Author: TSA Press

Last year, Coatue Management co-founder Thomas Laffont bought himself a little Southern California beach getaway: Two houses, each with a two-car garage, on an acre-and-a-quarter in one of Malibu’s most exclusive neighborhoods. That certainly seems like quite a lot of space, at least to this apartment-dweller, but these are difficult times. California has some of the strictest, most long-standing and apparently successful shelter-in-place orders in the country, and the Laffonts must have felt increasingly cramped in our coronavirus-stricken world. Luckily, they are billionaires, and their neighbor from across the street, Julia Roberts, was more than happy to listen to the Laffonts’ offer for the house next door to theirs, which the actress just happened to own. Now, she has $8 million she doesn’t really need, and the Laffonts have an extra acre-plus in which to keep their distance from each other, as well as another four bedrooms and three bathrooms in which to hide from the germs.

Zimbabwe’s spiral into economic chaos and uncertainty over the last decade has left the country with few functioning industries and an over-reliance on imports of nearly everything from food and furniture to building materials and even toothpicks.

The economic upheaval and notorious hyperinflation has decimated much of the country’s manufacturing base which in previous decades had been supported by its higher learning institutions.

Now that the country has been put on a 21-day lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus after reporting eight Covid-19 cases and one death, the country has had to look within as it can’t compete on the global open market for imported gloves, masks and hand sanitizers given the huge demand.

There is additional pressure because hundreds of doctors and nurses in Zimbabwe have refused to work until they are guaranteed by health authorities there will be enough personal protective equipment for their usage. The Zimbabwe Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association has been asking for adequate equipment outlined in the World Health Organization’s guidelines including masks, eyewear and gowns.

The government has turned to its tertiary institutions with engineering and technology capacity including University of Zimbabwe, Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT), Great Zimbabwe University (GZU), Midlands State University and the Harare Institute of Technology, among others, for production to meet local demand.

These universities are located in various provinces around the country and they are supplying hand sanitizers, masks, gloves and other personal protective clothing to clinics, hospitals and security personnel in those provinces.

Higher education minister professor Amon Murwira told Quartz Africa the hand sanitizers, masks and gloves were made to meet the standards of the WHO and the Standards Association of Zimbabwe. “Universities are all where it starts. (Our) sanitizers are made to meet standards,” he said.

“We are supplying health-related institutions (such as) hospitals and clinics through the Health ministry. We are also targeting government institutions (including) police and other public interface institutions to combat the spread of the virus,” says Dr Clinton Musekiwa, marketing director at CUT.  He says the university is producing more than 2 000 masks per day and already supplied around 5,000 masks to several health institution with more orders from public health facilities and big businesses.

GZU, which is also manufacturing masks, has procured glycerol and hydro peroxide and ethanol from Tongaat Hullet-Zimbabwe’s largest sugar producer-to manufacture hand sanitizers.

Post published in: Featured

Where bread is retailing at Z$40, up from Z$30 the previous day; where there hasn’t been water for months and there’s sporadic access to borehole water; where neighbourhoods have no power and must queue for gas; there is growing desperation and precious little hope of observing physical distancing, says Crecey Kuyedzwa, Fin24’s correspondent in Zimbabwe.

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Like many countries across the globe, Zimbabwe started its 21-day total lockdown on Monday 30 March 2020.

The lockdown is meant to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, which is wreaking havoc across the world. Lives have been lost and economies are crumbling.

Before the lockdown, Zimbabwe had seven confirmed cases of Covid-19, including one fatality, but authorities felt it prudent to declare the country was on lockdown.

With Zimbabwe critically short of testing kits, ventilators, personal protective equipment and medical drugs, its biggest weapon to fight Covid-19 was to encourage social distancing.

“I want all of you to act as if you already have the virus,” President Emmerson Mnangagwa said in his address to the nation on Monday evening.

He said the lockdown was an opportunity to save lives “by staying at home. By washing your hands and by keeping at least two metres’ distance from one another.”

Companies were asked to close, except those that were considered essential.

Private passenger transporters were also ordered off the roads, with the state-owned Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (ZUPCO) being the only one allowed to continue operating.

Most informal markets and businesses, which market watchers say largely drive Zimbabwe’s economy, were also asked to close.

The luxury of distancing

While all this was done in order to maximise the impact of social distancing, it has only managed to stop people from engaging in their various economic activities both in the suburbs and in the Harare CBD, where streets are now empty.

Law enforcement officers are not as visible as we expected, and on the few occasions they are seen, they are packed in a lorry, more than 50 in a 35-tonne truck, with no face masks. A bad example for practising social distancing – or physical distancing, as some prefer to call it.

Physical distancing has also proved to be a luxury for those in low-income, high-density suburbs.

On day two, people were still moving freely, only avoiding the main roads. At the local grocery shopping area in Glen View 1, 20km south west of Harare CBD, small groups of men were sitting enjoying their beer, sharing opaque beer even, oblivious of what this might do to their health if one of them were positive for the virus.

No power, a hunt for gas

On Saturday, after hearing that that a 21-day lockdown lay ahead, I set out to buy gas, as we were left with four days’ worth of supplies.

My neighbourhood and many others have not been connected to the power grid, 10 years after establishment.

The power utility, ZESA, does not have the required resources like cables and transformers, and – to a large extent – power itself.

Under normal circumstances, however, this would still only take me a couple of minutes, but on this day the queue for gas tanks was snaked for metres upon metres, and I had to spend six hours waiting for gas. Social distancing was a luxury.

Only one lady had a face mask. I had with me a small bottle of sanitiser, which I would apply every time we took turns to move the gas tanks, but as the day progressed, I abandoned its use. It was just not convenient at the time.

There’s toilet paper, but no one can afford it

Although we had stocked up on food the previous week, there were a few items we still needed. While government had assured the nation that grocery retailers would be open during the lockdown, one can never be 100% sure.

So on Sunday, we set out to get some food items, only to be greeted by an unpleasantly long queue. Again, physical distancing was a vain hope. While the outlet was letting in a few people at a time, outside customers were not leaving even a centimetre between them, as they pushed and shoved.

Inside the shop, it was evident supplies were running low. Some shelves were empty. We failed to get some basic necessities. Other products saw price hikes.

As for tissues and toilet paper? Unlike in other countries, it’s a product that is abundant in Zimbabwe. Hyperinflation has pushed the price toilet paper beyond the reach of many. Bread was now retailing at Z$40 up from Z$30 the previous day. But people still queued without keeping any distance.

It was the same today as I went out in preparation to write this article.

Desperation trumps distancing

People still queued to get some cooking gas. For two days, several neighbourhoods have not had power, forcing people to look for gas as an alternative, but it is also not readily available.

By 08:00hrs on Tuesday, the gas queue at one of the outlets was long and winding, with the place yet to open.

Another queue, as long as 50 metres, had also formed at grocery retail outlet that was yet to open.

Word was that subsidised maize meal had been delivered the previous night. With prices of basic products increasing by the day, as reflected by inflation for February 2020 at 540.16%, government is providing subsidised maize meal at Z$70.

However, supplies can’t meet the growing demand.

As a result, physical distancing was practically impossible. People shoved and jostled to keep their position in the queue. Some shouted at each other, risking drops of saliva.

Of the hundreds in the queue, not even one had a face mask.

As I drove back home, I passed through a community borehole, where a line was slowly forming. The neighbourhood has not had water for months and every day, residents come out to fetch water, and help each other pump it up. There is no sight of face masks or handy sanitisers, not in the ghetto.

The lockdown has only managed to stop economic activities, but social gatherings are inevitable.

Only hope and prayer can save Zimbabwe from Covid-19.

Post published in: Featured

Harare (AFP) – Buckets and jerrycans in hand or in wheelbarrows, dozens of Zimbabweans stand close to each other in a long queue, patiently waiting at a borehole in Harare’s middle-class Mabelreign suburb to collect water.

While this is a daily sight, this week things are different.

The water-short southern African country is starting to enforce a 21-day lockdown to try contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

People are supposed to be observing social distancing, stay indoors and above all, wash their hands regularly. But these instructions will not be easy to follow.

“Of course I have heard about social distancing,” said 16-year-old Maxel Chikova.

“But people were already queued up like this when I joined the line, so I just hope nobody has the virus.”

In the same queue is another teen, Winnet Mgaramombe, who is not in school because of the virus restrictions.

“We have heard about the coronavirus but we need water for domestic use, so corona or no corona we shall come to get water,” she said, carrying a yellow bucket.

The scene is played out all over greater Harare.

City authorities have struggled to constantly supply water to the capital city of 4.5 million residents for many years.

Across town in Mbare, the largest high density township, the queue is even longer.

– Unsafe drinking water –

There are many people milling around.

Housewife Epiphania Moyo had been in the queue for a good part of the morning and is well aware of the need for better hygiene to halt the spread of the virus.

“Of course, we have heard about coronavirus, and we try as much as we can to wash our hands, but sometimes we would rather put it to other domestic uses.”

Hand sanitisers are a luxury she cannot afford.

“That’s for the rich, not for us who live in the ghetto.”

Coronavirus has brought Harare’s perennial water woes under the spotlight.

Some parts of the city have gone for almost two decades without running water.

The well-to-do have drilled boreholes in their properties while the enterprising make money vending and delivering water in mobile tankers to those who can afford it.

For the majority, public boreholes are the only option.

On rare days, water trickles out of taps, but it is of questionable quality and is at times smelly.

When run in a bathtub or a basin, within minutes, brown gooey sediment settles to the bottom.

A 2019 recent study by South Africa-based Nanotech Water Solutions found that Harare’s water contains toxins that can cause diseases of the liver and affect the central nervous system.

While the underground water from boreholes is widely believed to be safe to drink, a 2018 cholera outbreak which killed nearly 50, was traced to a borehole in a Kuwadzana township.

An underground sewer pipe had contaminated the water.

Around 4,000 people died and at least 100,000 people fell ill in another cholera outbreak in 2008.

Harare City Council cites a shortage of money to purify the water.

It says the water purifying plants, built during British colonial rule, are woefully inadequate to supply the city’s burgeoning population.

The water distribution pipes date back to more than five 50 years ago, and half of the purified water is estimated to be lost through pipes bursting.

The government has been silent on how it will provide water to those whose taps have been dry for years or those whose supply is sporadic.

* Even though RBG has continued to hit the Supreme Court gym during the COVID-19 pandemic, Justice Breyer has been cooped up at his home cooking pot roasts, having video nights with his grandkids, and going on an occasional jog while maintaining social distance. [Wall Street Journal]

* A Texas pastor has filed a lawsuit seeking to hold religious services despite shelter-in-place orders related to COVID-19. [Daily Mail]

* Austrian authorities are facing a class-action lawsuit over their handling of a massive COVID-19 outbreak at a popular ski resort. Avoiding COVID-19 can be my latest excuse to avoid hitting the slopes… [CNN]

* A federal judge has publicly reprimanded a lawyer for threatening opposing counsel and falsely claiming that anti-semitic insults were made against him. [Reuters]

* Despite earlier efforts to stay open, Hobby Lobby stores in certain locations will be closed amid shelter-in-place orders enacted because of COVID-19. [CBS News]

* Law enforcement is warning that anyone who attempts to avoid an arrest or citation by faking COVID-19 symptoms could face serious consequences. We’ve all tried to get out of a ticket at some point, but this is really low. [ABC News]

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Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothmanlawyer.com.

As another hour goes by, another Biglaw firm announces that it’s taking cost-cutting measures to alleviate the pressures that have been foisted upon it by the worldwide coronavirus outbreak. From layoffs to furloughs to salary cuts, we’ve seen it all as COVID-19 continues its devastation of the legal profession.

Sources say the latest firm to announce salary cuts is Arent Fox, which has reportedly reduced salaries for counsel by 30 percent and associates by 25 percent. These are the largest pay cuts we’ve seen yet. This information was given to employees by phone, so no memo exists. We’re told that equity partners will be taking reduced distributions, but percentages were not disclosed. One unhappy associate noted that while the calls about the salary cuts stressed the importance of everyone at the firm being in this together, “associates and counsel seem to be a little more in this than others.”

We reached out to Arent Fox for confirmation of the salary cuts, and a spokesperson said these measures were taken in order to put the firm in a “strong position”:

As a result of the economic disruption caused by COVID-19, Arent Fox has made temporary adjustments to its business operations. We recognize the biggest mistake we can make is to underestimate the scope of this pandemic. In response to the economic slowdown, the firm is instituting a temporary pay cut for all attorneys, professionals, and staff.

The range of legal issues, regulatory challenges, and policy changes unfolding during this crisis are historic. Our goal is to put Arent Fox in a strong position so that we can continue to provide critical, first-rate service to our clients as we help them navigate these challenges.

We hope this means the firm is able to avoid layoffs or furloughs if this pandemic goes on for longer than expected.

If your firm or organization is slashing salaries, closing its doors, or reducing the ranks of its lawyers or staff, whether through open layoffs, stealth layoffs, or voluntary buyouts, please don’t hesitate to let us know. Our vast network of tipsters is part of what makes Above the Law thrive. You can email us or text us (646-820-8477).

If you’d like to sign up for ATL’s Layoff Alerts, please scroll down and enter your email address in the box below this post. If you previously signed up for the layoff alerts, you don’t need to do anything. You’ll receive an email notification within minutes of each layoff, salary cut, or furlough announcement that we publish.

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Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

For Carl Icahn, the COVID-19 epidemic looked like an unprecedented opportunity to combine his twin passions of making a lot of money while making other people miserable. He could hardly contain his excitement. Paul Singer may be unilaterally disarming in the face of the unprecedented dislocations and difficulties wrought by coronavirus, but if target companies want to see Icahn’s peaceable side, they’re going to have to let him win.

Unfortunately for Icahn, some of his proxies don’t have his principled stick-to-it-iveness (or enough toner to print sufficient money to make up for a 50% drop in market cap).

In a normal world, April 1 is April Fools’ Day, but this year, there is nothing to joke about, no pranks, no practical jokes. Nada, zip, zilch. Even though we all need a good laugh (I can always watch again for the umpteenth time the movie Airplane!) we certainly don’t want to do it at anyone’s expense.

The author Annie Dillard says that “how we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” So, how are you spending your days these days?

Let’s look at a few examples. A Brooklyn lawyer is suing Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the State of New York for purportedly violating his constitutional right of free speech, right to travel, and free exercise of religion. Gee, I had no idea that attorneys were immune to Covid-19 and thus don’t have to take the steps that everyone else in the world needs to take in order to stay safe. If that is indeed the case, then no attorney needs to be staying at home and can bill as many hours as inhumanly possible since there seems to be no reason why not. Yes, I know that lawyers walk on water.

Then there’s the judge who quite properly benchslapped lawyers for bothering the court with trivial BS at a time when lives and livelihoods are in jeopardy. Not only do these lawyers need to know how to define “emergency,” and what qualifies as a true emergency and what is not, lawyers who don’t know how to play nice while people are sick and dying should be woodshedded. And if you don’t know what that term means, look it up right after looking up the word “emergency.” That would be a very interesting hearing to observe from a safe distance. Judges shouldn’t need a pandemic to tell lawyers that they need to pick up their marbles and go home for a while.

Did you hear the one about the Nebraska attorney disbarred for assaulting his elderly parent? So much for “honor thy father and mother.” I wonder how this attorney will now spend his days.

It’s always refreshing when one of us ATL columnists is candid enough to say he was wrong. Kudos to Mark Herrmann in his most recent post for admitting that he didn’t see the pandemic coming. More kudos to Mark for saying in print what many of us are thinking, but not voicing yet. It’s going to be a terrible year for law practice, and I think it will take into 2021 at the earliest for things to start to right themselves. We’re starting second quarter today.

Yes, things will start up again, exactly when is to be determined, but I don’t think the practice will ever be the same as it was, let alone the world as we knew it. As lawyers and clients realize that they don’t need to meet face to face, remote lawyering will become even more popular; it already is among younger cohorts. No more traveling to meetings with the attendant expenses; no more hanging around in a courtroom for hours waiting for your case to be called, no more meetings that are often a waste and just an excuse to bill time. We will take off some, if not all, of the shackles that has chained us to our desks.

Do we need all that space? Not really. Do we need the awe-inspiring lobby and conference rooms that are the size of Rhode Island (sorry, Rhode Island, I don’t mean to insult you)? A lot of the trappings that were important P.P.E. (pre-pandemic era) just don’t have the cachet anymore. Layoffs have already started (see ATL’s website for the latest), and partner compensation has already started to take a hit as well.

For newbies and associates who have been doing transactional work, if you are interested in seeing the back end of deals — the workouts, the forbearances, the business failures, and even the bankruptcies — then now is your chance to raise your hand and learn another area. See how deals come apart, rather than how deals are made. My clients who did special assets workouts (bankspeak for problem, troubled, or “in the toilet” loans) had wide latitude to be creative to get paid, however it could be arranged. So, for those of you who haven’t yet experienced a downturn, it will be a bumpy ride, but well worth it for the knowledge gained. You will learn more from what went wrong than what went right. Invaluable expertise for transactional lawyers.

In the overall scheme of things, what’s most important? Your health and the health of your loved ones. Losing anyone in this crisis is horrible; having to say good-bye by FaceTime or such other noncontact method is even worse. It’s unspeakable and the cruelest, but now the only way, to say good-bye.

Don’t assume that you will not be a victim of COVID-19; that’s assuming facts not in evidence. I go back to Annie Dillard’s words and ask you to look at how you are spending your days. A friend of mine on the appellate bench here in California said it best: “be safe and touch nothing but your loved ones,” if you are lucky enough to share a household with them. They may annoy the hell out of you in different times (and probably even annoy you now), but no matter.

Dillard also says that “There is no shortage of good days. It is good lives that are hard to come by.” Right now, there is a shortage of good days. Will good lives also hard to come by?

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Jill Switzer has been an active member of the State Bar of California for over 40 years. She remembers practicing law in a kinder, gentler time. She’s had a diverse legal career, including stints as a deputy district attorney, a solo practice, and several senior in-house gigs. She now mediates full-time, which gives her the opportunity to see dinosaurs, millennials, and those in-between interact — it’s not always civil. You can reach her by email at oldladylawyer@gmail.com.

In times of upheaval, the Above the Law tipster network really shows its strength. Biglaw firms may not want to publicize the cost-cutting measures the coronavirus has forced them into, but it is vital industry information. Transparency is key, always, but particularly in hard times. And when the layoffs and furloughs and salary cuts started happening, our tips line started blowing up. For that, we thank you.

So, here’s the latest scoop from tipsters: the Am Law 200 firm Curtis (f/k/a Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle) has slashed associate salaries by 25 percent. Those are some of the largest cuts we’ve seen to date.

We reached out to the firm and a spokesperson was able to confirm that, like a growing amount of their peer firms, they’ve instituted these cost-cutting measures.

Yes, Curtis is taking some steps similar to those reported by other firms in response to COVID-19.

Hopefully, this means the firm can avoid layoffs.

If your firm or organization is slashing salaries, closing its doors, or reducing the ranks of its lawyers or staff, whether through open layoffs, stealth layoffs, or voluntary buyouts, please don’t hesitate to let us know. Our vast network of tipsters is part of what makes Above the Law thrive. You can email us or text us (646-820-8477).

If you’d like to sign up for ATL’s Layoff Alerts, please scroll down and enter your email address in the box below this post. If you previously signed up for the layoff alerts, you don’t need to do anything. You’ll receive an email notification within minutes of each layoff, salary cut, or furlough announcement that we publish.

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Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).