legal officer

Welcome to Bloomberg Law’s Wake Up Call, a daily rundown of the top news for lawyers, law firms, and in-house counsel.

• The market for alternative legal services grew 45% in the two fiscal years through 2021 to reach $20.6 billion in revenues, as law firms and corporate legal departments increased their use of them, according to a new report. Independent providers at about $18 billion in revenues and the Big Four accounting firms, at $1.5 billion, still lead the market, but so-called law firm captive units are growing the fastest as a segment, the report said. (Thomson Reuters)
• Husch Blackwell’s liability insurance is covering the $62 million awards the firm recently got tagged with by an arbitration panel over its representation of an engineering firm whose bid on Kansas City, Missouri’s airport construction failed. That’s according to a report citing an internal email sent by the firm‘s leaders. (Above The Law)
• Twitter Inc.’s former chief legal officer Vijaya Gadda and deputy general counsel James Bakerboth fired by Elon Musk, are slated to testify next week to a House committee. The committee is investigating the social media platform’s handling of reports on President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. (Associated Press)
• Houston police said two people who died in a murder-suicide last week were both associates at law firms. One of them was at Chamberlain Hrdlicka. (Houston Chronicle)

Lawyers, Law Firms

• New Jersey federal courts are starting to make a headway on case backlogs that piled up during the pandemic. Some attorneys think the district still needs more judges. (New Jersey Law Journal)
• A Texas judge ruled that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton must face an ethics lawsuit by state attorney regulators over a case Paxton filed challenging results