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What you need to know

STAND FIRM – Chris Johnson, our chief global correspondent, has a message of empowerment for all you outside counsel: Just because your client wants you to hand over time-entry data even when you're working on a fixed fee, doesn't mean you have to do it. Terrifying as the thought may be, it's OK to say no to clients sometimes—especially when what they really want is all the reward of an AFA with none of the risk. But don't freak out. There's a tactful way to do it. "So many law firms struggle to really negotiate with their clients—they're afraid to—but there is a way to present a business rationale as to why they shouldn't be providing time-entry data on fixed fee matters," says Kristin Stark, principal at professional services consultancy Fairfax Associates. "If you can convince clients that doing so would hinder efforts to create efficiency, that will resonate." READ MORE HERE

NO SERIOUSLY, DO NOT CALL – In-house lawyers should be paying attention, especially to contracted businesses, after a federal court in Illinois hit Dish Network with a record $200M fine for illegally making telemarketing calls. After nearly eight years of litigating and a six-week bench trial, Judge Sue Myerscough of the Central District of Illinois ruled that Dish and the independent contractors it used to help sell its products violated federal and state “Do Not Call” regulations. To ensure that your company makes the right call, reporter Cogan Schneier has boiled the case down to three lessons that, unlike Dish Network, you won't have to learn the hard way.  READ MORE HERE

CYBER INSECURITY – We told you recently about China's surprise cybersecurity law and how lawyers are having a hard time figuring out what to make of it. We just wanted to let you know that not only has that not changed, but it actually may not change until some poor souls are forced to be the guinea pigs. “One thing we’ve seen in other contexts, and certainly in other countries, is a few test cases here and there, particularly for low-hanging fruit,” O’Melveny & Myers partner Kiran Raj told an audience at the first session of ALM's Legalweek West event, titled as a “Workshop on Impact of the Cybersecurity Law of China," according to a report by Zach Warren. “Usually when you see regulatory agencies go after companies for the first ones, they want to make sure it’s an easy case. … Whether China adopts that model, it’s hard to say, but that’s certainly a model we’ve seen in other contexts.” READ MORE HERE

GAME OVER – In a ruling reverberating through the class action bar, SCOTUS has performed its finishing move a controversial cheat code—er, procedural tool—that allowed plaintiffs attorneys to appeal class certification orders by dismissing their own case. In an 8-0 decision, the justices ruled plaintiffs in a class action over Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 video-game consoles should not have been allowed to automatically appeal a class certification order by voluntarily dismissing their claims, Amanda Bronstad reports. Appealing class certification orders is critical for both sides of a class action because those decisions often make or break a case. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, echoing some of her concerns during March’s oral arguments, wrote in Monday’s decision that the plaintiffs’ voluntary dismissal ran afoul of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(f), which permits only interlocutory appeals of class certification orders. “These changes are to come from rulemaking,” she wrote, “not judicial decisions in particular controversies or inventive litigation ploys.” READ MORE HERE

While you were sleeping

SEARCH FIRM – Police conducting a drug investigation recently raided the Belfast office of Herbert Smith Freehills, according to The Irish News. The newspaper reported Saturday that detectives from the organized crime branch of the Police Service of Northern Ireland conducted a search last week of Herbert Smith Freehills’ office at Cromac Quay in Belfast. A police spokesman said that a “number of items were removed for further examination” as part of a search “in connection with the arrest of a 30-year-old man in the Ladybrook area of west Belfast on suspicion of possession of Class A drugs.” The unidentified man was interviewed and subsequently released on bail pending a further inquiry by local law enforcement. “We can confirm the police are investigating an incident in our Belfast office,” a Herbert Smith Freehills spokeswoman said, according to a report by Brian Baxter. “We are not able to comment further at this point due to the ongoing investigation.” READ MORE HERE