Author: TSA Press

Kim Kardashian’s kwest to esquire kontinues!

As many who frequent Above the Law already know, Kim Kardashian wants to be a lawyer. Though she isn’t actually in law school (not having a bachelor’s degree makes that tough), she is studying via apprenticeship to be a lawyer with plans to take the bar exam in 2022.

Of course, because it is Kim, she’s taken to social media to document the process. She shared a criminal law issue spotter that cast Justin Bieber as a criminal mastermind, complained about the fact that law student life sucks, explained that she neglected her Keeping Up With the Kardashians livetweeting duties to keep up with torts homework, and she bailed on summer holiday festivities as she continued with her contracts homework. She even has a favorite law professor — University of Washington contracts professor Steve Calandrillo — who she’s shouted out on Insta.

Up next in Kim’s law school(ish) adventures is studying for the California baby bar. She’ll need to pass that exam if she wants to continue her studies, so it’s a top priority. According to Kim’s Instagram stories, she’s really been buckling down and studying all the time: “When I even have an hour off, I do all the test questions and practice.” What’s made the experience uniquely Kardashian is test questions that are tailored exactly to her.

That’s right, thanks to bar prep company JD Advising, Kim’s been working on sample Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) questions written all about her and her family. Obviously, as she posted on Insta, she loved it, saying, “They gear them towards me and my products — stuff to really help me understand.”

So, do you think you can ace the Kardashian spin on bar prep? Here are a few of the personalized questions you can try your hand at:

Kim spent her Labor Day studying Contract law. She was feeling tired and stressed out so her husband, Kanye, decided to surprise her with a deluxe spa package from her favorite spa. He purchased the spa package for Kim and told the spa Kim would be contacting the spa to set up an appointment at the day and time of her choosing.

On the day that Kim went to the spa for her scheduled appointment, the spa did not have the ingredients for the facial that came in the deluxe spa package.

If Kim sues the spa for breach of contract, will she be successful?

(A) No, because Kanye, not Kim, entered into the contract with the spa.
(B) No, unless Kim could show that she detrimentally relied on the contract.
(C) Yes, if the spa was not able to substitute an ingredient of similar value.
(D) Yes, as an intended third-party beneficiary.

And a crim law question to try:

A woman was driving, distracted by the Kim Kardashian: Hollywood app on her phone. She was so distracted that she inadvertently hit a construction worker. The construction worker was injured and went to the Intensive Care Unit at the local hospital. However, the construction worker survived.

Is the woman guilty of attempted murder in a common law jurisdiction?

(A) Yes, she is guilty of attempted murder in the first degree.
(B) Yes, she is guilty of attempted murder in the second degree.
(C) No, because she did not have the specific intent.
(D) No, because she did not come dangerously close to committing the crime.

And don’t forget about torts:

A man wanted to impress a woman who he knew was a huge Kim Kardashian West fan. The man knew that the woman was especially delighted by the fact that Kanye West had taken Kim to Las Vegas to see Celine Dion on their five-year anniversary. The woman mentioned this to the man.

The man decided to make the woman a Celine Dion playlist. He asked the woman out to lunch. She said yes. He gave her the Celine Dion playlist at the lunch and she was impressed.

When lunch was over, the man kissed the woman. The woman did not realize that the man thought they were on a date. She did not want to be kissed by the man.

Is the man liable for battery?

(A) Yes, because his acts constituted an offensive touching of another.
(B) Yes, because it was not reasonable to believe that going out to lunch constitutes a date.
(C) No, because the woman was not harmed in any way.
(D) No, if the man was reasonable in believing that the woman consented to the kiss.

Check out the answers to these questions — plus a bunch more — over at JD Advising’s website.

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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).

There are a few conversations that I hear among my colleagues every day. Often, they revolve around a theme of collaboration, with phrases like “we are very collaborative” and “we are looking for a collaborative solution.” Bu these phrases seem to have a different meaning every time.

The word “collaborative” is one of the most overused, vague buzzwords that everyone seems to throw around today just to improve appearances. As long as you add “collaboration” –- to project, technology, process, behavior, or anything else –- it must be a positive development. Just adding that word alone must make it fit the definition of twenty-first-century lawyering, right?!

When it comes to a “collaboration” discussion, I love asking “how” and “why.” This is where your law school skills and, in my case, experiences as a litigator in a past life, come in handy. After all, you can take a woman out of the law, but not the law skills out of the woman.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself when evaluating your own collaboration process.

How: Sequential v. Simultaneous

First, when discussing collaboration, I like to understand whether it is sequential or simultaneous. In other words, do we take turns, or do we work together at the same place and time?

Sequential collaboration systems –- for example, check-in and check-out –- is a form of a ticketing system. It is akin to the ticket you get before waiting in line at the DMV or a sandwich shop and hold onto until your number is called. Such a dated system is not collaborative, at least in the true sense of the word. It is aimed at creating order in an otherwise complex situation.

Simultaneous collaboration is very different. It allows different stakeholders to be at the same place, at the same time, contributing together. Simultaneous collaboration is an opportunity to gain multiple efficiencies because everyone is speaking to each other in real time. These are not available with the sequential, ticketing system.

Who: Within the Legal Organization? With Others in the Company? With Stakeholders Outside of the Company?

Second, who will be collaborating? Is the collaboration limited to employees within your legal department or does it reach the rest of your company? Does it allow outside stakeholders to chime in? Increasingly, we create multi-stakeholder mashups where contributors from inside and outside of your organization contribute to the final product

Relatedly, if you allow collaboration of multi-stakeholders, then it is worth asking on what terms and how deeply. Will everyone participate equally? Will anyone have an approval — and veto — power? Will anyone be allowed to observe and chime in? Importantly, who makes the final decision and under what circumstances? Is there anyone who leads the collaborative process?

Of course, as with any subject, there are no shortage of questions you can ask about “collaboration.” In my experience, focusing on “how” and “why” gets me closer to understanding what collaboration means in a specific context. The bottom line is this — a lot of substance is lost when buzzwords are thrown around. Your training and experiences as a lawyer more than equip you to have a substantive, clear conversation, not a superficial one.

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Olga V. Mack is the CEO of Parley Pro, a next-generation contract management company that has pioneered online negotiation technology. Olga embraces legal innovation and had dedicated her career to improving and shaping the future of law. She is convinced that the legal profession will emerge even stronger, more resilient, and more inclusive than before by embracing technology. Olga is also an award-winning general counsel, operations professional, startup advisor, public speaker, adjunct professor, and entrepreneur. Olga founded the Women Serve on Boards movement that advocates for women to participate on corporate boards of Fortune 500 companies. Olga also co-founded SunLaw, an organization dedicated to preparing women in-house attorneys to become general counsels and legal leaders, and WISE to help female law firm partners become rainmakers. She authored Get on Board: Earning Your Ticket to a Corporate Board Seat and Fundamentals of Smart Contract Security. You can email Olga at olga@olgamack.com or follow her on Twitter @olgavmack. 

Here at Above the Law, we know how difficult it can be to have children and successfully return to work, so we make it a habit to applaud the expansion of Biglaw firms’ parental leave programs — especially if they’re gender neutral and applicable to all firm personnel, from staff members to associates. What we rarely have the opportunity to praise are firms that offer health benefits that include fertility treatments and family-planning services — not because these benefits don’t exist, but because they’re not publicized as often as parental leave plans are.

Hearing that you need assistance to conceive a child can be heartbreaking, and paying for the assistance can be financially out of reach, even for Biglaw employees. That’s why benefits covering fertility and family-planning services are viewed as major perks.

Which firm is willing to step up and assist its associates and staff members when it comes to starting families? It’s Weil Gotshal, and firm management says diversity is at the heart of these offerings. The American Lawyer has the details on Weil’s offerings:

Through a partnership with the fertility management firm WINFertility, both non-J.D. professionals and attorneys enrolled in Weil’s health benefits plan can elect to do up to three in vitro fertilization cycles. On average, one IVF cycle costs $10,000 in the U.S.

Additionally, employees are being offered elective egg freezing with one free year of storage, a benefit specifically requested by several firm lawyers.

The firm will also reimburse its attorneys and staff looking to adopt or conceive through surrogacy up to $25,000 per event and offer a slew of adoption and surrogacy specialists. The average U.S. adoption costs around $40,000 and surrogacy, on average, costs between $75,000 to over $100,000.

These benefits, along with other recently announced services, are part of Weil’s plans to compete in the Biglaw benefits arms race to attract and retain diverse employees.

“I think in part this is about attracting diverse talent to make sure that this is the kind of firm that will support them in any way that they want to build their family in the future. It’s also a retention tool to let them know that we support them throughout their lives,” [Meredith] Moore, [Weil’s director of diversity and inclusion,] said.

Kudos to Weil on its new family-friendly suite of benefit offerings. This is something we’ll keep an eye on as firms continue to cater to work-life balance requests from millennial employees and diversity demands from clients. Hopefully your firm is will decide to offer important benefit policies like these soon if it’s not doing so already.

Weil Rolls Out Firmwide Adoption and Fertility Reimbursements [American Lawyer]

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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.

While reports say law firms are still killing it out there, law firm leaders have already expressed deep concern over the economic outlook. Could firms be staring down another massive recession? Well, if history is any guide, the first harbinger of troubling economic times will be the stealth layoffs — a string of departures chalked up to vague “performance issues” designed to clear the decks while arousing minimal attention.

At this point, we don’t have enough intel from tipsters to confirm what’s going on at this particular firm, but if this blind item sounds like your firm, please let us know with a confidential email to tips@abovethelaw.com. Don’t worry, we’re not going to reveal our sources.

The whispers we’ve heard is that a top global law firm is quietly laying off attorneys in the United States after failing to secure a merger partner last year. If true, this could reflect a botched growth strategy because as recently as a few months ago, the firm was expanding in its U.S. presence.

Beyond the layoffs, one tipster suggests the firm is shortchanging the associates it is keeping on the payroll. According to this report, some attorneys are being docked class years when it comes to pay while still being billed out at their actual seniority. That would just be a naked profit grab. This tipster said some attorneys were being docked as much as two classes. A fifth-year getting knocked back down to a third-year would be a $60K pay cut.

As we said, with only anonymous tips so far, we can’t definitively say that this is a firm policy as opposed to isolated incidents that might have an innocent explanation. But if a major firm is already walking down this road, could an industry-wide rough patch be far behind?

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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.

Your bad: Send me a few emails praising my column on trial strategy, and I’m likely to crank out more of those columns.

Like this one.

Here’s a thought on picking experts at trial.

Do not necessarily pick the most qualified person. Pick the expert who will resonate with the jury.

Here’s the story:

The question at trial was the value of a piece of African art.

The other side retained a leading expert in the field. She was the curator of the African art collection at a prominent European museum. She testified in French; a translator gave the English version of her testimony.

(At the start of her direct testimony, plaintiff’s counsel, who spoke fluent French, chatted with her for a while in French: Voulez vous this and parley vous that. The judge finally broke it up: “Okay. We have to conduct proceedings in this court in English.” I get up on cross: “Bonjour, madam.  Bonjour and soup du jour; that’s all my French.” You can go high or go low. I’m a low kind of guy.)

Anyway, we couldn’t find any curators of fancy museums to serve as our expert, so we hired a guy who taught college art and was a regular on the television series “Antiques Roadshow.”

We put our guy in the box.

He started giving his credentials.

He says that he appears on “Antiques Roadshow.”

The judge picks up his gavel, holds it in his hand, and says, “How much is this worth?”

Everyone smiles.

I’m doing my best to restrain myself. This whole trial turns on credibility. The curator says the piece of art is worth a fortune; our guy says that it’s junk.  And the judge just endorsed the credibility of our guy. The judge’s comment may have been a joke, but the judge asked our guy to put a value on something.

That can’t hurt.

The jurors look up.

We hear one of them whisper, “I’ve seen that guy on TV.”

Our guy finishes his testimony.

He hangs around for the last day of trial.

After the verdict, jurors are asking him for his autograph.

Who do you think won the case?

Remember: You may prefer a local expert to a national (or international) one.  An expert from the local state university is often better than an expert from Oxford. You may prefer a person with street cred to a person with academic credentials.

And the person with the most Ph.D.s is not necessarily the best expert witness.

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Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and is now deputy general counsel at a large international company. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy (affiliate links). You can reach him by email at inhouse@abovethelaw.com.

* The lawyer for Jeffrey Epstein’s guard accused of slacking off on the night of Epstein’s death had a shouting match with a federal judge over a planned vacation to Italy. Hey, everyone deserves some time off. [New York Post]

* Burger King is facing a new class action lawsuit about the contents of its meatless burgers. [Fox News]

* The District of Columbia is getting a new top federal prosecutor. [Wall Street Journal]

* A new lawsuit against Boeing claims that contaminated air might be present on flights involving many of the company’s planes. [MSN]

* Jeff Bezos is being sued by his girlfriend’s brother. Should make for some interesting family dinners. [New York Times]

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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.

ZIMBABWE, BULAWAYO – Cattle have long been a symbol of wealth in Zimbabwe.

But these days, in the chaos of the struggling economy and the increasing impact of climate change, cattle farmers face a difficult choice: sell off their herd or butcher them to sell the meat.

“I am greatly worried about my herd of cattle,” says Nkosilathi Ndlovu, who used to own a herd of 80 cattle in the Matabeleland North province, several hours north of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second-largest city. “I sold five cattle early in the year, and it seems I may be forced to sell more.”

Cattle are highly reliant on crop residues and pasture, both of which have been affected by Zimbabwe’s changing climate, marked by unpredictable rainfall patterns. Rains that should have started in October 2019 have not yet come. And temperatures were hotter in 2019, which meant that pastures quickly dried up.

Ndlovu says his cattle no longer have pastures on which to graze due to the drought.

Zimbabwe’s current beef cattle herd is estimated at more than 5 million head, according to the Beef Value Chain Analysis report published in January 2019 by the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development known as CIRAD and the Natural Resources Institute of the University of Greenwich. But the average weight of cattle here has declined from an average of 200 kilograms (440 pounds) to 167 kilograms (368 pounds). About 700,000 cattle died during the 2016-17 drought. Similar figures are expected this year.

Destocking, or reducing the number of livestock from a range, can be a way to adapt to climate change, although a functional market should be in place, according to a 2017 Zimbabwe Human Development report.

Farmers like Ndlovu are destocking, selling a portion of their livestock in order to buy supplementary feed to save the rest of their herd.

But with inflation up – by more than 175% earlier in 2019, before the government stopped publishing inflation rates – the price of cattle feed is skyrocketing too.

In June, Ndlovu says he paid 800 Zimbabwean dollars (ZWL) ($66) for feed. By November, the price was more than 2,000 ZWL ($167), a more than 150% increase.

“Prices are spiralling out of control. Supplementary feed goes up regularly,” Ndlovu says, adding that the country’s years-long cash shortage only makes matters worse.

Across Bulawayo, ingredients for cattle feed have become increasingly expensive at the city’s four feed companies, which now focus more on poultry feed.

“Destocking has proved painful for most farmers,” says Winston Babbage, a representative of the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union. “However, it also means once you destock, you can buy supplementary feed for the young beasts and then get a good price for them when they are healthy.”

For those who choose to slaughter their cattle, there is a more immediate cash reward as beef prices also are on the rise. One kilogram (2 pounds) of beef now ranges between 100 ZWL ($8) and 200 ZWL ($17).

“Beef has become a luxury as it is currently the most expensive meat compared to chicken,” says Ruth Shoko, an East Queens Park resident.

Destocking also has social implications here, where cattle play a central role in social, traditional and religious life. Most bride prices still are paid using cattle. And cattle are traditionally slaughtered for the birth of a first child.

“This situation is more of a double tragedy,” says Nomalizwe Ngulube, a cattle owner in Matabeleland South province.

Methuseli Mdluli, a cattle owner with a herd of about 200, agrees: “Cattle have always been and still are a symbol of wealth and social power in our cultures. It is difficult for me to sell my cattle simply because I am being forced by circumstances.”

Still, cattle farmers may need to consider even more dramatic solutions, says Justice Zvaita, a Bulawayo representative for the Zimbabwe Climate Change Coalition. The coalition encourages farmers to breed small livestock, such as goats and free-range chickens, which are more adaptable to harsh conditions.

Fortune Moyo GPJ, translated some of the interviews from IsiNdebele.

Olkkonen noted that the recommendations of the Motlanthe Commission into the post-election shootings in Harare and the recommendations by various election commissions had been ignored.

He observed that if there had been a functioning, viable agricultural sector Zimbabwe would not need outside support. ‘Likewise in the economic sector what we are seeing is a result of years and years of mismanagement and it requires a head-on tackling of issues such as corruption’.

The ambassador repeated the need for political stakeholders to come together to talk about how to go forward as a nation. But, despite the deepening economic crisis, this seems to be as far away as ever. MDC leader Nelson Chamisa has just returned from a visit to South Africa where he had talks with senior government officials and former President Mbekei.

Chamisa said he had told them that the situation in Zimbabwe was threatening to degenerate into complete chaos unless there was immediate intervention. He reported Mbeki as saying that there was a shared anxiety in the region and on the continent and that he would be coming back to Zimbabwe soon to resume the talks he’d begun there last month.

The Zimbabwean Foreign Ministry is meanwhile briefing emissaries from the controversial Political Actors’ Dialogue (POLAD) made up of leaders of fringe opposition parties, who are being sent on visits to several countries. Chamisa has refused to take part in POLAD, claiming it is unrepresentative and a government stooge (see: https://www.newsday.co.zw/2020/01/eu-bemoans-slow-pace-of-reforms/).

Two influential US senators have called on their government to update sanctions against Zimbabwe. They said: ‘While the United States has been the top provider of humanitarian and development aid to meet the needs of Zimbabwe’s people, the government of Zimbabwe has implemented a misinformation campaign blaming the country’s woes on targeted sanctions . . . given the developments in Zimbabwe over the last two years, we urge you to consider enhancing the tools at your disposal, including the use of targeted sanctions, to incentivize changes in behaviour by the government of Zimbabwe.’ (See: https://iharare.com/us-calls-for-more-sanctions-on-zim/).

Other points

• Given the high unemployment rate, it seems odd that – as reported by the Masvingo Mirror – there is a critical shortage of maids, posing a problem for working mothers in particular. There is a similar shortage of farm labourers caused by mass emigration. Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions’ President Peter Mutasa said the local currency had lost so much value that maids found it pointless to work for RTGS $100, which is now only worth US$5. For an insight into how Zanu PF has exploited the currency crisis to enrich itself see the article by Thandekile Moyo: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-01-28-zimbabwes-economy-is-run-by-master-criminals-who-are-fleecing-the-poor/.
• Thanks to those who came early to help set up the front table and put up the banners: Happy Chazuza, Jonathan Kariwo, Godfrey Katerere, Rosemary Maponga, Washington Mugari, Esther Munyira, Tapiwa Muskwe, Mary Muteyerwa, Ephraim Tapa, Kevin Wheeldon and Nattalie Zvoma. Thanks to Rosemary Maponga and Farai Mutumburi for looking after the front table, to Kevin, Nattalie, Esther and Elleriah Saili for handing out flyers, to Mary, Delice Gavazah and Ephraim for drumming and to Jonathan for photos. Thanks also to Rosemary for bringing tea, coffee and cakes.
• For latest Vigil pictures check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimb88abwevigil/. Please note: Vigil photos can only be downloaded from our Flickr website

FOR THE RECORD: 18­­­ signed the register.

EVENTS AND NOTICES:

• ROHR Valentine’s fundraising dinner dance. Saturday 15^th February from 6 pm till late. Venue: 38 Marcon Place, London E8 1LP. The event is in aid of women living with HIV/AIDS in rural Zimbabwe. Tickets £30. Contact: Esther Munyira 07492058107, Molly Ngavaimbe 07415443973, Patricia Masamba 07708116625 and Margaret Munenge 07384300283.
• The Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe (ROHR) is the Vigil’s partner organization based in Zimbabwe. ROHR grew out of the need for the Vigil to have an organization on the ground in Zimbabwe which reflected the Vigil’s mission statement in a practical way. ROHR in the UK actively fundraises through membership subscriptions, events, sales etc to support the activities of ROHR in Zimbabwe. Please note that the official website of ROHR Zimbabwe is http://www.rohrzimbabwe.org/. Any other website claiming to be the official website of ROHR in no way represents us.
• The Vigil’s book ‘Zimbabwe Emergency’ is based on our weekly diaries. It records how events in Zimbabwe have unfolded as seen by the diaspora in the UK. It chronicles the economic disintegration, violence, growing oppression and political manoeuvring – and the tragic human cost involved. It is available at the Vigil. All proceeds go to the Vigil and our sister organisation the Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe’s work in Zimbabwe. The book is also available from Amazon.
• Facebook pages:
  

The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place every Saturday from 14.00 to 17.00 to protest against gross violations of human rights in Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in October 2002 will continue until internationally-monitored, free and fair elections are held in Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk.

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