Death to the Bar Exam? Covid-19 Chaos Has Some Rethinking Test

Law school graduates in 23 states start sitting down to take bar exams today, amid spiking coronavirus infection rates in some parts of the country. Other states have moved the test online, and some are tinkering with a provisional attorney licensing system.

Pushing ‘Privilege’: The state-by-state disarray has given new life to the push for alternatives to the test, including a “diploma privilege” option that would allow law school graduates at least a limited ability to work without taking the test. Sam Skolnik has the story.

Facing Questions: The use of facial recognition software in some states shifting to online exams has also raised concerns about discrimination, privacy, and accessibility. Allie Reed has the story.

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DAILY BRIEF

In-House

Prudential Financial Elevates Deputy to Top In-House Legal Role
Prudential Financial Inc.'s deputy general counsel and head of external affairs, Ann Kappler, will succeed Timothy Harris as general counsel once he steps down Sept. 1, the company said.

Meritor Taps Another Legal Chief Who’s Championed Diversity
Hannah Lim-Johnson will join Troy, Mich.-based Meritor Inc. as senior vice president and chief legal officer next month, continuing Meritor’s streak of hiring legal leaders with track records of advocating for diversity.

Business of Law

Weil, Kirkland in $625 Million Deal for Insurance Tech Company
Kirkland & Ellis represented funds affiliated with Chicago-based private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC in an agreement to acquire Benefytt Technologies, Inc., a Florida-based developer and operator of private e-commerce health insurance marketplaces.

Bankrupt Retailers’ IP Assets Draw More Demand in Online Shift
The market for bankrupt companies’ intellectual property is favoring sellers, as another wave of virus-related commercial Chapter 11 filings looms.

Follow Bloomberg Law’s global coverage of the coronavirus pandemic on our Coronavirus Outbreak channel, and track the latest changes in the federal court operations with our interactive map.

WAKE-UP CALL

Disney Lawyer Tops New ALM Rankings for GC Cash Earnings
In today’s column, two states postponed online bar exams days before they were supposed to happen; Georgia’s next bar exam will be online but one part of it will include a lot of paper; meanwhile, Tennessee bar exam takers can have their scores canceled for “fidgeting” too much; a former Ropes & Gray chief operating officer advised law firms to avoid “stealth layoffs” and “stupid stuff” in the coming performance review cycle; Michael Avenatti’s lawyers in a New York criminal case filed a motion seeking to withdraw because he can’t pay them.

BLOOMBERG LAW ANALYSIS

ANALYSIS: Private Equity Gaining Share in U.S. Small and Mid M&A
While private equity has been looking outside the U.S.to do its mega deals since the pandemic began, the industry’s deal activity in the U.S. small and middle market is propping up the deal volume of the entire market segment.

PRACTITIONER INSIGHTS

INSIGHT: Legal Aid Chicago Responds to the Covid-19 Crisis —A Conversation With DLA Piper
The pandemic has changed the legal needs of the community. DLA Piper’s Anne Geraghty Helms speaks with Katherine W. Shank, deputy director of Legal Aid Chicago, on how the organization is helping address issues such as evictions, domestic violence, and racial justice.

INSIGHT: SCOTUS Curtails Government Power to Regulate Through Speech Restriction
Wiley founding partner Bert W. Rein and partner Kevin G. Rupy examine the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Barr v. AAPC, which he says could greatly limit the government¹s ability to use speech regulation as a regulatory tool. The immediate impact is only to eliminate the government debt exception to the TCPA’s bar on using robocalls for debt collection purposes, but they believe it may have far greater consequences.

INSIGHT: B2B Companies Need to Realign in a B2C E-Commerce Economy
Business-to-business (B2B) companies need to reassess their dependence on traditional business models and adopt business-to-consumer (B2C) operations and strategies to survive and thrive in the e-commerce economy, Manatt attorneys say. That means considering and heading off potential liabilities inherent in online transactions with individual consumers and understanding privacy and data laws and restrictions.

INSIGHT: Amazon and Seattle Kraken’s ‘Climate Pledge’ Is Promising, but Incomplete
The pledge by the Seattle NHL expansion team, Amazon and Oak View Group to change the name of Seattle’s Key Arena to “Climate Pledge Arena” and renovate it to be environmentally green is encouraging, but a true commitment to environmental justice, going beyond the building structure and changes, would better impact the racially diverse and low-income neighborhoods that commonly surround these stadiums, say Mustafa Santiago Ali, founder and CEO of Revitalization Strategies, and Kunal Merchant, managing director of Lotus Advisory.

WORKFLOWS

FisherBroyles hired corporate and venture capital attorney Justin S. Nahama as a partner in Los Angeles from Troutman Sanders | The former global leader of Sidley Austin’s project finance and infrastructure practice, Nicholas Grambas, has joined Australian firm Johnson Winter & Slattery as a partner based in Singapore and New York | Goodwin Procter has added former Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich and Rosati patents and innovations partner Sabrina Poulos to its San Francisco office | Loeb & Loeb‘s Hong Kong office added partners Erik Wallace and Laurence Ho to lead the newly formed Hong Kong Trusts and Estates team, which will also include associates Sarah Lai and Letao Tao; they all join from Stephenson Harwood.

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