Expert Analysis

• An Associate's Guide To Career Development In 2025

  

  As the new year begins, associates at all levels should consider establishing career metrics, fostering key relationships and employing other specific strategies to help move through the complexities of the legal profession with confidence and emerge as trailblazers, say EJ Stern and Amanda George at Fractional Law Firm.

• NLRB Likely To Fill Vacuum After NMB Jurisdiction Ruling

  

  The National Mediation Board's recent ruling in Swissport Cargo Services LP abandoned decades of precedent by concluding the Railway Labor Act doesn’t apply to airline service providers, likely leading the National Labor Relations Board to assert its jurisdiction instead and potentially causing more operational disruptions and labor strife, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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  Fixing Up Cars Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  From problem-solving to patience and adaptability to organization, the skills developed working under the hood of a car directly translate to being a more effective lawyer, says Christopher Mdeway at Kaufman Dolowich.

• Making The Pitch To Grow Your Company's Legal Team

  

  In a compressed economy, convincing the C-suite to invest in additional legal talent can be a herculean task, but a convincing pitch — supported by metrics and cost analyses — may help in-house counsel justify the growth of their team, say Elizabeth Smith and Roger Garceau at Major Lindsey.

• Considering European-Style Lockboxes For US M&A In 2025

  

  The lockbox mechanism, commonly used in Europe, offers an attractive alternative to the postclosing price adjustments that dominate U.S. merger and acquisition transactions in private equity, particularly with the market's demand for transparency likely to remain steadfast under Trump, says Laurent Campo at Potomac Law.

• Using Contracts As Evidence Of Trade Secret Protection

  

  Recent federal and U.S. International Trade Commission decisions demonstrate an interesting trend of judges recognizing that contracts and confidentiality provisions can serve as important evidence of the reasonable secrecy measures companies must take to prove the existence of protected trade secrets, say attorneys at Finnegan.

• When US Privilege Law Applies To Docs Made Outside The US

  

  As globalization manifests itself in disputes over foreign-created documents, a California federal court’s recent trademark decision illustrates nuances of both U.S. privilege frameworks and foreign evidentiary protections that attorneys must increasingly bear in mind, say attorneys at Hunton.

• Why Asset-Based Loans May Suit PE Companies In 2025

  

  As the prospect of higher tariffs and interest rates expands the need for liquidity, private equity investors would do well to explore the timing and provisions of asset-based loans offered in the burgeoning credit-fund sector, say attorneys at McDermott.

• Why Class Cert. Is Unlikely In Cases Like Mattel 'Wicked' Suit

  

  A proposed class action recently filed in California federal court against Mattel over the company's "Wicked" doll boxes accidentally listing a pornographic website illustrates the uphill battle plaintiffs face in certifying a class when many consumers never saw or relied on the representation at issue, says Alex Smith at Jenner & Block.

• Adapting Force Majeure To A Predictably Unpredictable World

  

  As the climate and political landscapes get more complicated, force majeure provisions will likely be triggered increasingly often, demanding an evolving understanding of when events and their impacts are truly unforeseeable, say attorneys at Nossaman.

• What 2024 Trends In Marketing, Comms Hiring Mean For 2025

  

  The state of hiring in legal industry marketing, business development and communications over the past 12 months was marked by a number of trends — from changes in the C-suite to lateral move challenges — providing clues for what’s to come in the year ahead, says Ben Curle at Ambition.

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  Group Running Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  

  The combination of physical fitness and community connection derived from running with a group of business leaders has, among other things, helped me to stay grounded, improve my communication skills, and develop a deeper empathy for clients and colleagues, says Jessica Shpall Rosen at Greenwald Doherty.

• Opinion

  6 Changes I Would Make If I Ran A Law School

  

  Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner identifies several key issues plaguing law schools and discusses potential solutions, such as opting out of the rankings game and mandating courses in basic writing skills.

• Firms Still Have The Edge In Lateral Hiring, But Buyer Beware

  

  Partner mobility data suggests that the third quarter of this year continued to be a buyer’s market, with the average candidate demanding less compensation for a larger book of business — but moving into the fourth quarter, firms should slow down their hiring process to minimize risks, say officers at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.

• Think Like A Lawyer: 1 Type Of Case Complexity Stands Out

  

  In contrast to some cases that appear complex due to voluminous evidence or esoteric subject matter, a different kind of complexity involves tangled legal and factual questions, each with a range of possible outcomes, which require a “sliding scale” approach instead of syllogistic reasoning, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.