David Lat Recovers, Returns to an Industry Upended by Contagion

When he emerged from a 17-day hospital battle with Covid-19, legal news pioneer David Lat learned the legal industry had been turned upside down, again.

A dozen years ago, Lat, 44, was founding editor of Above the Law, a provocative legal news website launched in 2006 on the cusp of a global financial crisis when thousands of lawyers lost their jobs in Big Law layoffs and cutbacks.

“I covered the Great Recession, and I do see a lot of similarities now with a sense of great crisis and great concern over what is happening in the economy,” a convalescent ...