NSFW - TikTok and its parent company ByteDance were hit with an employment class action Thursday in California Northern District Court on behalf of thousands of current and former content moderators. The suit, backed by the Joseph Saveri Law Firm, claims that the defendants failed to provide a safe workplace for contract workers tasked with reviewing videos and preventing posts with objectionable or violent content. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendants. The case is 3:22-cv-01883, Young et al v. ByteDance Inc. et al. Stay up on the latest deals and litigation with the new Law.com Radar. 

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POST-MOSCOW MOVES - As large international law firms extract themselves from Russia, several emerging economies have maintained a deafening neutrality on Ukraine as they seek to hedge against Western dependence and maintain links with governments and investors in all parts of the world, Law.com International’s Krishnan Nair reports. Notable countries in this camp include Saudi Arabia, the UAE and China. And for law firms faced with the twin concerns of relocating Russian lawyers, where feasible, and rethinking international strategies post-Russia, this could spell opportunity. So could major firms pivot to places like the Middle East? As one ex-Magic Circle partner put it, they’d be silly not to. “The other emerging economies provide an obvious landing ground for the lawyers, definitely energy, M&A and capital markets lawyers, who are willing to leave Russia to stay with their firms,” a partner at a large Dubai-based firm explained. “Russia was good for [international law firms]. It gave them a foothold in one of the great oil states, alliances with oil ultras like Gazprom, etc. But the Middle East could prove even better. And it comes at a serendipitous time when Saudi is letting in more Western headquartered businesses and diversifying its economy.”

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