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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

WHO DARES WINS - Ahoy, mateys! While my experience is that attorneys generally don't love being compared to pirates, in this instance it's a compliment. As Law.com's Andrew Maloney reports, when it comes to capturing growth, dynamic law firms embody that buccaneer spirit: embracing change, splitting their bounty and making treacherous conditions look easy to navigate. That's according to the latest Dynamic Law Firms Report from Thomson Reuters, which found the law firms that had the highest growth rates on multiple profit metrics also shared key attributes, including higher pay raises, more willingness to adopt new technology and communicate environmental, social and corporate governance initiatives. "Bad times must inevitably follow the good. The decisions that firms make now in terms of hiring, structure, pay and other considerations will likely define their fate in the years to come," the report, published today, stated. "Just as importantly, as partners and associates increasingly ponder whether to jump ship, dynamic firms are positioning themselves as their most appealing destination."

TRUST FUNDS  -  Not a whole lot about the pandemic was fortuitous, but if anybody could be said to have been in the right place at the right time, it's litigation funders. As Law.com's Christine Schiffner reports, for plaintiffs firms managing through a lull in litigation thanks to the pandemic, lit funding has become an increasingly viable option. Litigation funding in the last two to three years "just blew up," becoming a multibillion-dollar industry, Rebecca Berrebi, a corporate lawyer turned litigation finance broker at Avenue 33, told Schiffner. "COVID was our friend because it resulted in questions about liquidity," said Burford Capital co-founder and CEO Christopher Bogart during a March 1 media briefing for the publicly traded company. Funding litigation has become more important, particularly for plaintiffs firms who have millions of dollars at stake on cases that are dragging on longer and longer due to pandemic-related court closures and delays. Third-party funding does not only enable clients, who might not have the financial means to bring meritorious claims, to sue, but "firms like ours, with dockets including contingent fee cases, can hedge the risk by having some part of the case funded," said MoloLamken co-founder Steven Molo, whose firm has used lit funding since 2009. That's not to say, of course, that litigation financing itself doesn't involve some risk for all involved. At the end of the day, each litigation finance agreement comes down to "a lot of trust," Berrebi said. "Most of the time, you're in it for years. From a business perspective, you are really in a partnership."

DOUBLE DOSE - Teva Pharmaceutical Industries was hit with an antitrust class action Friday in New Jersey District Court in relation to its multiple sclerosis drug, Copaxone. The suit contends that Teva used coercive tactics to switch the market from 20mg to 40mg to suppress generic competition. The complaint was filed by Seeger Weiss; Wexler Boley & Elgersma; and Rupp Baase Pfalzgraf Cunningham. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendants. The case is 2:22-cv-01345, Labor-Management Healthcare Fund v. Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. et al. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar.  

EDITOR'S PICKS

WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

SWITCHING ROOMS - Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton has hired an antitrust partner from Linklaters for its Brussels office, in its first lateral addition for the office in 15 years, Law.com International's Linda A. Thompson reports. Isabel Rooms joined Linklaters' Brussels office in 2010 as an associate and made partner in 2020, according to her LinkedIn profile. As an associate, she also spent brief stints in the Magic Circle firm's New York and London offices. Prior to joining Linklaters, Rooms worked as an associate at Norton Rose Fulbright's Brussels office. Rooms has 15 years of experience advising clients on EU and Belgium competition matters across a range of sectors, including healthcare, aviation and energy, according to a statement from Cleary. Rooms will also be the Brussels office' first full-time female antitrust partner. Jackie Holland, the only female antitrust partner in the Brussels office, splits her time between the firms' London and Brussels offices.

WHAT YOU SAID

"You just hope that the two don't pass tracks at the same time. Who's going to rise from the ashes, so to speak, and declare victory?"