From: White Collar Law360 <news-alt@law360.com>
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Subject: 2019 Year In Review: The Legal Industry
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 2019 11:33:27 +0000

Law360 Special Report
Year In Review

## Thursday, December 26, 2019

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## 5 Trends That Rocked The Legal Industry In 2019

From some law firms' hard-knuckle responses to discrimination lawsuits filed against them to the Big Four's ongoing creep into the legal sector, these were some of the moments and trends that shook the industry in 2019.

Looking Back: Law360's 2019 Legal Lions And Lambs It was a big year for explosive news in the legal industry. Here, Law360 rounds up the noteworthy legal industry peaks and valleys with one final legal lions and lambs list.

All Talk, Little Action: BigLaw Mergers Were Scarce In 2019 In a record-breaking year for total U.S. law firm combinations, blockbuster merger announcements were few and far between. But experts say a slew of



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## LAW FIRMS

Allen & Overy
Austin LLP
Berry Appleman
Briggs & Morgan
Cohen & Grigsby
Davis Polk
Dentons 
Drinker Biddle
Epstein Becker Green
Faegre Baker
Fisher Phillips
Gray Plant Mooty
Greenberg Traurig
Hughes Hubbard
Jones Day
Kirkland & Ellis
Latham & Watkins
Lathrop Gage
LeClairRyan 
Mayer Brown
McDermott Will
Milbank LLP
Morgan Lewis
O'Melveny & Myers
Ogletree Deakins
Outten & Golden
Pepper Hamilton
Sidley Austin
Skadden 
Taft Stettinius
Troutman Sanders
Ulmer & Beme
Wiggin and Dana
Williams & Connolly
Willkie Farr

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firms expressed interest and began feeling out a tie-up this past year, which could mean merger madness at the top end of the market in 2020.

## Poetic Justice: How Judges Got Creative In 2019

Amid headline-grabbing decisions and groundbreaking precedent out of federal courts in 2019, judges also injected bits of levity and creativity in their otherwise serious work, quipping about that last "Game of Thrones" season or quoting the Bard. Here, Law360 presents some of the best poetry, zingers and pop-culture references that popped up in opinions over the past year.

## The 7 Most Divisive Judicial Confirmations Of 2019

In a banner year for judicial confirmations, senators in 2019 signed off on 20 circuit judges and 80 district judges as President Donald Trump clinched his 185th appointment — but in reaching that milestone, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell faced a number of heated battles along the way.

## THE STATE OF THE LEGAL INDUSTRY

## The Law360 400

Kirkland & Ellis LLP has redefined what it means to be the biggest of BigLaw — weighing in at 2,116 attorneys by year end 2018 and becoming the first firm since Law360 began tracking law firm head counts to top 2,000 U.S.-based attorneys.

## The 2019 Law360 Glass Ceiling Report

Our annual survey of the largest U.S. law firms again shines a light on the lack of parity for female attorneys in private practice. Though women now make up more than half of law school students, the Glass Ceiling Report shows they continue to be underrepresented at all levels of a typical law firm and that their numbers dwindle as they move up the ranks.

## The 2019 Law360 Diversity Snapshot

U.S. law firms have long touted their commitment to diversity and inclusion. But those goals still seem far from being realized. Law360's annual Diversity Snapshot indicates only marginal progress on racial and ethnic diversity in the attorney workforce from year to year, even as demands grow from clients expecting more diverse legal teams.

## PODCAST

## Law360's Pro Say: Will The Glass Ceiling Ever Break?

For years women have been looking around their law firms and seeing mostly men in leadership. When will things change? On the latest episode of Law360's Pro Say podcast we discuss our annual Glass Ceiling report, which reveals a glacial pace for increased gender parity in the law, and we talk to one prominent female attorney who managed to crack the glass ceiling.

## WilmerHale

Zuckerman Spaeder

## COMPANIES

Altman Weil Inc.

American Bar Association

BlueStone Natural Resources II
LLP

Chevron Corp.

Deloitte Touche

Ernst & Young LLP

Google Inc.

Home Box Office Inc.

KPMG International

Lippman Jungers LLC

Major Lindsey & Africa

Paypal Holdings Inc.

PricewaterhouseCoopers
International Ltd.

Spectrum Management Holding
Co.

Warner Bros.

## GOVERNMENT AGENCIES

Federal Bureau of Investigation
National Labor Relations Board

U.S. Department of Education

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Supreme Court

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