Author: TSA Press

Today, the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) in partnership with United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (UN Women) illuminated the Rotten Row Magistrates Court in orange – a colour which symbolizes hope and a brighter future, free of violence. It also serves as a means of demonstrating solidarity in eliminating all forms of violence and it is therefore used as the colour of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

As part of the commemoration of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence under the global theme Orange the World: Generation Equality Stands Against Rape for 2019, the Harare Magistrates Court joins a list of iconic buildings and monuments that have been lit in orange to call for a violence-free future.

The Rotten Row Magistrates Court represents the largest case load of rape a month that pass through the judicial system. By illuminating the court orange during the 16 Days of Activism, the Judicial Service Commission will send a message of its commitment to deliver timely and victim-friendly justice to cases of rape and other gender-based crimes.

Speaking at the event, UN Resident Coordinator, Ms. Maria Ribeiro said, “Without the courts following through with their legislated mandate of swift justice, by enforcing sentencing and ensuring access to the court systems especially for cases of rape and sexual violence, we shall continue to experience the unfortunate impact.”

This event will also mark the beginning of collaborative efforts between UN Women and the Harare Magistrates Court to display educative information on rape and gender-based crimes through the Court’s broadcasts on every 25th day of the month for the coming one year.

Spaces in which women feel safe are shrinking while gender- blind spots in policy implementation and legislation are threatening women’s security making them vulnerable to rape, assault and killing. The increase in cases of rape, assault and abuse of women has been reported in so many spaces and institutions that include churches, schools and workplaces. This therefore calls for accelerated cooperation among different stakeholders.

The commissioning of 16 Days at the Harare Magistrates Court is an intervention that falls under the joint EU-UN Spotlight Initiative programme in Zimbabwe, which is harnessing the financial commitment of the European Union to the tune of USD 34 million to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls in 23 districts in the provinces of Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland West, Manicaland, Matabeleland South, and Harare.

Speaking at the event EU Deputy Ambassador, Mr Thomas von Handel said, “Ending Sexual and Gender Based Violence and harmful practices is a joint responsibility. The EU joins the call to action to act swiftly and decisively act against rape and all other forms of violence against women and girls! We must put an end to all kinds of abuse to reach equality and peace and protect the human rights of millions of women and girls.”

The Spotlight Initiative is being implemented by the UN in partnership with the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development and civil society organisations. It endeavours to ensure that all women and girls benefit from adequate legislation and policies, gender responsive institutions, violence prevention programmes, essential services, comparable and reliable data, and strong women’s movements and civil society organisations.

16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is an annual international campaign that kicks off on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and runs until 10 December, Human Rights Day.

In support of this campaign, under the leadership of the UN Secretary-General, stakeholders across the world call for global action to increase awareness, galvanize advocacy efforts, and share knowledge and innovations.

Post published in: Featured

The American Mega Millions lottery offers the biggest jackpot prize in the world: $285 million USD. That huge amount, which is up for grabs on Friday night, has captured the attention of lottery fans all over the world and amazingly, the winner of this enormous prize could be someone from Zimbabwe.

You may remember that Mega Millions awarded a $1.537 billion USD jackpot to a single, lucky winner in October 2018. The current jackpot is not yet setting records, but winning a $285 million prize would certainly be a life-changer!

There is no need for you to travel to the United States to take a chance on winning the great Mega Millions jackpot. It is possible to play the game by purchasing official Mega Millions tickets online at theLotter.com.

Here’s how you could win a $285 million jackpot from Zimbabwe:

1. Sign up at theLotter.com, the world’s leading online lottery ticket purchasing service.
2. Select the Mega Millions lottery from over 50 lotteries available on the site.
3. Fill out your ticket with your favorite numbers, or use a computer-generated random selection.
4. Indicate how many lines you want to play, or choose to play with a lottery syndicate to increase your chances of winning.
5. Confirm your ticket purchase and you’re eligible to win prizes in the upcoming draw.

How theLotter works

TheLotter is a lottery ticket messenger service. TheLotter uses local agents in the United States to buy official lottery tickets on behalf of its customers from all over the world. A small surcharge is added to ticket prices in order to cover the cost of this service. A copy of the ticket is uploaded to a customer’s account before the draw and along with the site’s email confirmation, customers can rest assured that they have full ownership of their tickets.

At theLotter, customers can purchase tickets to the world’s biggest lotteries including Mega Millions, Powerball, EuroMillions, the Italian SuperEnalotto, EuroJackpot, and more. TheLotter provides a dedicated support team, available 24/7, to help customers with any concerns.

What happens when you win

When you win a lottery jackpot prize at theLotter, the entire amount is yours! No commissions are deducted from winning tickets. Winnings are transferred to your secure, private account and you can withdraw them at any time. If you win a lottery jackpot, however, you many need to travel to the lottery’s offices to collect the prize money yourself. In this case, a lawyer provided to you by theLotter free of charge will assist you in the win collection process.

Over the years, theLotter has paid out more than $97 million in prizes to over 5 million winners from across the globe. The biggest winners at the site have included a woman from Panama who won $30 million playing the Florida Lotto, and a man from Iraq who won a $6.4 million Oregon Megabucks jackpot.

The $285 million Mega Millions jackpot could be won at any time and the next draw is coming up soon. It is totally possible for the next big lottery prize winner to be a resident of Zimbabwe!

For more information how to play Mega Millions online from Zimbabwe, please visit theLotter.com.

Post published in: Featured

— Imani Gandy, senior legal analyst at Rewire, with the reaction shared by a lot of people upon hearing the news that George Zimmerman is suing, inter alia, the parents of Trayvon Martin. Also on the receiving end of Zimmerman’s legal ire is Martin family attorney, Ben Crump; Florida prosecutors Bernie de la Rionda, John Guy, and Angela Corey; trial witness Rachel Jeantel; book publisher HarperCollins; the Florida Department of Law Enforcement; and the state of Florida. The lawsuit alleges widespread “witness fraud,” claiming prosecution witness Rachel Jeantel is “an imposter and fake witness” as detailed in the new film The Trayvon Hoax: Unmasking the Witness Fraud that Divided America.

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).

In an essay in the Wall Street Journal, a physician took the medical profession to task for its habit of providing laser-focused disease treatment, while essentially ignoring other needs of the chronically ill. Dr. Arthur Kleinman, a Harvard professor as well as a physician, says in “Treating Disease Is No Substitute for Caring for the Ill” that far too often patients with chronic illnesses are left to fend for themselves to navigate the system. “Disease demands treatment while illness calls out for care,” Kleinman says. He knows whereof he speaks; his wife had Alzheimer’s.

Those with chronic illnesses (nod in agreement if you are one of us, and, yes, I am in that category) often feel as if they are “chopped liver.” (It doesn’t matter whether you like chopped liver or loathe it, you get the point.)

You may be surprised — or maybe not — to read that half of adult Americans have at least one chronic disease.

I wonder if we treat clients in the same way that the medical profession handles disease. Do we hone in on the big money-making cases to the detriment of matters which, while not as lucrative, provide legal knowledge and advice that clients can use in ongoing situations?

I also wonder if clients look at us in the same way that Dr. Kleinman looked at his own profession while seeking help for his ailing wife. If he had trouble, imagine what it is like for us. It’s ironic that he was in the same predicament that nonmedical people face all the time when trying to figure out how to manage a chronic illness.

Lawyers are front and center for our clients when a crisis needs our immediate and all-consuming attention, but when the crisis fades or dies out, when we have won or lost, do we forget to pay attention to a client’s ongoing needs, however mundane they may be? I think a lot of us do, as we may well be more concerned with the big deal or the company lawsuit (and it doesn’t have to be a big company for corporate existence to hang in the balance. Exhibit A is a wage and hour judgment that can and does bankrupt a business).

We are more concerned with outcomes, with results, with numbers than with a client’s ongoing legal needs, prosaic or not so. It’s no surprise that what the client regards as nothing more than a legal hangnail can morph into something far more serious and business-threatening unless attention is paid.

Perhaps some chronic illnesses can be prevented (don’t smoke, drink in moderation, eat healthy, exercise, the usual litany of dos and don’ts), but not all. However, we as lawyers can practice preventive law if the client understands the cost-benefit analysis.

It is, essentially, the client’s risk assessment. How to explain that to the client with the hope that the client is willing to prevent future legal troubles? And if the client is willing, but the lawyer’s response is of the “We’ll get to it when we can” variety — in other words, putting the matter in the “stall box” — then how does the client feel? I think the chopped liver comparison is spot on.

How do we instill in clients the concept that preventive law is good business?  How do we instill that in ourselves as well?

Sometimes it’s too late to prevent the damage, and all that the lawyer can do is stabilize the situation and minimize whatever damage has already been done, to triage. Not an easy task.

Early every January, my tax organizer arrives from my CPA (shudder). The first few pages compose a checklist, asking about any changes since the last year. How many lawyers do something similar for their clients? I would hazard a guess that it’s not enough. How many lawyers use such a checklist as a business development tool? I would imagine not many.

Just like physicians, we focus on solving problems. But, as Kleinman points out, we often just give our clients the bare bones, if that, of what they need.

Many times customers would come into a bank branch, plop down a bunch of documents without a clue as to what they meant or how to use them in their businesses. They expected the branch to give them the advice they sought from lawyers and didn’t get. Not our job, we told them. It is the job of the lawyer to explain what they have and why. It’s like having a chronic condition that needs care but doesn’t get it.

I don’t think that clients get the attention they need. It may be better for the lawyer to wait until a matter blows up, but is that the way it should be? We are in a helping profession, so let’s help and not leave them to navigate by their lonesome.

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

According to a new survey conducted by Legal Cheek, associates in the London offices of U.S.-based Biglaw firms are working themselves to the bone, regularly averaging 12-hour days. At which white-shoe firm do associates have the longest workdays?

Hint: If you’re expecting to receive a year-end bonus that will “shatter the market,” you’d better be prepared to work hours that will shatter any concept of work-life balance.

See the answer on the next page.

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.

Legal department operations have shifted over the last decade to reflect a broader, global drive toward more efficiency. In-house legal teams are taking a multi-pronged approach to accomplish this goal of becoming more efficient to contribute to overall organizational profitability: They are onboarding specific people as well as technology solutions. 

Improving Efficiencies with People and Technology

According to the 2018 Legal Department Operations Survey, nearly 15 percent of respondents reported having zero full-time employees on the legal operations team. In 2019, the survey shows that almost 95 percent of respondents now have at least one full-time employee dedicated to legal operations, demonstrating the growing focus on this function of the legal department. And the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC) has cited the benefits of legal ops professionals specifically in establishing operational strategy and overseeing the department’s technology roadmap. 

Emerging technologies are the second major force impacting legal departments, with artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing at the core of many solutions-creating efficiencies. The 2019 Legal Department Operations Survey shows that half of the respondents plan to address their contract management technology over the next 12 months, and almost 60 percent plan to evaluate their document management technology. 

The Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Legal Operations Team

This blend of bringing on both humans and technology to make legal departments more efficient may come as a surprise to those who have listened to the rumors surrounding AI’s supposed replacement of human legal professionals. While technology won’t be replacing humans in the legal department any time soon, it will increasingly aid departments’ humans to be more productive. 

One of the most significant opportunities for legal departments to implement technology to improve operations is contract management. The International Association of Contract and Commercial Management issued research showing that improving contract management can increase corporate profitability by nearly 10 percent annually. Implementing a contract lifecycle management (CLM) system helps legal operations not only contribute to such an increase in revenue, but to streamline the management of each contract so volumes of vital contracts remain error- and risk-free. CLM software helps organizations integrate automation into the lifecycle of a contract so humans aren’t burdened with repetitive tasks, contracts are secure through software-based storage, and approvals happen more quickly. 

The Impact on General Counsel

The role of the general counsel is also shifting in the wake of expanding legal operations, and one of the effects is integrating the in-house legal team with the rest of the business to understand various issues faced by other departments. Overall, it’s clear that legal department expansion not only offers general counsel the ability to become a more strategic member of the business, but it intertwines legal into the rest of the business as a whole. 

To optimize your legal department for this change, bring the right people and the right technology into your business. Consider exploring technologies such as contract lifecycle management software to offload repetitive tasks and leverage automation. Your future legal operations team will be the most efficient it can be. 

For more, download Legal Department Operations: A Guide for General Counsel.