š§© AT&T takes junior-associate work in-house
PLUS: Ropes counts up to 100 AI hours toward billing requirements.
Lookzy: all your daily legal news in 0.1 billable hours. Plain English coverage of deals, litigation and legal trends trusted by lawyers at Cravath, Latham, Skadden, Gunderson and elsewhere.
Welcome to Lookzy. In today's Lookzy:
AT&T is sending less work to junior law-firm associates
Sheppard Mullin faces a data-breach class action
SpaceX's spectrum deal shakes mobile carriers
Ropes counts up to 100 AI hours toward billing requirements
THE VERDICT
Arguing today's litigation news
Sheppard's data-breach suit. Sheppard Mullin says a social-engineering attack manipulated one attorney without accessing the firm's systems or network. A former employee sued Wednesday, alleging inadequate training and safeguards after the August 31 breach exposed Social Security and driver's-license numbers. She seeks more than $5 million for a proposed class of more than 1,000 people. The firm says only a limited number of documents were involved and that it notified affected clients and individuals.
A nuisance across state lines. Louisiana, Alabama and Arkansas filed two suits last week alleging that out-of-state abortion-pill providers create a public nuisance and shield laws in New York, California and Massachusetts aid them. Nuisance claims can seek broad orders stopping conduct without proving injury to particular people. One suit went directly to the Supreme Court, which routinely declines such interstate disputes; the other is in Louisiana federal court. The FDA has repeatedly deemed mifepristone safe and effective when used as directed.
NFL wants a referee. The NFL is backing New Jersey's request for Supreme Court review of who regulates sports prediction markets. The league says CFTC oversight lacks safeguards against insider betting and easily manipulated wagers, along with a minimum age of 21. The CFTC says the NFL declined an information-sharing agreement. A Sixth Circuit ruling allowing states to regulate Kalshi deepened the appellate split, but the justices haven't agreed to hear the case.
THE DEAL
Wheelin' and dealin' today's corporate news
SpaceX gets more bars. SpaceX agreed to buy Grain Management's nationwide 800 MHz spectrum portfolio, subject to FCC approval. The low-band spectrum would help Starlink Mobile challenge conventional carriers without their towers. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile shares each fell about 6% after hours. The parties didn't disclose a price; the Wall Street Journal reported about $8 billion, according to Reuters. Milbank advised Grain.
Buying pain relief. Viatris agreed to acquire Pacira BioSciences for $36.50 a share in cash, valuing its equity at $1.65 billion. The deal brings Viatris two established non-opioid pain drugs, Exparel and Zilretta, as it moves beyond generics. Closing is expected by year-end, subject to a majority of shares being tendered and the regulatory waiting period expiring. Cravath advised Viatris.
The part between the chips. GlobalFoundries signed a five-year, $2 billion agreement to make silicon interposers for TSMC in Malta, New York. These components connect processors and memory inside advanced AI-chip packages. Advanced packaging capacity has become a production bottleneck. The deal would establish the first U.S.-based source of interposers, with volume expected to ramp in the first half of 2028.
BOILERPLATE
Keeping the first draft. AT&T says associate hours on its outside-firm bills are already falling. Its 38-person LegalEdge team uses AI to handle work once sent to junior law-firm associates, including document review and, on many matters, research, witness interviews and first drafts. Launched in January, the team handled nearly 100 matters in its first six months. AT&T says its roster of roughly 30 national firms could shrink to 18ā20 over two years, though that isn't a fixed target. It can't yet quantify the savings.
Credit for experimenting. More than 1,000 Ropes & Gray associates and counsel can count up to 100 hours of AI experimentation and training toward their annual billing requirements, including work that cannot be billed directly to clients. The firm says it has already invested more than 35,000 associate hours in AI this year. First-years have had a separate program since last year allowing nearly 400 hoursāabout 20% of their required hoursāfor AI training and simulations.
Alright, back to billing. That's all, folks!
