MCLE Audit Emails Spark Panic Among Some California Lawyers

Recent emails from the State Bar to some California lawyers alleging they were noncompliant with their Minimum Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) audit requirements caused some recipients to panic.

A few discipline defense attorneys said the notifications sparked great concern because they heard from lawyers who believed they had previously submitted documentation in support of their MCLE hours and should not be subject to the potential loss of their licenses.

However, the bar said the notifications were sent to a little more than 100 attorneys who had been audited for MCLE compliance and whose files were deemed incomplete. They also were not the first reminders sent this cycle, the agency said.

The reminder emails sent just days before the Nov. 15 deadline warned lawyers that failure to come into compliance would result in their license status being changed to “inactive” effective Nov. 16. The emails said noncompliance would also result in an “assessment of an additional $200 reinstatement penalty and possible referral to the Office of Chief Trial Counsel for further investigation.”

The bar has carried out MCLE audits for several years, and bar spokeswoman Teresa Ruano said the number of replies and complaints in response to the audit emails “was no more than usual.”

But attorney Megan Zavieh, who represents lawyers before the State Bar of California, said she has never received the same level of feedback from lawyers who believed they were improperly accused of being noncompliant with MCLE audits.

Those who contacted her, including clients and non-clients, were “absolutely panicked” after hearing from the bar that they were in jeopardy of having their licenses suspended.

“If there is anything that scares lawyers, it is action by the bar,” Zavieh said. “I was getting calls from people I don’t represent saying, ‘I don’t know what to do. I did what I thought I was supposed to and now I got this email.’”

Zavieh said adding to the anxiety for the lawyers who contacted her was a lack of an immediate response from the bar to their emails highlighting they believed they were in compliance.

“Some reported they had written back and said, ‘I don’t understand. I replied to your audit,’” Zavieh said. “They were not getting any kind of quick response. And with the time being only a couple of days before they were going to be inactive, anything over a few hours to get responded to by email seems like an eternity to the lawyers.”

Other discipline defense attorneys also wrote to this reporter about the issue of lawyers who believed they were in compliance with the MCLE audit recently being told otherwise by the bar.
The bar’s spokeswoman said “about 30 files that were not yet complete when they received the email have since been completed/closed. In a few cases, the reminder may have crossed in the mail with audit submissions. Some had payments that were in the process of clearing or had submissions deemed incomplete. Staff is still reviewing the many last-minute submissions that were emailed or mailed on Friday.”

The bar also said it “received one complaint from an attorney whose records were mismarked; that error has been corrected and the attorney informed.”

Ruano said that within a few days “staff will determine the final noncompliance list and will place those attorneys on involuntary inactive status effective 11/16/19; in a typical cycle that amounts to 40 to 50 people. This year likely won’t be any different.”

“Staff don’t expect to make referrals to [the Office of Chief Trial Counsel] unless last-minute forged certificates are identified,” Ruano added.

Another attorney who represents lawyers before the bar said an additional reason for lawyers’ fear about the MCLE emails was that the bar now places a consumer alert on the online bar profile of a lawyer who is placed on involuntary inactive enrollment for failure to comply with MCLE obligations. This was one of several updates to the agency’s consumer alert policy made last year.

The bar confirmed that “consumer alerts will be placed on profiles of those placed on involuntary inactive status.”

California lawyers must complete 25 hours of continuing education every three years. The state’s licensed lawyers are also split into three reporting groups based on their last name, so one group reports their hours each year and a subset of those lawyers are audited.


Lyle Moran is a freelance writer in San Diego who handles both journalism and content writing projects. He previously reported for the Los Angeles Daily Journal, San Diego Daily Transcript, Associated Press, and Lowell Sun. He can be reached at lmoransun@gmail.com and found on Twitter @lylemoran.

Loaded Shotgun Submitted Into Evidence Kills Lawyer

Why was a loaded shotgun brought into a courtroom?

This is the question facing South African authorities after attorney Addelaid Ferreira-Watt was killed when a shotgun entered into evidence went off.

The gun, belonging to the victims of a 2014 robbery, had spent the last 5 years with the victims as opposed to an evidence locker because the victims claimed they needed it for home defense. Given that they’d been robbed they found a sympathetic audience, but South Africa must have some pretty screwy chain of custody standards to allow a key piece of evidence to stay with the accusers for years before trial.

News24 reported that the gun was being held by a police officer in Umzimkhulu Regional Court when it slipped from his hands and hit the floor. The shotgun released a shell into Ferreira-Watt’s left hip. She was rushed to the hospital but doctors could not save her life.

Speaking of the chain of custody, the victims say they don’t remember if the gun was loaded when they brought it back or not. That there’s even a risk that they may have carried a loaded gun to court should explode the myth of the responsible gun owner. While the idea that law enforcement then loaded the gun themselves while it rested in their custody may sound far-fetched, one might have thought it was inconceivable that cops would take a gun without bothering to check if it’s loaded, but here we are.

Unless South Africa is as irrationally devoted to protecting its law enforcement in the face of clear misconduct as the United States is, one or more officers connected with this should be fired and probably prosecuted for negligence. The owners may have left the gun loaded but that’s not an excuse to just sling it into a courtroom unchecked.

Addelaid Ferreira-Watt’s death was entirely preventable. Hopefully the powers-that-be recognize that.

LAWYER KILLED IN COURT WHEN SHOTGUN SUBMITTED TO EVIDENCE GOES OFF [Newsweek]


HeadshotJoe 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.

Masvingo Residents Calls For An End To Partisan Distribution Of Government Aid – The Zimbabwean

This comes out after former Zanu PF Councillor for ward 16 Last Jazi and Samuel Masimba Zambuko a war vet have been reportedly hijacked the Presidential Agricultural Inputs Scheme, sidelining the sitting MDC Councillor Edmore Dhemba who was supposed to preside over the inputs distribution process.

Councillor Dhemba expressed that, he was block by the Zanu PF officials from collecting the maize seed at the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) Masvingo depot on the last minute after processing all the required papers and paying transport costs. “ when I go to the GMB for collection I was told that the GMB was ordered by the office of the Minister of State for Masvingo Province Mr Chadzamira not to give me the seed (800KGs) until the beneficiary list was verified by the party officials.”, said Councilor Dhemba.

It was further reported that Mr Jazi and Mr Zambuko convened the beneficiary selection meeting where the well-known opposition supported were turned away by the Zanu PF youth who proclaims that the maize seed was a donation to the party by President Cde Mnangagwa, therefore the scheme was strictly targeting Zanu PF supporters as beneficiaries. On Tuesday 12 November 2019, Mr Jazi called for a distribution meeting in which those known for backing other political parties were being turned away immediately on arrival.

However, the villagers who speak to COTRAD stated that the distribution process which took almost two days was marred by disruptions and disputes as villagers staged a protest against Mr Jazi demanding the sitting Councillor Mr Dhemba to preside over the process. The villagers called for a nonpartisan distribution process since the seed was purchased through the taxpayer’s money. The act by the Zanu PF officials was described by villagers as a threat to social unity and peace.

COTRAD peace committee members for Masvingo ward 16 criticized the politicization of government aid as a major cause of conflict in rural areas. “Partisan distribution of resources is cancerous to social unity, peace and development, therefore we expect community members to respect leadership hierarchy and protocols in community development” said one peace committee member. As COTRAD we urge public officials to be ambassadors of peace and facilitators of development in a non-partisan manner.

Zimbabwean police beat opposition supporters after rally ban

Post published in: Featured

Rudy Giuliani Strains To Explain Soros Conspiracy To Glenn Beck Over Din Of Barking Dogs

(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Has impeachment broken your brain? Are you overwhelmed by 1,000 hours of batcrap congressional testimony? Does the cat cough up a hairball every time Jim Jordan’s voice comes out of your television?

Here’s a little something to soothe your troubled mind.

Not for watching, of course! But for reassuring yourself that things could always be worse — Rudy Giuliani could be your client! You could be facing down the Southern District of New York with a guy who got talked out of doing his own impeachment podcast, only to go on Glenn Beck’s The Blaze to spout off about SOROS and DNC SERVER and GLENN SIMPSON DOSSIER and DEEP STATE CONSPIRACY.

If we might summarize …

Rudy was just kicking around Ukraine last year looking for proof that his client Donald Trump didn’t collude with the Russians to rig the 2016 election — totally normal lawyer stuff — when he stumbled upon evidence that Ukraine was the REAL COLLUSION. They weren’t trying to recoup stolen state assets when journalists published the ledger showing that Paul Manafort had received pilfered state money from the previous pro-Russian government. In fact, it was a plot against Donald Trump, and Rudy can prove that ledger was forged, too! Did the prosecutors use the ledger in their successful prosecution of Manafort for tax evasion? NO. Res ipsa loquitur FORGED.

ROBERT MUELLER WAS IN ON IT.

“When I got at all of that evidence, as a defense lawyer, I said to myself, ‘Hallelujah! I can go prove that someone else committed this crime,’” shouted America’s Mayor. And instead of backing away slowly, Beck actually encouraged him to keep talking.

“I knew they were hot and heavy on this Russian collusion thing. Even though, I knew 100% it was false. So when I got this evidence about Ukrainian collusion, in which they mentioned that Joe Biden was involved in developing some of the collusion, I jumped on it!”

JOE BIDEN WAS IN ON IT.

In 2016, the E.U., IMF, and entire U.S. government were pushing for the ouster of corrupt Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin, but for some reason the American embassy in Ukraine blocked a visa for him to come to America this summer to air Rudy’s pet theory that Joe Biden got Shokin fired to protect one of Hunter Biden’s clients. Because Hunter Biden, a guy who leaves a crack pipe in a rental car and who clearly doesn’t know where babies come from, is integral to this scheme.

HUNTER BIDEN WAS IN ON IT.

So Rudy complained to the State Department, but he still couldn’t get a visa for Shokin. The former ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was just too powerful and had too much to lose, “because she and her embassy were involved in collecting the dirty information.”

MARIE YOVANOVITCH WAS IN ON IT. (BUT NOT MIKE POMPEO, WHO WAS JUST CONFUSED.)

Poor Viktor Shokin! Can’t get a visa to the U.S., and is now in danger from Ukraine’s anticorruption bureau (NABU), an independent prosecutorial body tasked with cleaning up Ukrainian government. But NABU was “set up” by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent, at the insistence of the IMF and with American and EU funding. And Kent testified this week wearing a bowtie, which is how you know he’s one of the bad guys.

GEORGE KENT WAS IN ON IT.

“They took all the corruption cases away from the Prosecutor General. They gave them to the Anticorruption Bureau, and they got rid of all the cases that offended Soros, and they included all the cases against Soros’s enemies.”

That never happened. But the Anticorruption Bureau did drop a politically-motivated prosecution of the good-government activist group AntAc, which has received funding from the Open Society Foundation. It has also received funding from the governments of the U.S., E.U., Czech Republic, and the Netherlands, but doesn’t count because …

GEORGE SOROS WAS IN ON IT. OBVIOUSLY.

Rudy had assembled quite a dossier, but he had to partner with The Hill’s John Solomon to get it out because the FBI was “protecting Joe Biden.” Too many Obama holdovers at the Justice Department in 2018, guys who were IN ON IT by definition, and wouldn’t take his very real, not at all insane case seriously.

THE FBI WAS IN ON IT.

Then Glenn Beck repeated the name of the CIA agent the wingnutosphere thinks is the informer about fifty times, and justified it by saying that, even if he isn’t the whistleblower, he’s been involved in Ukraine for a long time, so …

THE WHISTLEBLOWER WAS IN ON IT.

Then Rudy, who is sharp as a tack, tied it all up for Beck’s audience.

I can tell you, without being able to back this part of it up with facts right now, that I am entirely convinced that this whole episode is just, you know, one chapter in at least a three or four chapter plan, which I guess was best described by [former FBI agent Peter] Strzok to prevent him from being president, and then, should he become president, the insurance policy to remove him.

PETER STRZOK IS IN ON IT.

So devious of the Deep State Planning Committee to keep the investigation of the Trump campaign completely silent through the election, knowing they could always subvert the will of the people by … waiting for Trump to pressure the future president of Ukraine to announce an investigation of Joe Biden. It just makes too much sense!

And if that all sounds like the demented rantings of a someone in desperate need of neurologist, it’s probably because YOU’RE IN ON IT.

Someone do a wellness check on Rudy’s lawyers, see if they’re IN ON IT, TOO.

Rudy Giuliani says US diplomats were doing the bidding of George Soros in Ukraine, in interview with Glenn Beck [The Blaze]
Rudy’s Big Plan to Defend Trump on Ukraine: Play the George Soros Card [The Daily Beast]


Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

Zimbabwean police beat opposition supporters after rally ban – The Zimbabwean

Hundreds of supporters had gathered outside the headquarters in Harare of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) after the party was denied permission to hold a rally in the city’s Africa Unity Square.

Chamisa had been expected to make the address from the office balcony instead.

As the crowd danced to party songs blaring from speakers on the balcony, baton-wielding police arrived to disperse them.

An AFP correspondent saw a man with a bleeding gash on the head and a swollen arm after being hit with a truncheon as he left a food outlet.

Several shops and banks yanked down their shutters.

“Many people were beaten up and injured,” MDC spokesperson Daniel Molokele told AFP. “We condemn the police brutality in the strongest terms”.

‘It’s the same old regime’ 

He said Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government was as oppressive as the regime of the man he had ousted, former president Robert Mugabe.

“It’s the same old regime. Worse than Smith,” he said referring to Ian Smith, the white-minority prime minister of the 1960s and 70s, who declared independence in defiance of Britain, the country’s colonial power.

“Maybe they are afraid that what they did to Mugabe in November 2017 will repeat itself,” said a man wearing a red MDC beret who identified himself as Terry T, referring to the military-led coup against Mugabe two years ago.

Chamisa had been expected to speak about the general state of the country including its entrenched economic crisis, corruption and crumbling health system.

Zimbabwe’s economy, crippled by decades of mismanagement under Mugabe, has failed to rebound under Mnangagwa, and many Zimbabweans say the situation has got worse.

Hyperinflation is wiping out savings; unemployment is estimated at around 90 percent; fuel, medicine and other essentials are in short supply; and doctors and some public-sector workers have stopped going to work as they cannot afford the cost of commuting.

Many families live on one meal a day.

Masvingo Residents Calls For An End To Partisan Distribution Of Government Aid
MDC has never staged an ‘illegal regime change’ in Zimbabwe

Post published in: Featured

Morning Docket 11.21.2019

* Since ATL hasn’t had a Lawyerly Lairs segment in a while, just wanted to point out that an attorney involved with the Madoff case just put his NYC apartment back on the market. [New York Post]

* An MSU sorority has settled a lawsuit involving the banishment of a therapy rabbit from a sorority house. Hopefully the rabbit doesn’t have to be hazed. [Detroit Free Press]

* A disbarred attorney has been charged with leaving threatening voicemails for a judge. Way to add insult to injury. [The Monitor]

* Google and other companies are implementing changes to adapt to a new California law involving data privacy. [Reuters]

* It looks like Elon Musk will face a trial next month over his “pedo guy” tweets after a judge denied his motion to dismiss the case. The good news is, in a few decades, Musk will be able to write the defamation laws on Mars. [NBC]

* A Mississippi district attorney has been accused of turning away black jurors over a 25-year period. [CNN]

* A Utah woman could be forced to register as a sex offender for being topless in her own home even though her topless husband was not charged. Can’t wait for the Supreme Court to weigh in on this. [Newsweek]


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 riot police fire teargas at opposition supporters – The Zimbabwean

A riot policeman attacks a woman outside the Movement for Democratic Change headquarters in Harare. Photograph: Jekesai Njikizana/AFP via Getty Images

Zimbabwean police with riot gear fired teargas and struck people who gathered to hear a speech by the country’s top opposition leader amid growing frustration with the collapsing economy.

Dozens of people ran and dodged baton blows in the capital, Harare, on Wednesday. Officers cordoned off the Movement for Democratic Change party headquarters before Nelson Chamisa’s speech and patrolled with water cannon.

Public discontent has grown in Zimbabwe with the president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who has struggled to fulfil promises of economic prosperity and greater political freedom. The health system has largely collapsed amid the worst economic crisis in more than a decade.

After some of his supporters were left injured and bleeding on Wednesday, he told the gathering that Mnangagwa has scaled new levels of dictatorship. “Our country is burning,” he said. “Why would you beat people who are at their head office? Is the MDC now a banned party?”

The opposition leader repeated demands for dialogue to form what he called a “transitional authority” tasked with carrying out democratic reforms and a credible election. Chamisa asserted that Zimbabwe’s crushing economic problems amount to “a soft genocide”.

Only pro-government marches have been allowed in recent months, while similar moves by the opposition, labour and human rights groups have been met with strong police action.

Police denied accusations they had banned this latest event. A spokesman, Paul Nyathi, said police and opposition organisers had agreed to move the event to a venue on the city’s outskirts.

The opposition said it had a letter confirming the ban. The latest actions “show how democratic space is still suppressed just like during Mugabe’s time”, said a spokesman, Luke Tamborinyoka.

Some Zimbabweans allege that repression is worse than under the late Robert Mugabe, who oversaw widespread rights abuses that led to international sanctions against individuals including Mnangagwa.

The state-run Herald newspaper reported that police on Wednesday dispersed opposition supporters “who were causing disorder”.

Also on Wednesday, treason charges were dropped against outspoken pastor Evan Mawarire after he was accused of plotting to overthrow the government during protests over the economic crisis early this year, Mawarire and the lawyers group said.

Frustrations are running high as the economy crumbles. Inflation was last calculated at 300% by the International Monetary Fund in August, the world’s second highest after Venezuela.

Mnangagwa has pleaded for more time, saying austerity measures he introduced mean things will get worse before they improve.

Checkmate | The most instructive checkmating patterns in Chess
Zimbabwe police use force to disperse opposition crowd

Post published in: Featured

Zimbabwe police use force to disperse opposition crowd – The Zimbabwean

A police officer tackles a woman with his boot outside the MDC headquarters in Harare [Jekesai Njikizana/AFP]

Riot police in Zimbabwe’s capital have forcefully dispersed supporters of the main opposition party who had gathered to listen to a speech by their leader.

Hundreds of police officers on Wednesday blocked roads leading to the headquarters of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Harare but supporters continued to gather, singing and chanting before the arrival of party leader Nelson Chamisa, who was set to address them.

A few minutes after Chamisa entered the party building, police charged the crowd with batons and began beating them. Reuters news agency cited witnesses as saying that police also fired tear gas, causing a stampede.

MDC officials – who accuse President Emmerson Mnangagwa of adopting the heavy-handed tactics of his late predecessor, Robert Mugabe – said the skirmishes once again showed that the opposition party was a victim of government brutality.

“The MDC strongly condemns that violent attack by the police on the citizens who had peacefully gathered outside our (headquarters). This kind of barbaric brutality is totally unacceptable in Zimbabwe,” MDC national spokesman Daniel Molokele said in a statement.

On Sunday, Mnangagwa defended his record in an opinion piece carried by CNBC Africa, saying his administration was opening up political and media space.

But police have this year banned several MDC gatherings, saying they feared the events would turn violent.

Police surround and assault MDC supporters [Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP Photo]

Political tension is rising in Zimbabwe, where the population is grappling with a severe economic crisis that has seen rolling power cuts lasting up to 18 hours a day and shortages of foreign currency, fuel and medicines.

Most public sector doctors have been on a strike over pay since September, which has paralysed government hospitals where the poor seek treatment. Other public sector workers are demanding US dollar-indexed salaries to protect them from soaring inflation.

Critics say Mnangagwa has failed to keep promises he made during last year’s election campaign to revive the economy by pushing through economic reforms, attracting foreign investment to create jobs and rebuilding collapsing infrastructure.

Zimbabwe security forces attack opposition supporters – The Zimbabwean

Supporters of the main opposition party had gathered to hear a speech before police moved in [Chris Muronzi/Al Jazeera]

Harare, Zimbabwe – Anti-riot police fired tear gas and attacked a crowd of opposition supporters with batons in the capital on Wednesday.

The crowd gathered outside the headquarters of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change Alliance (MDC) to hear party leader Nelson Chamisa’s planned “hope of the nation” speech.

A handful of opposition supporters danced and sang for several hours in the morning as police watched from a distance.

A balcony at the headquarters had earlier been converted into a makeshift podium after police barred the MDC from holding the event at the Africa Unity Square, the main venue of opposition protests.

A banner with a photo of Chamisa and public address equipment were perched on the balcony in anticipation.

Justin Mwaramba, an MDC supporter, defied the police ban and stood on the pavement with scores of other supporters. He told Al Jazeera he was optimistic more people would come but feared the heavy police presence would dissuade others.

“What the police are doing is not democratic. It’s not constitutional,” Mwaramba said.

“The people-driven constitution is very clear about our right to demonstrate. It is a clear indication that the ruling party or the present government does not respect the constitution,” he added.

Police officers told people who gathered adjacent to the opposition headquarters to disband.

“Those who don’t have business must disperse,” one riot police officer told those assembled.

But opposition supporters pledged to stay put. “We are not going to move,” an MDC supporter who did not want to be identified said.

“How come they don’t stop ZANU-PF from demonstrating,” he continued, referring to the ruling Patriotic Front party of Zimbabwe.

As the leader of the opposition, Chamisa, arrived at the party headquarters to wild cheers from his supporters, at least 100 police officers who had barricaded the street started charging towards the crowd.

Swinging batons wildly, the police attacked MDC supporters and left several injured. Others fled the scene and sought refuge in nearby buildings, including MDC Youth Assembly deputy chairperson Cecelia Chimbiri.

MDC supporters denounced the violent treatment by riot police [Chris Muronzi/Al Jazeera]

Another casualty was an unidentified journalist who suffered a gash on the back of his head.

As tear gas engulfed the scene, shops in the vicinity were forced to close. A policeman threatened journalists who kept taking photographs but he later moved on.

Shortly after the violence, Chamisa’s spokesperson Nkululeko Sibanda condemned the attack on party supporters.

“It is surprising because we did everything we could to make sure that the police are aware of what we wanted to do,” Sibanda told journalists.

“The MDC is a large political movement in this country and will not be deterred by another political party. It is sad that [President Emmerson] Mnangagwa will decide to use the militant police in the way he has done today. The fact of the matter remains, it is not going to give Mnangagwa legitimacy and it’s not going to stop the MDC from moving forward with its programme and ideals.”

The police, however, denied accusations that the event had been banned. Police spokesman Paul Nyathi said opposition organisers and the authorities had agreed to move Chamisa’s speech to a venue on Harare’s periphery.

The opposition responded that it has a letter confirming the police ban.

Anti-riot police in August also assaulted hundreds of anti-government protesters thronging the Africa Unity Square in central Harare.

President Mnangagwa’s government has been accused of being heavy-handed while dealing with opposition protesters.

Sibanda reiterated that Chamisa remains “committed to the struggle of the people” and “the police are not a force strong enough to stop the people of Zimbabwe”.

“The people should not let up,” he said. “The struggle goes on.”

The violence came after the police banned Chamisa’s planned address on Tuesday, citing security reasons.