FROM FOMO TO FEAR - When it comes to office attendance policies, law firms tried the carrot (a whole spread of carrots, in fact, with hummus! There’s some left in the break room). But now, some firms are breaking out the stick. Since December, Law.com’s Dan Roe reports, at least five law firms—Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Sidley Austin, Davis Polk & Wardwell, Cahill Gordon & Reindel, and Ropes & Gray, according to internal emails published by Above the Law—have told associates that a lack of attendance would cut into their bonuses. And among themselves (and on forums such as Fishbowl), associates are trading notes on whether law firms will follow corporate clients such as BlackRock, which recently announced a four-day weekly attendance mandate. Still, the vast majority of Am Law 100 firms haven’t been known to enact attendance policies as punitive as the aforementioned firms and recruiters, consultants and law firm leaders told Roe there are many factors guiding firms’ decisions.
PRIVACY PATCHWORK - Recent state data privacy laws had started to align with Virginia‘s approach—which itself took its cues from a failed Washington state law—offering a temporary relief to companies collecting user data across the country. But, Law.com’s Cassandre Coyer reports, that relief may have been short lived as the Hydra of data privacy regulation adds a couple of more heads. In fact, a new regulatory trend may be emerging, one that takes a more sector-specific approach to protecting consumers’ data rights. States like Washington, Utah or Arkansas have recently passed regulations that take a narrower—though compliance-heavy—approach to protecting certain data privacy rights of its constituents. And data privacy professionals say such state laws are likely to become more common.
