Several New York law firms last year even bested their 2021 performance during the heyday of the deal market.

"If they figure out how to incorporate this technology into their comp model, then they'll be the winners," said Stephanie Corey, co-founder of the legal ops consulting firm UpLevel Ops, on the rise of AI and how it will disrupt the way law firms do business.

"As GCs prepare their departments to be tomorrow's value center, they will need to be as ready to advise the business on these future issues as they are comfortable today advising on labor and litigation matters," Thomson Reuters says in a recently released report.

Stanford's Joseph A. Grundfest says his percentages-rich method involves more than simple "nose counting."

In this week's Legal Speak episode, James Whittle with the American Property Casualty Insurance Association dives into the impact of what the organization has dubbed "legal system abuse" as social inflation—the belief that large corporations are "bad actors with deep pockets"—helps fuel "nuclear" verdicts.

Swiss patent law firm Da Vinci Partners sued Kili Technology for trademark infringement and unfair competition over the naming of its generative AI-powered patent drafting tool davinci, arguing the lines between "goods" and "services" have blurred. This case was first surfaced by Law.com Radar.

"[S]houldn't the output stand on its own—whether it was drafted by a robot, a first year associate, or an experienced partner?" said John Nalbandian.

The judge who made the decision, Justice Kevin Bryant, had originally sent shock waves through the cannabis legal community when his initial decision invalidated major portions of New York cannabis regulations.

Lateral partners are paid the same as they would be if they were in the equity tier, so they're not serving as "de facto leverage" for the existing equity partners, noted the firm's leader.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff of the Southern District of New York said he intends to rule on penalties no later than the first week of May, after receiving briefs from the defendants and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

"I think [Microsoft is] trying to avoid a trial and an adverse ruling on summary judgment," said Mark Walters of Lowe Graham Jones.

"[T]he Commission will continue vigorously defending the Final Rules' validity in court and looks forward to expeditious resolution of the litigation," the SEC said.

The judge had come under previous scrutiny for two fictional novels she wrote and published, which critics claim appear to be based on real litigation.

U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley wrote that Latham & Watkins-repped Homology Medicines Inc. "had no duty to disclose data in real time."

Law firms may face business risks if a single client's bills make up more than 5% of a firm's total revenue, some consultants suggest, while others say the threshold would have to be much higher.

After hearing nearly two weeks of evidence in the civil fraud case, jurors in the Southern District of New York on Friday began deliberating on whether cryptocurrency company Terraform Labs and its founder Do Kwon defrauded investors by lying about the company's success.

"Armed with extensive financial analysis and a deep understanding of the industries they target, activists are increasingly likely to make the case that breaking up or selling off certain divisions or subsidiaries would create more value for shareholders," Vinson & Elkins told clients.

Some lawyers have found that they can gain an advantage in an MDL by stockpiling claims, regardless of their individual merits. In recent years, this gamesmanship has become a huge problem.

"This means thinking ahead and trying to understand the big picture, being proactive rather than reactive and coming up with solutions rather than just identifying problems."

A recent Tenth Circuit opinion underscores the procedural requirements to preserve issues for review in both the trial court and on appeal.