The Notice: News and Resources for Paralegals, Litigation Support & Docketing Professionals
Now that we are well into Q3 2022, it may be time to start thinking about budgeting plans for next year. With inflation in the news and the cost of doing business on the rise, we are pleased to share that ECFX is offering a?three year price guarantee?for firms who sign up in August!
In recent legal news, 3M faces a hefty legal battle after allegedly selling faulty combat earplugs for 5+ years, Clarence Thomas resigns from teaching a law school class amid public outcry, and?Lex Machina releases a new motion metrics analytics addition to its main legal analytics platform. Read more about these stories and more in the articles below.
And if you are attending?ILTACON 2022 ?at the Gaylord National Resort & Conference Center in National Harbor, Maryland from August 21-25, please be sure to stop by Booth 428 to learn how ECFX Notice automates the downloading, profiling, storing, and distribution of court documents in ECF notices for state and federal courts and administrative agencies.
?You will also have the chance to pick out your very own magic wand!
In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this issue of The Notice!
~ The Team at ECFX
Working in Large Law
Paul Hastings has been doing a lot of hiring lately, and have been in the headlines not for bringing on many new partners, but for hiring partners in?groups. In March, the firm poached a group of 43 restructuring attorneys from Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, including 18 partners. In May, Paul Hastings brought over a three-partner energy team from Shearman & Sterling. And in June, the firm hired a group of four financial services partners from Buckley.
The benefits of a group move are increasingly compelling to both firms and individual partners. At the most basic level, hiring a group of partners gives a firm more bang for the buck. Why settle for one book of business when you can get several? Of course, not all partners are equally valuable, and before hiring a group, a firm will need to become comfortable that each potential partner meets its bar. But broadly speaking, the more partners the firm can hire, the more incremental business it stands to gain.
Read the full article?here
?3M Co.?has turned to at least three large law firms for assistance as it faces mounting liabilities from litigation.
The company retained Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to advise it on a tax-free?spin-off of its $45 billion ?health care business by the end of 2023, 3M announced Tuesday. The company will keep a roughly 20% stake in the medical supplies company that it will sell off over time, 3M said in a?statement .
White & Case is advising 3M on a bankruptcy proceeding it has initiated for Aearo Technologies LLC, an Indianapolis-based company bought by 3M in 2008 that allegedly made?faulty combat earplugs .?
Kirkland & Ellis is advising Aearo in its Chapter 11 proceedings in Indiana. Kirkland has had a role on nearly 5% of cases involving 3M in US federal courts within the past five years, as well as almost 4% for Aearo, per Bloomberg Law data.
News for 2022
When?thousands signed a petition? calling on George Washington University Law School to terminate its relationship with Clarence Thomas,?the school remained defiant . GW Law explained that it couldn’t end its ties with Justice Thomas “Because we steadfastly support the robust exchange of ideas and deliberation.”
Alas, Justice Thomas could read the handwriting on the wall — a reference to the most recent instance of textual interpretation Thomas recognizes — and he’s now unavailable to teach the ironically themed “Constitutional Law” seminar he usually offers.
And of course Duke is shamelessly doing the same thing GW did. The school is keeping Alito around?despite the outcry from current and former students ?after his draft?Dobbs?opinion revealed the paucity of basic factual or legal research that went into upturning half a century of law. As we noted at the time, the school doesn’t have to keep treating him as a scholar when he’s turning out an opinion about history that?all the professional historians denounced as pure gibberish .
领英推荐
A Russian court on Thursday fined Meta Platforms Inc's?(META.O) ?WhatsApp messenger, Snapchat owner Snap Inc?(SNAP.N) ?and other foreign firms for their alleged refusal to store the data of Russian users domestically.
Moscow has clashed with Big Tech over content, censorship, data and local representation in disputes that have escalated since Russia sent its armed forces into Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Moscow's Tagansky District Court fined WhatsApp 18 million roubles ($301,255) for a repeat offence after it incurred a 4 million rouble penalty last August. WhatsApp's fine exceeded the 15 million rouble penalty handed to Alphabet Inc's?(GOOGL.O) ?Google for a repeat infringement last month.
The court fined Tinder owner Match Group?(MTCH.O) ?2 million roubles, Snap and Hotels.com, owned by Expedia Group Inc?(EXPE.O) , 1 million roubles, and music streaming service Spotify?(SPOT.N) ?500,000 roubles.
Communications regulator Roskomnadzor said the five companies had not provided documents confirming that the storage and processing of Russians users' data was taking place on Russian territory in time.
Technology and Legal Support
Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are being widely adopted. Last year’s?RELX Emerging Tech Executive Report ?shows that 81% of senior executives polled across multiple industries say their businesses are using AI—which reflects a 33-point uptick from 2018—and nearly all say that AI makes their business stronger. Nearly two-thirds say that AI made their businesses more resilient during the pandemic, with half investing in new AI technologies in 2019 and 2020.
The legal industry, like others, considers AI a driver of business and legal success, helping them develop more successful strategies, make more informed decisions, reduce costs, improve productivity and more. Among legal industry respondents in the RELX report, 72% say their organization is currently using AI.
Nine out of 10 respondents state they are taking steps to implement AI ethics and ensure compliance with established best practices. The vast majority of those surveyed (86%) believe that incorporating ethics into the development and use of emerging technologies presents an opportunity to build competitive advantage.
Read the full article?here
Legal research company Lex Machina released on Tuesday a new motion metrics analytics addition to its main?legal analytics?platform: State Motion Metrics.
The new feature is Lex Machina’s latest step in its broader goal to?bring legal analytics?to more state courts, said Carla Rydholm, senior director of product management at Lex Machina.
State Motion Metrics is a research tool that provides motion analytics for state courts.
The tool?will allow attorneys to search through 37 different motion types, and for each motion, to review the grant rates and outcomes—whether motions were granted, denied, withdrawn, etc.—of a certain court or judge.
The metrics will also allow users to compare a judge’s grant rate with the court’s grant rate for any particular motion, or compare between courts, and review timing trends for each motion type.
For now, the motion metrics are available for four Delaware state courts, including the Delaware Court of Chancery, as well as the Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Stop by Booth 428 at?ILTACON?2022 ?to see how ECFX can bring magic to your firm!
You can Register?Here ?or?Schedule a Meeting ?with us