#law-firm-dynamics

#law-firm-dynamics

California has a certain kind of easy-going vibe that'll make you appreciate that business casual lifestyle. Depending on where your office is located, you may even be able to see the beach from your window.

"I work in legal innovation. To be successful, you need to understand both the law and the technology behind it."

According to Bloomberg Law's Workload & Hours Survey, a third of nonequity partners also say they're undervalued in their roles and more than half say they were burnt out in 2025.

Renée's leadership extends well beyond operations. While I focus on external-facing initiatives such as content, programs, and strategic vision, she oversees the core business functions of the company, including finance and HR, and is instrumental in driving our growth.

The U.S. Department of Justice reached a settlement in the lawsuit filed last April by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union and the American Library Association, agreeing to leave IMLS intact and allowing it to continue its work supporting libraries and museums across the country.

Lucie Allen will become a co-CEO of Barbri, a leading bar exam prep company, and will share leadership duties with Steve Fredette, the current CEO and chairman.

Keith Redenbach, the principal of Redenbach Legal, billed the Broken Hill city council $10 million after representing them in a dispute, including 34.5 hours in one day.

Leaving Wachtell wasn't an easy decision - it's one of the great law firms in the world, and I learned an enormous amount there. But it wasn't about leaving something behind; it was about being intentional about what came next.

The legal profession rewards endurance, precision and control. It also quietly normalizes stress, isolation and overextension. For patent practitioners and other IP lawyers, the pressures are uniquely acute: compressed prosecution deadlines, high-stakes litigation exposure, often unrealistic client-driven budget constraints, regulatory whiplash at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and increasingly complex technologies layered with global filing and prosecution strategy.

For the first time in three years, more law firms are planning to expand their office footprint, rather than contract, according to a new report from commercial real estate brokerage CBRE.

AI is transforming how law firms research, draft, bill, and serve clients. Not every tool delivers on its promises, making it crucial to choose wisely.

Leading legal departments are shifting from reactive negotiation to proactive pricing design, setting guardrails before rates are proposed rather than responding after the fact. This approach enables departments to establish parameters and expectations upfront, fundamentally changing the negotiation dynamic and improving outcomes.

From law firms to in-house legal teams, the rules of value are being rewritten. The question is: Who's ready to lead the change? In the first episode of 2026 for the UpLevel View podcast, Stephanie Corey and Ken Callander sit down with Rita Gunther McGrath, Columbia Business School professor and Wall Street Journal columnist, to talk about how AI is forcing professional services to price outcomes instead of hours.

Lindsey Halligan, the former insurance attorney who spent some time "masquerading" - to use a federal judge's words - as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia attempted to ramrod criminal cases against Donald Trump's political enemies and failed spectacularly. Halligan botched the grand jury process, submitted an indictment that the full grand jury never saw, and got two cases dismissed simultaneously.