MIDLEVEL MALAISE – Big Law midlevel associates are rating their firms higher in this year’s 2022 Midlevel Associate Survey from The American Lawyer. Compared to last year’s results, 10% fewer associates said their firms were understaffed and slightly more survey respondents said they expected to stay at their firm in the next two years. Still, when it comes to personal and professional fulfillment, it seems law firms have a lot more work to do. Dan Roe reports that more than three-quarters of participating midlevel associates said their job significantly impacted their mental health, and more than half said they’d consider quitting for better work-life balance. Some associates noted the relationship between more billable hours and poor mental health. One Greenberg Traurig associate said, “We can’t plan a workout, healthy meals, or even time off with friends when a client’s ‘emergency’ (nothing a corporate client needs is actually an emergency) could pop up unexpectedly and interrupt it.”
CRYPTO CONSPIRACY? – Defense attorneys are seeking to throw out what prosecutors have called the first cryptocurrency insider trading tipping scheme by raising “several issues of first impression,” due to the nature of the charges and industry, Jane Wester reports. Greenberg Traurig partner David Miller is representing Ishan Wahi, a former employee at the cryptocurrency platform Coinbase charged with wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy. During a hearing Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska of the Southern District of New York, Miller said “This is not insider trading. There are no securities and commodities that are alleged to have been charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and ‘insider trading’ is not pure nomenclature.”
