Corporate clients increasingly are demanding diverse attorney teams and legal advice on their own diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) efforts. Mary K. Young observes that chief marketers are increasingly tasked with ensuring companies get a diverse team of attorneys, that their diverse lawyers are being promoted in the media and retained in-house, that law firms’ internal DE&I efforts are being promoted to attract new clients, and that companies are getting the proper legal advice surrounding their own DE&I efforts.

International law firms operating in China have trimmed headcounts in China and Hong Kong as a result of the weaker economic environment. Peter Zeughauser observes that the China market isn’t for everyone, so firms need to chart their own China strategy. He also highlights a bigger common problem facing international firms in China at the moment, and that is the rise in sophistication of homegrown Chinese firms.

Cravath Swaine & Moore’s move to raise associate salaries beyond the scale set by its rival Milbank pressures less-profitable firms to ponder pay bumps they can’t afford. While firms in the top tiers of revenue and profitability are likely to follow Cravath’s lead - and several already have - others in the industry are ill-positioned to do so. Peter Zeughauser observes that the prospect of Cravath-type raises will stress a lot of firms. Some will avoid such raises and suffer the fall-out of “more poaching” from firms that can pay top compensation.