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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

SECOND (HUNDRED) CHANCE - OK, so clients didn't flee from the Am Law 50 in 2020. In fact, the top firms just got…toppier, increasing their advantage over everyone else through higher revenue and profit growth, better demand and a strong performance on the lateral market. But, as Law.com's Andrew Maloney reports, legal market analysts and firm leaders foresee several opportunities for firms outside the Am Law 50, including those among the Second Hundred, to grow this year, including through corporate client rate pressure and clients looking to save costs by divvying up work more systematically. Some big companies are reassessing their law firm relationships this year, looking at breaking legal work into different chunks that could benefit firms further down in the Am Law 200, said Pamela DiCarlantonio, a partner in Major, Lindsey & Africa's Chicago partner practice group. "So, it's not always going to be the top of the Am Law who are the winners," DiCarlantonio said, noting that potential trend could work to "beef up the middle a little bit."

FIRM UP YOUR PLANS - For law firms, executing a succession plan has arguably never been more difficult than it is right now—or more crucial. Meanwhile, continuing to proceed without one will inevitably cost firms both talent and clients, probably long before it's time for any actual succession to take place. The pandemic has made professional development incredibly challenging, both because it has hindered in-person, on-the-job training and because it has distracted many current law firm leaders from thinking about anything other than the here and now. But, as we examine in this week's Law.com Trendspotter column, the economic challenges of COVID-19, coupled with the increased push for greater diversity and equity within the legal industry over the past year, have highlighted how important a firm's succession plan is to both its future and its present.

TEST CASE - Jackson Lewis filed a trade secret suit on behalf of PerkinElmer on Monday against a former lab manager at a COVID-19 testing site run by the company. The lawsuit, filed in California Central District Court, accuses the defendant of sending information regarding PerkinElmer's COVID testing results and protocols to her personal email and subsequently accepting a position with a competitor. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendant. The case is 2:21-cv-01619, PerkinElmer Health Sciences, Inc. et al v. Salem. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar.

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