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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

WORK, IN PROGRESS - You're exhausted, you're stressed and you just can't seem to unplug. Luckily, there's a solution to your work-life balance problem: just start thinking of work as part of your life. Balance achieved! Feel better? No? OK, moving on…  How about this? There may be an upside to the increasing expectation that lawyers keep on a-lawyerin' all the livelong day: firms are beginning to understand that the tradeoff in that arrangement has to be more than just a paycheck. As Law.com's Jessie Yount reports, increased associate churn is causing firms to pour more resources into training and mentorship programs in the hope of providing greater value to their youngest lawyers. Firms that aren't fulfilling the desires of the youngest generation of attorneys are seeing lawyers leave "earlier and faster," said Jacob Canter, a litigation associate at Crowell & Moring. "They are more willing to go to a firm for a payday because whatever firm culture was keeping people around before simply isn't there anymore."

CLASS WARS - For a while there, it looked like COVID-19 tuition refund litigation wasn't going to make the grade. But after flunking out of district court, a handful of students have gone down the hall to the appellate courts—and those cases are now being closely watched by the higher education community, Law.com's Avalon Zoppo reports. Many of the lawsuits, alleging universities breached contracts by shifting to virtual classes while charging in-person prices, were dismissed by district court judges, though results have been mixed. Claims that survived tended to be those seeking compensation for specific fees, such as student activities promised but not delivered during campus closures, according to observers. And while no circuit courts have issued decisions on the matters yet, recent oral arguments hint that the idea schools overcharged for remote learning has weight with some judges, said Stetson University Law School professor Peter Lake. "If you would have called me a month ago, I probably would have said the general trend is unmistakable, the tuition cases are dying … and the exception would be where there was a very specific promise to a particular class of people to deliver something," Lake said. "It may well be that the circuit upholds the dismissals … but I'm sensing there could be change."

WHO GOT THE WORK?℠ - Paul A. Wilhelm of Clark Hill has entered an appearance for Chaac Pizza Midwest and Luis Ibarguengoytia in a pending class action over alleged wage-and-hour violations. The case was filed Dec. 10 in Kentucky Eastern District Court by Biller & Kimble on behalf of individuals employed by defendants as Pizza Hut delivery drivers. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge William O'Bertelsman, is 2:21-cv-00163, Howard et al v. Chaac Pizza Midwest, LLC et al. Read the complaint on Law.com Radar and check out the most recent edition of Law.com's Who Got the Work?℠ column to find out which law firms and lawyers are being brought in to handle key cases and close major deals for their clients.

WAX TRACKS AND U.S. TAX - Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie and Jenner & Block filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Colorado District Court on behalf of Greenberg Traurig LLP. The court action takes aim at Tijs Verwest, also known as Tiësto, who is an internationally successful Dutch DJ and musical artist. The complaint seeks declaratory judgment that Greenberg Traurig is not liable to Verwest for legal malpractice concerning the reimbursement of tax payments. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendant. The case is 1:22-cv-00286, Greenberg Traurig v. VerwestStay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar.  


EDITOR'S PICKS


WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS - Job hopping among young lawyers is not just an American thing. More than half of young attorneys surveyed by the International Bar Association's Young Lawyers' Committee are likely to consider leaving their current jobs within the next five years, Law.com International's Hannah Walker reports. Of the 3,000 lawyers aged 40 and under surveyed, 54% said they were either highly or somewhat likely to move to a new workplace by 2027. In addition, 33% of respondents wanted to switch to a different area of the legal profession within that time period, while 20% are considering quitting the legal profession altogether by then, the survey found. Why? More than 70% of survey respondents under 25 said a major concern about their current roles was a lack of work-life balance, amid an extended busy period for the industry. Industry culture was also a particular pressure point for young lawyers. 43% of female respondents said that "a failure to address toxic workplace cultures" was a concern, with the figure standing at 27% among male respondents.


WHAT YOU SAID

"At big law firms, a lot of times there's a practice of having associates do all of the grunt work. She likes to encourage partners, saying, 'If you have associates with a big hand in this case, I welcome giving them the opportunity to argue this.' I think the world of her."