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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

INFLEXIBILITY INFLECTION POINT? - In the space of a year, Big Law moved from hiring many remote lawyers and trying to convince associates to join their firm with big bonuses, to mandating several days in the office and tying bonuses to office attendance. As we've noted in the space many times before, that shift is due to a confluence of factors both contemporary—declining demand, slower associate lateral movement, lifted COVID restrictions—and classic (see "the legal industry's resistance to change."). Still, it's worth noting that many law firms are arguably still more flexible now than they ever were pre-pandemic. As Lisa Pilotto, chief recruiting officer at Polsinelli, told Law.com's Andrew Maloney: "I do believe personally there is real value in people interacting and spending time with one another and training and work product, but does that have to happen on a mandated level every day? No. I haven't come across anyone in recruiting that feels differently."

LEGAL RESEARCH'S LAST RESORT - When it comes to legal research, attorneys aren't exactly swimming in great options. Many of the comprehensive options come with a high price tag, which can be a hurdle for legal professionals, so much so that some may explore riskier options. Some attorneys told Law.com's Isha Marathe that those who practice in non-research heavy areas could be drawn to more low-cost, but ultimately unreliable legal research alternatives such as ChatGPT. "There are areas of practice that are very trial-heavy and not very research heavy … and the iterative part of research [as an e-discovery attorney] is very difficult to do with an AI tool like ChatGPT," said Sara Perkins Jones, the president of Spark eDiscovery. "But for attorneys who focus on [trial-heavy] cases, and don't have as many resources [as Big Law], I could see these types of [AI] tools seeming like an option."

ON THE RADAR - Becton Dickinson, a medical device maker, and other defendants were slapped with a consumer protection lawsuit Wednesday in Alabama Southern District Court over their PowerPort implantable vascular access device. The court case, brought by Wettermark Keith LLC on behalf of Mary Ellis, pursues claims that product defects put PowerPort implant recipients at increased risk of life-threatening injuries, including infections. Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendants. The case is 1:23-cv-00278, Ellis v. Becton Dickinson and Company et al. Stay up on the latest state and federal litigation, as well as the latest corporate deals, with Law.com Radar.