Author: TSA Press

If you drive through Zimbabwe on a typical Saturday or Sunday, you will see many places of religious worship. Some are static structures, while others are mobile. Some services are held under trees or in open spaces.

Many people in Zimbabwe follow a religious faith. The Apostolic community is a major religious sect that discouraged its members from seeking medical care, including HIV services, preferring to use prayer for healing―this led to many people becoming ill and dying from preventable diseases. However, with the implementation of so-called health kiosks, the community is now encouraging its members to access medical care.

David Adashe (not his real name), an Apostolic leader in Gokwe North, explained that health kiosks staffed by church volunteers trained by the Zimbabwe health ministry helped his congregation to access much needed information on HIV prevention. He described it as like, “Going from a thick cloud of darkness into a plane of light of splendour.”

Ms Adashe said that his congregation’s views about seeking medical assistance from health facilities have changed. They now seek out medical care, receive counselling from trained volunteers and are referred to a health facility for additional services, if needed. “I was naive and reluctant to take health issues seriously, but since the emergence of the health kiosk programme, I am now more empowered. I’m now encouraging my family to access health services from the clinic,” he said.

Since March 2018, World Vision Zimbabwe, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Child Care, has been empowering faith leaders like Mr Adashe and church volunteers through training and creating safe spaces to bring health information and services to their congregations.

A health kiosk volunteer in Gwanda said, “As a volunteer, I observed that previously it was difficult for some individuals to travel to the local clinic on their own to seek medical advice, but since the programme started it is easy now since they can access the information on their doorstep through the health kiosks.”

Many faith worship centres participating in the health kiosk programme have seen a threefold increase in the uptake of HIV and health information. Half of the people requesting information on HIV take an HIV test and receive their results. People who test positive for HIV are referred for antiretroviral therapy and supported to stay in care through the help of the trained church volunteers.

Faith leaders and church volunteers are essential in controlling the HIV epidemic. They provide care for their members, create safe space for information-sharing and are trusted by their members. Regular contact with the congregations enables the volunteers to bridge the gap in services for those who need them the most. The health kiosks also serve as effective and sustainable platforms to bring together both faith and non-faith communities to address the health needs of their members and to provide safe spaces to engage on other health matters.

“The findings from the health kiosk programme are promising for addressing the HIV epidemic. This is a key example of community-led responses by, for and within faith communities providing safe spaces and support for their members. These kinds of responses are essential for ending new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths and critical for reaching universal health coverage,” said Laurel Sprague, Chief of the UNAIDS Community Mobilization, Community Support, Social Justice and Inclusion Department.

Post published in: Featured

K&E made its reputation with associates by offering above-market bonuses. The firm swims in cash and makes its largesse a key recruiting point, promising associates a healthier bank account at the end of the year. This year, Kirkland managed to beat the prevailing market bonuses again, but associates aren’t particularly happy about it.

Kirkland is among those firms that refuse to offer lockstep bonuses or even lockstep bonuses with a discretionary kicker. Instead of providing the market transparency that associates can rely upon, K&E hands out individualized bonuses leaving associates to wonder if they’re making more, less, or the same as their peers. More importantly, it leaves Above the Law wondering if any individual tipster is representative of the firm’s policy or not. That’s why tips from associates are even more essential at black box firms.

First, the good news. Based on what we’ve received, associates working in the 2200-2400 range are routinely getting between 1.2 and 1.3 times the standard Milbank scale bonuses. There’s a lot of variation in between those poles, but most tipsters seem convinced that they’re falling somewhere in that range.

Normally, a market-beating bonus would be enough to salve associates, but folks at Kirkland have a keen sense of history and are aware of a troubling trend when it comes to comp. A few years ago, the firm was handing out 1.4x bonuses and set a 1.05x “floor” that no associate could fall below. Last year, the floor was gone and associates reported receiving between 1.25-1.33x. Now the tips we’re getting hew mostly to the 1.24-1.27x range. Is the firm regressing on comp while it continues to surge in revenue? Associates seem to think so.

A 2016 in the meat of the range reports that “people are generally very unhappy about bonuses” and a 2017 points to the considerable hours billed and notes that Katten Muchin would have paid an extra $7K for the effort. There haven’t been any complaints about Timmy in the office down the hall getting more for doing less. Though that’s probably bad news for the firm that associates are more annoyed with the trend in bonuses generally to be troubled with a black box spitting out disparate bonuses for the same level of work.

Kirkland is still paying above market, and associates are still generally happier to make more than less. But when associates start to wonder if the good times are leveling off, they start to ask whether it’s worth it to push themselves at a firm like Kirkland when they could make almost as much somewhere else. And for a firm that’s spent years waving cash to win the talent wars, that’s not a positive development.

Please help us help you when it comes to bonus news at other firms. As soon as your firm’s bonus memo comes out, please email it to us (subject line: “[Firm Name] Bonus”) or text us (646-820-8477). Please include the memo if available. You can take a photo of the memo and send it via text or email if you don’t want to forward the original PDF or Word file.

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

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Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

* An attorney who put price tags for cheaper items on more expensive products at Walmart has just received a one-year stayed suspension from practice. [Bloomberg Law]

* A plaintiffs lawyer involved in litigation against Monsanto has been charged with extortion for offering to cease legal action against a large company in exchange for a $200 million consulting fee. Hasn’t Michael Avenatti taught this lawyer anything? [CBS News]

* Boeing has been hit with another lawsuit involving its 737 Max jets. [CNN]

* The first African-American Attorney General in the history of Kentucky was sworn in this week. [NBC News]

* An attorney has been suspended for among other things submitting fake expense receipts for an ABA conference. [Bloomberg Law].

* It’s been a while since Above the Law published a “Lawyerly Lairs” segment, but check out famed “Making a Murderer” attorney Kathleen Zellner’s pad, which just hit the market. [Chicago Tribune]

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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.

What mainstay of the legal profession was invented in 1888 by Thomas Holley to find an economical use for manufacturing scraps?

Hint: The company Holley founded still exists today, though the product is now available from many different suppliers.

See the answer on the next page.

The holidays are upon us again, and while partners hurry to wind up business and associates wait around for their bonuses, the firms are spreading holiday cheer through creative video cards to spread cheer to clients and colleagues alike.

We have ten nominees for our 11th Annual Holiday Contest, plus one honorable mention which we’ll talk about at the end. Without further ado:

1. Morse: The New England firm offers a list of things to do and see with loved ones during the holiday season. From the nominator: “As usual, everyone at the Firm was welcome to contribute to our Ultimate Holiday To-Do List, and we’re always pleased to see the mix of participation – from attorneys to staff to paralegals… Our employees are such great team players who took the time to consider their own holiday traditions and decided to share them with our clients, contacts and friends of the Firm – and now all of you! After all, how many other e-cards are crafted by more than just the Marketing Department?”

2. Heyman Enerio Gattuso & Hirzel LLP: BoHEGHian Rhapsody launches us on a journey that’s really just for that one title joke and it’s not all that imbued with holiday cheer, but the Delaware firm fully commits to the Wayne’s World premise.

3. Harness Dickey: The patent and IP attorneys of Harness Dickey forge the perfect marriage of holiday spirit and foregrounding the brand with a video card focusing on vintage patented works for the holiday season. The firm’s tagline is “Where IP Comes Alive” and the card plays right into that message.

4. Bilzin Sumberg: From the nominator: “Don’t be fooled by the simple, straight forward approach to the eCard (hey, who said lawyers are always long-winded?). Once you click, you will be transported to the wonderful world of wintertime in Miami. A magical place where you can find corporate attorneys riding bicycles around downtown and litigators drinking VitaCoco on the bay, you know typical winter activities. While they are at it, attorneys thank clients and friends for the opportunity to collaborate and wish them a Happy Holidays. Enjoy!”

5. McBrayer & MML&K Government Solutions: “We make our e-cards totally in-house, and it’s an opportunity for us to show some of our personality… our yearly holiday card is a chance to let down our hair a bit.” Indeed. This delightful take on the 12 Days of Christmas manages to be funny, warm, and inform the viewer about the firm all in one concise song.

6. Troutman Sanders: “As a law firm, we understand that a lot of life is spent on the go. Sometimes it is not so much about cooking the perfect turkey dinner, but about who you are spending your time with. We hope that however you spend your holiday, it is joyful, peaceful and inspiring.” Troutman may be hoping to spend the holiday with Pepper Hamilton.

7. Goodman Allen Donnelly: This card features original artwork by one of the firm’s founding partners, Michael Goodman and it’s clear he’s a very talented cartoonist (he’s been featured as an Editorial Cartoonist in the Richmond Times-Dispatch Sunday Business Section and his work has been nationally syndicated). This year the firm partnered with the talented animators at Webby Cards to bring Goodman’s artwork to life and tell the tale of Goodman’s 2019. “Santa has more than enough to fit under your tree, but as a Quid Pro Quo, he wants extra cookies and spiked egg nog,” Goodman explains.

8. Wolf Greenfield: The champions of the 2017 and 2018 ATL Holiday Card Contests return with another stop motion tale. As they put it, “At this time of year, it’s easy to get trapped in the hustle and bustle of the season without stopping to smell the freshly baked cookies—gingerbread is our favorite. Whether people are escaping on vacation or staying local, in snow or in sun, this year we hope they can kick back, relax and soak in the holiday spirit. After all, don’t we all deserve that?” There’s also a behind-the-scenes look at the stop motion animation process containing photos and a time lapse of the work in progress.

9. Larson • King: Another take on the 12 days of Christmas song, but this time changed to incorporate well-known holiday characters and their legal problems. The firm’s made the ATL finalists list before, but with a recent brand refresh, they’ve switched up their usual illustration style and animation this year.

10. Latham & Watkins: This is the Hallmark Channel movie entry of the year. If you wanted to know if lawyers have heart, here are profiles of Latham attorneys being good people and earning the love of friends and family this season.

Honorable Mention:

Davis Wright Tremaine: We wanted to recognize this one, a word-scramble game thematically tied to a contribution to Toys for Tots. It’s not exactly a holiday card as much as a holiday activity but it deserved mention for the work that went into it and the good cause.

Now it’s time for our audience to vote. We’ll keep the polls open through WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 1, 2020, at 11:59 p.m. (Eastern time). This gives you ample time to campaign for your pick over the holidays (but please, please, please don’t cheat).

Thanks to all the entrants and nominators, good luck to the finalists, and happy holidays to everyone! Above the Law is happy to celebrate holiday cheer with you!

Federal regulators are hoping to thwart a large diagnostics company’s efforts to acquire a smaller firm in the same space, saying that it is a move to reduce competition in the market.

The Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday that it would seek to block San Diego-based Illumina’s $1.2 billion deal to acquire Menlo Park, California-based Pacific Biosciences of California, also known as PacBio, alleging that Illumina had sought to eliminate PacBio as a potential competitor in the next-generation sequencing systems industry and thus unlawfully maintain a monopoly position in the U.S. market.

Shares of PacBio fell more than 8% on the Nasdaq when markets opened Wednesday.

The deal was originally announced in November of last year. At the time, Illumina said that buying PacBio would enable it to enter the long-read segment of the next-generation sequencing market, in addition to the short-read market in which it is already a leader. PacBio is considered one of the dominant players in long-read sequencing technology, which enables the retrieval of sequences that can be thousands of base pairs longer than those retrieved through short-read sequencing. The FTC acknowledged that Illumina employs short-read sequencing technology, while PacBio sells systems that use long-read sequencing.

Illumina objected to the FTC’s move. “We strongly disagree with the FTC’s decision and will continue to work through the regulatory approval process as we consider next steps,” read an emailed statement from the company. “We believe that the acquisition will benefit the industry and customers, and the facts of our proposed transaction support this.”

The FTC had alleged that the proposed deal is illegal because it may lessen competition in the U.S. market for NGS by eliminating competition and preventing future competition between Illumina and PacBio. In response, the commission said it would seek a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction in federal court.

“When a monopolist buys a potential rival, it can harm competition,” FTC Bureau of Competition Deputy Director Gail Levine said in a statement. “These deals help monopolists maintain power. That’s why we’re challenging this acquisition.”

Photo: Ekkaluck, Getty Images

Today, corporations are under unprecedented scrutiny.  Companies are being investigated not only by federal, state, and foreign government agencies, but also by private plaintiffs in a wide variety of litigations that place corporate conduct under a microscope.  In today’s increasingly intricate international legal and regulatory environment, investigations are more crucial — and complicated — than ever. We here at Above the Law partnered with our friends at H5 to take a deeper dive into the investigations space in order to better understand this intricate landscape. We took an in-depth look at the principal actors and their perception of trends, differences among categories of investigations — such as due diligence, cybersecurity, employee/workplace, and regulatory matters — and how those might vary within industries and across companies of different sizes.

In order to gain a better understanding of the investigations space, we fielded a survey targeting those in all roles and at all stages of investigatory process. We heard from those involved with the management and strategy of investigations, those whose responsibility it is to select and manage vendors and resources, and those who respond to investigations — and asked them to share their experiences on everything from how technological tools are leveraged to how they see the field changing in coming years. 

Download the report to read about the insights they shared and the future they see coming!

The word from Washington when it comes to bookkeeping is, to quote Bad Religion: Do what you want, but don’t do it around me. Want to invent a bespoke accounting standards to make your results, whatever they are, look the way you want? Fine, just don’t ask us about it. Don’t want to hire an outside auditor? Make sure the aforementioned methods show you have less than $100 million in revenue. Whichever way you decide to go, they’re probably not gonna double-check your work.

Now, that sort of thing may fly here in the Land of the Free, but in 140 other benighted countries, they’re forced to deal with things like reality and hard figures. And now, three more hard figures. With no creative wiggle room. Bummer.

I am the “crier” in the family. I wear it all on my sleeve. I shed tears at movie trailers. A few notes of music can turn me into a blubbering mess. Anything that takes me back to a specific memory of growing up with my brothers or a moment with my late father is a sure thing to open the spigot. A mental video of walking my late beagle, Peanut. A dead animal in the road.

It is who I am. It is who I have always been. More recently, biweekly trips to my father’s gravesite have turned into “cry-therapy” for me. At first, it was loss and the grief missing him. That, of course, is still present, but is now more than that. It is quiet. It is secluded. It is a safe place to reach down deep into my childhood and let that little boy cry. I am not talking about little whimpers. I unleash gut-wrenching howls of the past that could wake the dead. It is therapeutic for me.  Crying is a form of self-care for me. Studies tell us that it can be a good thing as a mood enhancer.

For a therapist viewpoint, I reached out to Maeve O’Neill, MEd, LCDC, LPC-S, CHC, CDWF/CDTLF. She says:

As a therapist we learn to hold space and sit with people deep in emotion and often that includes crying tears of joy or sadness. I remember early in my career, I would fight back tears of my own as I sat with people crying, thinking I needed to be stronger and not emotional for them. After 30 years of working with people in need I have come to believe that crying tears is a therapeutic process in itself. Allowing other and ourselves to let the tears flow rather than holding them back is much more helpful. There is therapeutic value in crying. 

The value lies in the fact that crying is a release of emotions that our body is best to process rather than hold inside. I discovered this true value when I started mediating on a regular basis and often times found myself tearful and crying while meditating. I didn’t at first understand why I would cry during mediation but when I shared it with others, I found they also experienced the same things. When we slow down enough in heart and minds the tears flow freely as our brains process all the emotions we have felt or even more likely repressed.

The act of crying is a natural response to our body feeling some emotions.  It is our cultural response that shuts down tears by telling children not to cry or to quickly giving someone a tissue to stop their tears the second they start. But the physical and mental benefits of crying have been documented by research to include its soothing effects, it lets others know we need support, releases tensions and can improve our moods. 

In my years of clinical practice, I was able to see these benefits in patients at all levels of care. Often, we would see the person breaking down into tears as the point they opened up to the therapeutic process. I have a clear memory of a young person in treatment for addiction who started crying in a group and the counselors saying “welcome to treatment” as it was an indicator that the person was now engaged, less resistant and more open to all the good stuff to come. 

As people not in treatment and as professionals we are often not as open to letting the tears flow but perhaps, we could also benefit, and it would open the door to our own therapeutic benefit of more joyful lives!

When was the last time you had a good cry? Do you feel better afterwards? I’m off to a safe space to shed some tears.  I know I will.

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Brian Cuban (@bcuban) is The Addicted Lawyer. Brian is the author of the Amazon best-selling book, The Addicted Lawyer: Tales Of The Bar, Booze, Blow & Redemption (affiliate link). A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, he somehow made it through as an alcoholic then added cocaine to his résumé as a practicing attorney. He went into recovery April 8, 2007. He left the practice of law and now writes and speaks on recovery topics, not only for the legal profession, but on recovery in general. He can be reached at brian@addictedlawyer.com.