Author: TSA Press

Under cover of overruling ‘only’ a single decision, today’s opinion smashes a hundred-plus years of legal rulings to smithereens.

— Justice Elena Kagan, expressing her concern in a 19-page dissent in the 5-4 decision of Knick v. Township of Scott, that the Supreme Court has done away with yet another precedent this term, this time in a takings case.

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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.

Gary Farris, the group leader of Burr & Forman’s lending practice group, was killed in 2018. According to investigators, Farris was shot and then his body burned. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s crime lab recently completed their autopsy report, and while the badly burned body created challenges for the medical investigators, law enforcement has arrested a suspect. Farris’s wife, Melody Farris, has been charged with malice murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and concealing the death of another.

As reported by Law.com, investigators believe the killing was the result of marital issues:

[Cherokee County sheriff’s Capt. Jay] Baker said Melody Farris was charged after sheriff’s investigators “recovered evidence indicating Ms. Farris shot and killed her husband inside their home and then tried to dispose of his body and evidence by burning it on their… property.”

He said that at the time, “It appears that the Farrises had been having some marital issues. … Basically we believe it culminated in a homicide.”

Melody Farris was arrested on Tuesday night in Tullahoma, Tennessee, and was extradited to Georgia. Though she has not yet entered her plea, according to one of her attorneys, Manny Arora, she maintains her innocence. However, according to a statement by one of the couple’s children, Chris Farris, to the Atlanta Constitution Journal, most of the children do not support their mother:

“Our father was the best person in the world,” Chris Farris said late Thursday. He disputed a claim by one of his mother’s attorneys that Melody Farris’ family was standing behind her. “We are shaken.”
“This is very embarrassing for our family,” he continued.

Melody Farris will be making her first appearance before Cherokee County Magistrate Court Chief Judge James Drane later today.

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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).

After 12 years of grade school, four years of college, three years of law school, and eight years grinding as an associate, you finally make partner… and you are underwhelmed. After so much time, effort, and cost, how could you even consider any alternatives? This perspective is normal, but not necessarily rational; instead, it’s cognitive dissonance rearing its ugly head as effort justification, the phenomenon whereby we inflate the value of outcomes we have worked hard to attain, regardless of their true value. Ultimately, that effort is not a true justification, but our way of reducing this cognitive conflict. Unhappiness is unhappiness is unhappiness, and if you are unhappy, then it may be time to consider other options.

The good news is, there are other avenues that utilize the skills you have cultivated over all of those years of schooling and work, without sacrificing pay. Top legal recruiters are compensated comparably to Am Law 200 partners, but without the pesky billable-hour requirements. Both get paid based on their book of business (i.e., eat what you kill) and maintain a stable of relationships that help them bring in business.

I along with many of my colleagues, started out as attorneys at Am Law 200 firms. Throughout the last 15 years as the CEO of Lateral Link, I have found that recruiting is not only personally rewarding, but also very lucrative if you have a fire in your belly. Between the money, flexible hours, collaborative atmosphere, and meaningful work, legal recruiting offers the same upside as partnership with a law firm but without the billable-hour requirement.

Here are some questions that may cross your mind when considering the legal recruiting career:

Can I improve my entrepreneurial skills?

An eat-what-you-kill system is not for everyone and sounds daunting, but the upside is that you are rewarded for your performance. As an associate in Biglaw, it doesn’t matter if you go 15 rounds with Ivan Drago or two rounds; more or less you will get paid the same for hitting close to your hours.  That’s a safe place for most attorneys. Countless times, I hear attorneys say they want to go on the business side — I just hardly ever see them take the leap. In legal recruiting, you are not paid strictly for putting in the hours. You are paid for performance. The better you perform, the higher the ceiling. The point is, legal recruiting scales with effort; if you are a high performer, you can expect compensation comparable to a partner.

 What will my hours look like?

Law is undoubtedly an inflexible industry that has relented somewhat in recent years. With rates easily reaching double the minimum wage, per minute, every minute of every day counts. The more hours you work, the more productive you are for the firm. The workplace can oftentimes be unforgiving for attorneys seeking maternity leave or reduced hours for other reasons. In recruiting, our schedules are much more flexible. Can you slack off? No, but you won’t be up at 4 a.m., Monday morning, writing a motion for summary judgment while testing the toxic potential of the new Redbull/Yerba Mate/Monster mixer you concocted to ward off 40 straight hours of mental exertion.

We have many working mothers and fathers who work from home or schedule their work around their kids so that they can maintain their home life while supporting their family.

How much will I really get paid?

The compensation system is extremely rewarding for legal recruiting. We pay our recruiters between 50-70 percent of the business they generate. At Lateral Link, we pay above the market rate, and our effective commission is tiered in an increasing structure with an average rate of 60 percent that benefits a recruiter who brings in more business. Our average recruiter makes more than the average Biglaw associate while getting the opportunity to maintain more of a personal life outside the office. The best part is that you get paid to help people with their careers.

At the higher level, our high performers make what partners earn at Biglaw firms. One deal for a partner with $2 million compensation alone can generate $350,000 for the recruiter’s personal commission. On an average deal, our recruiters will earn around $1,583 for every hour spent on the deal. Of course, deals are not consistently consummated, and much like law practice, not every hour is billable (in this loose sense) — but the time spent on fostering relationships and researching the market is hardly dull or a waste of time.

What is the legal recruiting culture like?

Although not all recruiting firms are similarly situated and I can only speak for Lateral Link, in the recruiting world, inexperience is greeted with constructive help rather than disdain. We work together to help one another and many of the deals we facilitate are split between two recruiters who tackled the task together. For example, my colleague Ryan Belville and I are working on a few possible law firm combinations. Two other colleagues, Bruce Lubin and Zach Sandberg, are working on an acquisition in Mexico City. Many of my colleagues work across regions given local knowledge and relationships. My point is that we work as a team. Our team even meets up every year from all four corners of the globe to enjoy a company retreat together at a rotating location.

It sounds pretty easy, right? Not really. Recruiting is not the easy money that it might sound like. You have to work hard every day to foster relationships and keep up with hundreds of people all the time. If you don’t like people, you won’t like recruiting. You also could go several months without a single placement and then have four in the span of one week. The good news is, our team is hiring. If you think you sound like a good fit for legal recruiting, feel free to send us your résumé at resume@laterallink.com.

Ed. note: This is the latest installment in a series of posts from Mainspring Legal’s team of expert contributors. Michael Allen is the CEO of Mainspring Legal. He is based in the Los Angeles office and focuses exclusively on Partner and General Counsel placements for top firms and companies. Prior to founding Lateral Link in 2006, he worked as an attorney at both Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and Irell & Manella LLP. Michael graduated summa cum laude from the University of California, San Diego before earning his JD, cum laude, from Harvard Law School.

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Lateral Link is one of the top-rated international legal recruiting firms. With over 14 offices world-wide, Lateral Link specializes in placing attorneys at the most prestigious law firms and companies in the world. Managed by former practicing attorneys from top law schools, Lateral Link has a tradition of hiring lawyers to execute the lateral leaps of practicing attorneys. Click here to find out more about us.

The 2,400-megawatt Batoka Gorge plant has been planned for years by the two southern African nations, both of which are struggling with electricity shortages after a drought curbed hydropower output. General Electric and Power China are in a consortium that was shortlisted in February to build the facility.

“Zambia and Zimbabwe have agreed on this project. We have all agreed that we give it to GE — China Power and GE together,” Mnangagwa said in an interview in Maputo, Mozambique’s capital, where he attended this week’s U.S.-Africa Business Summit. “It’s critical that we move fast on that front because it’s necessary that as we industrialize that we need electricity.”

While the project will address electricity shortages, it’s on the same river — the Zambezi — that has left the downstream Kariba hydropower dam at less than 30% storage capacity and producing less than half its intended electricity. The Zambezi’s water flows in 2019 are near the lowest in half a century, and even worse than during the last severe drought in 2014-15.

Because Batoka Gorge will have a much smaller storage capacity than Kariba — which is the world’s biggest man-made freshwater reservoir — droughts could pose greater risks to the planned project.

While a formal contract has not been signed, GE said that the Zambezi River Authority, which manages power plants on the river, has said it would appoint a final developer for the project by September. As part of the consortium, GE would have a “material role in the development and execution of the project,” including the design and supply of hydropower technologies, it said by email.

Zambian Energy Minister Matthew Nkhuwa said he wasn’t available to comment. The project will be based on a build-operate-transfer financing model and won’t put any fiscal strain on the two nations’ governments, Nkhuwa said in February.

The $4 billion cost of the project includes amounts for civil works, construction and power turbines, among other things, GE said on Thursday. The contract would be split among the companies in the consortium. The African Development Bank said in September it has begun mobilizing funds for the plant.

Other bidders that had been shortlisted included Salini Impregilo SpA of Italy and a joint venture comprising China Three Gorges Corp., China International Water & Electric Corp. and China Gezhouba Group Co., according to Nkhuwa.

A motorist counts money as he queues for petrol in Harare, Zimbabwe, January 18, 2019. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo

The RTGS dollar has plunged 60% against the U.S. dollar since its introduction in February, and public sector workers’ demands for a second pay rise this year could undermine a government drive to convince lenders of its fiscal discipline.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa won a disputed election last year on a promise to revive a Zimbabwe economy shattered by decades of mismanagement by his ousted predecessor Robert Mugabe.

But a year later daily life is harder. Ordinary Zimbabweans are enduring a severe shortage of U.S. dollars, fuel, medicines, bread and daily power cuts that last 10 hours.

The RTGS dollar, introduced by the government on Feb. 22 as the first step towards a new currency by year-end, traded at 10.5 to the U.S. dollar on Thursday, 14.3% lower than a week ago.

On the official interbank rate, the RTGS currency was pegged at 6.2 compared to 5.9 a week ago.

Zimbabwe formally adopted the U.S. dollar as its official currency in January 2009, when most Zimbabweans had already ditched the hyperinflation-wrecked Zimbabwe Dollar. A decade later, analysts see the same situation repeating itself.

More than 80% of Zimbabweans earn RTGS dollars but from bricks to rentals, car parts and many grocers, prices are now pegged in U.S. dollars.

That has seen inflation race to 97.86% in May, its highest level in a decade, eroding salaries and savings and causing Zimbabweans to fear a return to the hyperinflation of 2008 when the rate reached 500 billion percent, leaving many destitute.

“I earn 400 RTGS$, where do I get the U.S. dollar? The government should fix this before we all die,” said Robson Ndiringepi, a security guard manning a supermarket in Harare.

Public sector workers are negotiating a salary hike, the second this year, which the justice minister told parliament on Wednesday would be announced soon.

That would put more pressure on the state budget just as the government has started a monitoring programme with the International Monetary Fund in a bid to create a track record of fiscal discipline that could secure it future funding.

Patrick Imam, IMF resident representative in Zimbabwe said the central bank should quickly allow the RTGS dollar to float freely, allow exporters to sell dollars at the interbank rate rather than surrender them to the central bank, and raise interest rates to curb inflation and avoid “spontaneous re-dollarisation.”

“Everyone now anticipates the RTGS dollar will weaken further, so businesses increase prices and workers demand more and the cycle continues. We are chasing our tails,” John Robertson, a Harare-based economist said.

Post published in: Business

Telecom officials of the Zimbabwean administration conducted in-depth communication and exchange with the Chinese telecom authority and major operators, and achieved full, constructive consensus, laying a solid foundation for in-depth cooperation between the two sides in the future.

As an international telecom investor with strong competence in the Asia-Pacific region, Gold Grace’s business portfolio includes telecom investment, service operation and platform development. The invitation to the Zimbabwean delegation this time is to discuss future development trends in international telecom industry and serves as an important step for the overall endeavor targeting domestic and foreign markets.

Gold Grace is headquartered in Hong Kong and has an extensive reach with footprints covering Asia-Pacific, Africa and Greater China regions. It has operations in multiple countries including Indonesia, Myanmar, Zimbabwe and Cambodia. With the vigorous development of the global telecom industry, Gold Grace has become a dark horse in industry investment and development. It has maintained good communication and in-depth cooperation with local telecommunications authorities and operators and has already established stable partnerships with well-known businesses including  Poly Changda, Datang Telecom, China Telecom Global, CITIC Group, and China Broadcast Network.

The global telecommunications industry has entered the fast track of development. An effective ecosystem linking all relevant industry chains is becoming the shared goal of all parties through dynamic deployment and development. With the advent of the 5G era, countries around the world have all prioritized 5G as a national strategy and kept their momentum in technology research and development, operation, investment and other related areas, exerting profound impact on the global telecommunications industry. With the rise of financial centers in the Asia-Pacific region, such as Hong Kong, the telecom industry is bound to witness explosive growth and will push the global telecom infrastructure programs into a new round of high-speed development.

Facing such opportunity, Gold Grace is committed to its mission of “Technology for happiness” with an aim to “make the world better with faster connectivity”. It does the best to maximize its strong financial competency and a wealth of experience in communicating and collaborating with public telecom authorities and carriers in Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Greater China regions; the company’s founders and its executive team are veteran investors with global vision that enables them to offer customers future-oriented, comprehensive global telecommunications service with professionalism and premium quality.

Post published in: Business

 

According to a second crop and livestock assessment report released by the Ministry of Agriculture, the estimated maize production stands at 776 635 tonnes, which is 54% less than the 1 700 702 tonnes obtained during the 2017/18 season.

In addition to false season starts in some parts of the country, long dry spells in January and February also negatively affected the planted crop.

“Cereal production is 851 844 tonnes against a national cereal requirement of 1 754 225 tonnes for human consumption,” reads the report.

The poor harvest will leave most families without adequate food supplies. The country requires at least 1,8m tonnes of maize per season.

Out of the 60 administrative rural districts in the country, 11 (18%) have enough cereal to last until the next harvest and the rest (49 districts) will last between 2 and 11 months.

Meanwhile the country is also expecting a 26% drop in tobacco output to 185 725 tonnes, while cotton is expected to drop by 49% to 66,564 tonnes.

In what reveals the rapid deterioration of the southern African nation’s economy, the data reflects a steep jump of 22 percent from the previous month’s 75.86 percent. On a monthly basis, prices rose by 12.54 percent in May compared to 5.52 percent in April.

The latest figures are the highest since the introduction of multi-currency use in 2009, on the back of the hyperinflation period and the 2008 global financial crisis. The financial crisis saw Zimbabwe’s peak month of inflation surge to around 79.6 billion percent month-on-month and 89.7 sextillion percent year-on-year.

The data from ZimStat were arrived at with a new inflation calculation method known as the Consumer Price Index (CPI), under which the Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP) calculation methodology is used. The new approach classifies individual consumption expenditures incurred by households, non-profit institutions serving households and general government according to their purpose.

However, economists have criticised the new system used to arrive at the inflation figures. They are of the opinion that if the old calculation system was maintained, the inflation rate for the month would now be over 200 percent based on the recent spate of price increases. More so, they projected the inflation rate to close 2019 at over 250 percent, a figure that would leave the country on the brink of another hyper-inflationary period.

Zimbabwe’s inflation ranks second highest in the world , after Venezuela, while it is ahead of Sudan, Argentina, Iran, etc.

The country’s economic meltdown continues to escalate as shortages of foreign currency, electricity, medicines and fuel impede industrial activity.

The economy is expected to contract by 2.1 percent due to macroeconomic imbalances and a poor farming season, according to projections from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The funding will be used to purchase 19,000 tonnes of wheat bonded in Beira, Mozambique. That will cover the national flour requirements for the next two and a half weeks, said Tafadzwa Musarara, chairman of the group.

National Railways of Zimbabwe is in the process of loading the wheat, which will start arriving in the country next week.

“The situation is expected to improve the supply of flour starting next week,” Musarara said.

Earlier this week he said supplies had “drastically” declined and the nation faced bread shortages. A leading bakery had suspended operations, according to reports.

An additional 60,000 tonnes of wheat in Mozambique is under consignment and payment negotiations are under way with the central bank, Musarara said.

 File photo: Victims of floods in Mozambique seek cover 04 March 2000 from dust moved by a rescue helicopter at Chalucuane on the Limpopo river. EPA PHOTO POOL REUTERS/MIKE HUTCHINGS/MH-amd  Less

The subject of maize needs will soon dominate the headlines in Zimbabwe and, to a certain extent, Mozambique. These two countries are set to record poor maize harvests due to droughts which delayed plantings at the start of the 2019 season, and when it finally rained, it became rather excessive, as was witnessed during Cyclone Idai at the start of the year.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecast Zimbabwe’s 2019 maize production at 800,000 tonnes, down by 53% from the previous year. This is not even half of what Zimbabwe consumes a year, which is roughly 2.0 million tonnes. So, there will surely be large volumes of imports throughout the 2019/20 period.

At least the authorities have grasped the urgency of the situation. The Zimbabwean Grain Marketing Board has recently issued a tender to buy 750,000 tonnes of maize, which will be the largest volume since 2016 when the country imported 1.4 million tonnes.

It is unclear, however, where Zimbabwe will get the maize supplies from as the likes of South Africa and Zambia, typically the region’s maize exporters, are expected to have tight supplies due to lower production in the 2018/19 production season. South Africa could have about 1.1 million tonnes for exports, but this will largely be destined for Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and eSwatini.

The other important factor is that Zimbabwe will possibly be looking for white maize, which means that outside of the southern Africa region, the reliable white maize supplier could be Mexico, which will have about a million tonnes of maize for export markets in the 2019/20 marketing year, according to data from the USDA. Aside from white maize, there are a number of countries that can supply the region, with the most likely ones being Brazil, Argentina, Ukraine and the United States.

In the case of Mozambique, the 2018/19 maize harvest could fall by 27% year-on-year to 1.8 million tonnes, which will be slightly lower than the annual consumption of 2.1 million tonnes. As a result, the imports could amount to 200,000 tonnes, which is double the typical import volume. In the past, South Africa, Malawi and Mexico were the key suppliers of maize to Mozambique, but this year things are unclear for similar reasons as the Zimbabwe situation.

For maize producers and users in South Africa, these factors will most probably add upward pressure on prices in the coming months when the demand from Zimbabwe and Zambia intensifies, especially in the case of white maize. The key driver of domestic maize prices in the past couple of weeks has largely been the spillover from higher Chicago maize prices which were underpinned by delayed plantings on the back of excessively wet weather conditions.

On June 18, 2019, domestic yellow and white maize spot prices were each at R2,834 per tonne, which is respectively, 33% and 39% higher than the corresponding period in 2018, and roughly at levels seen at the start of 2019. The prices could cool off from these levels if crop conditions improve in the US Midwest, but that could soon be offset by effects of the imminent southern Africa region’s maize demand. BM