The Notice: News and Resources for Paralegals, Litigation Support & Docketing Professionals
From all of us at ECFX, we want to wish you and your family a joyous and safe holiday season. May the holidays bring peace, joy, and relaxation to you and your loved ones. We are looking forward to many new and exciting changes in 2023, and as always, are grateful for your continued support.
In recent legal news,?Greenberg Traurig, LLP won the?Global Women in Business Law Gender Diversity Firm of the Year Award, the U.S. Supreme Court prepares for a second appeal filed by President Joe Biden in an attempt to reverse?a judge's ruling that found his plan to cancel billions of dollars in student debt unlawful, and?ECFX?was one of only four companies to be?selected to present on the main stage on the last day of?The Legal Tech Fund (TLTF) Summit, with ECFX's CEO & Co-Founder,?Dan O'Day?presenting the pitch.
We hope you enjoy this issue of The Notice!
~The Team at ECFX
Working in Large Law
Global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP won the?Global Women in Business Law Gender Diversity Firm of the Year Award?which recognizes winners for "progressive and innovative work" being carried out by firms to promote diversity and inclusion policies within their business framework.?
Through its?Greenberg Traurig Women's Initiative (GTWI), the firm fosters the success of women attorneys, strengthens the firm's culture, contributes to the firm's financial health, and better serves firm clients. GTWI provides training, business development opportunities, and targeted mentoring.
GTWI supports women across the firm, with designated GTWI liaisons in every Greenberg Traurig office, providing on-the-ground impact and attention at the local level.
"We are very proud of this award because it speaks to the laser-focused commitment by the firm and its attorneys on the recruitment, development, support, and retention of women attorneys throughout our 43 offices worldwide," noted shareholders. "GTWI reflects the firm's core values of fairness, equality, and authenticity. This is a place where all are respected and everyone has the support and opportunity to contribute, develop their skills, and grow their business."
?A Big Law firm facing malpractice claims is among the parties hit with lawsuits stemming from a New Jersey city’s novel plan to?regulate?vacant and?abandoned properties.
Bridgeton contracted with a private-sector contractor?in 2017 to help it deal with enforcing the municipal code on empty homes.
But property owners filed two suits against the city that claimed it improperly delegated its authority to a private party. One of the suits also named the contractor, Borgers, Saunders, Taylor and Associates, as a defendant.
On Nov. 10, a Superior Court judge approved a $162,500 settlement of a class action suit against Bridgeton by property owners impacted by the Borgers Saunders contract. And another suit by a property owner against Bridgeton and Borgers Saunders ended in a settlement, although terms were not immediately available.
And now,?Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, ranked 66th in the Am Law 100, is?facing claims that it committed legal malpractice when it represented Borgers Saunders in that suit.
News for 2022
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear President Joe Biden's appeal of a judge's ruling that found his plan to cancel billions of dollars in student debt unlawful, taking up the matter alongside another challenge to the policy that the justices are due to hear in the coming months.
The justices will consider the Biden administration's appeal of Texas-based U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman's decision in a challenge backed by a conservative advocacy group, the second of two rulings by lower courts that have put Biden's debt relief policy on ice.
The Supreme Court on Dec. 1 said it would?hear arguments?on the legality of the debt relief program in the other case pursued by six mostly Republican-led states.
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?The justices fast-tracked both cases for oral arguments in late February or early March, with a ruling due by the end of June.
A former trader at JPMorgan Chase & Co and Credit Suisse was convicted of fraud in U.S. court on Friday for scheming to manipulate precious metals futures through a trading tactic known as spoofing, prosecutors said.
A Chicago jury found Christopher Jordan, 51, guilty of wire fraud affecting a financial institution after an eight-day trial in which prosecutors said he engaged in spoofing to defraud other market participants.
The tactic involves placing and then quickly canceling orders to falsely create the impression of high demand or supply.?Jordan traded precious metals at JPMorgan from March 2006 until December 2009, and at Credit Suisse from March 2010 until August 2010, according to his indictment. Prosecutors said he placed deceptive orders for silver futures and lied about it to investigators.
The case was the U.S. Justice Department's most aggressive to date targeting spoofing, charging the four defendants with violating the racketeering statute, a law enacted in 1970 to take down the mafia.?
Technology and Legal Support
This past week,?the inaugural?TLTF Summit, a three-day program convened in Miami by?The LegalTech Fund, the first venture capital firm to focus exclusively on legal tech, took place. The invite-only program, capped at 250 participants, was billed as the “highly-curated event for innovators who are transforming the world of law.”
The summit will no doubt be seen as the new “it” conference of legal tech, and when sales open for next year’s version, it will likely be the legal tech equivalent of a Taylor Swift ticket.?If there was one quality that shaped this conference, it was the enthusiasm of everyone there. To a one, these were people who are excited and passionate about the industry and about their own roles in contributing to it.
Each day’s panels reflected a theme. The first day focused in broad terms on the VC funding world and investors’ perspectives on funding and building successful companies.?The second day focused more on the current state of legal tech and emerging trends.?The third day sought to weave together the prior days’ themes with panels examining the dynamics of the legal tech market today and speculating on where it is headed over the next 5-10 years.
As all that was happening on the main stage, a second track featured the event’s Startup Showcase. Over 150 pre-seed and seed-stage startups competed for one of 31 spots to attend the conference, and throughout the conference, they each had an opportunity to present eight-minute pitches to panels of judges.
Out of that, four companies were selected to present on the main stage on the summit’s final day. The four that made that final cut were?ECFX,?Fairmint,?Kaveat, and?Rally.
Read the full article?here
Derek Thompson recently wrote a piece for The Atlantic called “Why Everything in Tech Seems to be Collapsing at Once.” Thompson notes double-digit percentage layoffs at major tech companies, and wonders, “Watching this surge of mass layoffs in big tech companies, plus the lurid chaos unfolding at Twitter over the past few weeks and the spectacular ongoing implosion of crypto, the big question on my mind is: Why is it all happening at once?”
Higher interest rates have ended the era of “endless cash” from venture capital, Thompson points out, which has sunset companies’ laser-focus on growth and drawn attention to actual profits and returns. But, Thompson asserts, what’s happening in tech now isn’t a mere recession story: “The tech industry is experiencing a midlife crisis.”
Tech is between two epochs, according to Thompson, and certainly, a tighter capital environment is already affecting the legal tech sector, with recent layoffs and other cost-cutting measures putting these companies in a tough spot.?
Roy Strom?reported in Bloomberg Law?that the top half of the AmLaw 100 has seen demand drop 1.1% through nine months, citing a Wells Fargo survey. Yet law firms are planning to raise rates by 8% next year, Strom reported.
In-house legal departments probably won’t similarly defy the laws of economics. Isha Marathe reported for Legaltech News that, according to a Lexion report, 38% of in-house legal respondents said their department?had already or would freeze tech spending.
And while some legal tech firms have been impacted, does this mean the whole sector will have the equivalent of a mid-life crisis, with startups shuttering, large-scale layoffs, and use cases abandoned? That seems unlikely.
Read the full article?here