the new Law.com Radar.

EDITOR'S PICKS

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

A WIN FOR QUINN - Count Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan's London office among those that ended 2020 on a higher note than expected given the amount of turmoil the legal industry dealt with last year. The office saw a 27% surge in its revenue for 2020, while profits jumped 34%, according to the firm's latest financial results, Law.com International's Krishnan Nair reports. The firm's London senior partner Richard East said in a statement: "Given the worldwide pandemic, the resultant economic dislocation and the entire office transitioning to working from home in March, these results are truly astounding. They derive from the total commitment to the service of our clients that has been shown by our London workforce."

WHAT YOU SAID

"I never signed onto this, I never looked for this, I never wanted to be any part of this. This was my courtesy being extended to someone who already was a client."