Category: News Feeds

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted virtually every facet of life, entirely reshaping the world around us. The legal profession has been hit particularly hard, with entire firms leaving their offices to work from home just to remain healthy. Law firms across the globe have made major changes just to survive, and transaction management is facing unprecedented challenges. Given the forced course correction the law has had to take, Above the Law and Litera have partnered to get a better sense of how firms are responding to the coronavirus crisus and what tools legal professionals are using to help them reprioritize and reconfigure their workflows and client relationships.

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Please click the button below to help us gain insights into how your firms have been dealing with workflow during the COVID-19 outbreak.

We are all wondering what our new normal will look like. The COVID-19 global pandemic has changed a lot — made fashion statements out of masks, made folks scared to go to the grocery story, and made the concept of big events seem laughable — and when (if?) we ever start to loosen restrictions and start doing the things the virus halted, we want to know HOW we will be able to so them.

According to our friends at Legal Cheek, one law firm has made an interesting choice about their future work environment. Nottingham, England, firm April King Legal has opted to set up a series of tents to maximize worker safety. The firm’s founder and CEO, Paul King, had this to say about the new set up:

“Our open plan office at April King Legal required a creative solution to the issue of a potential airborne virus,” King told Legal Cheek. “Simple perspex screens do not offer maximum protection so the idea of ‘legal glamping’ was born.”

He continued:

“Our staff are starting to return from next week but feedback so far has been really positive. So much so that I’m thinking of making it a permanent fixture. Deck chairs are on order and an Xmas theme may include artificial snow for our ‘ski lodges’. A workplace can be both productive and fun! Something we all need especially at the moment.”

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so, um, yeah. Take a look at the law firm of the future.

And if you had “we all work in tents from now on” on your 2020 BINGO card, well, you get a shiny gold star.

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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).

Remember when immigration judges were supposed to be neutral arbitrators, pursuing justice through careful fact-based inquiries? Me neither, but even lip service has been suspended at the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the subagency within DOJ that runs the immigration courts. Documents recently released under the Freedom of Information Act request show that the Trump administration deliberately politicized the hiring process for immigration judges.

Some background is in order. There is a Board of Immigration Appeals, which hears appeals from the front-line immigration courts. The BIA sets precedent (when AGs don’t overrule it for expressly political purposes) based on those appeals, just like the Article III system. So it matters who’s on the BIA.

DOJ clearly thinks so too because, back in 2018, it created four new seats on the BIA, then filled those, plus two actual vacancies, with six judges who had asylum denial rates of 81% or higher, according to Tal Kopan at the San Francisco Chronicle. Two of those judges had been sued for apparent attempts to intimidate immigrants; one of those had multiple sustained ethics complaints against him. But apparently that wasn’t enough to ensure that immigrants would always lose, so DOJ created three more seats at the end of March (effective the next day!) and hired three more judges who were sworn in May 1. Two of the three were sitting immigration judges, with asylum denial rates of 96.3% and 88.1%. The average, by the way, is 57.6%.

All of this was done under new hiring rules that EOIR did not make entirely public. The American Immigration Council and the American Immigration Lawyers Association filed a FOIA request. The results of the inevitable lawsuit came in earlier this month, and they show exactly what you’d expect: EOIR has changed the hiring rules to give political appointees more power over the hiring process, taking that power away from apolitical career civil servants. It has also dramatically shortened the timeline for hiring, including by permitting candidates to advance before vetting is completed.

A spokeswoman for EOIR told Roll Call that the agency’s hiring process is “merit-based.” Tellingly, however, she expressly asked Roll Call not to put her name on that nonsense.

If any of this sounds familiar, it might be because politicized personnel decisions at DOJ — particularly, but not exclusively, the dismissal of insufficiently conservative U.S. Attorneys — led or contributed to the resignation of former AG Alberto Gonzales. (This could also be called “the Monica Goodling scandal,” although I hesitate to put it that way because a brief search through ATL’s archives shows that David Lat was a bit obsessed at the time.) In fact, the new EOIR hiring process replaces one instituted after the U.S. Attorneys incident, expressly to reduce the influence of politics. Because, back in the halcyon days of 2007, politicizing DOJ was a scandal that both parties objected to.

But in 2020, that’s an almost weekly occurrence. Michael Flynn’s case probably rose above your constant outrage fatigue, but the systemic, far-reaching politicization of the immigration courts isn’t likely to make the cut. That’s too bad because this is almost certainly going to result in wrongfully deporting people to their deaths.

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Lorelei Laird is a freelance writer specializing in the law, and the only person you know who still has an “I Believe Anita Hill” bumper sticker. Find her at wordofthelaird.com.

Energy Mutodi is a trained High School Teacher who has also ventured into music, real estate, and politics.

No doubt he is a versatile enterprising character, and it is unfair to take away his drive for personal development. He has got a number of degrees reported to be in his name, including an academic doctorate that he happily flaunts around with a trademark social media profile picture of him donning a PhD cap and gown.

Mutodi’s music career was more of a funded project that depended on massive promotion of well packaged mediocrity than talent and substance.

His venture into real estate left a legacy of conning, embezzlement, broken promises, legal battles, undelivered results, public anguish, mass betrayal, and lost investments.

There is next to nothing to show for the hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions that people invested into Mutodi’s housing project, only to be told endless stories of why the promised land or houses were taking forever to be delivered, something that did not materialise in the end.

Little is known about his teaching career, but his subsequent conduct and character in the public domain do not read like that of someone that could be trusted with moulding future lives of children.

So how did someone like this end up a whole Deputy Minister? His mediocrity is a matter definition than opinion, and it is written all over his face, voice and character. He openly carries himself like an annoying idiot, and there is no second-guessing about that. A two-minute visit to his Twitter account is all that is needed to substantiate the assertion above.

Patronage rewards and it rewards handsomely sometimes. This is why Mutodi looked at our political system and realised that all he needed was to align himself with ruling political elites, arm himself with an aura of intellectualism; contrived, acquired, or earned; whichever was quicker and achievable.

So he went into his scandalous housing project fully knowing that he just needed an exit plan after collecting people’s hard-earned money in the pretext that his project would deliver cheap homes to people. Of course, the exit plan for all such people like Mutodi is impunity deriving from corrupt political connections connecting right to top echelons of power.

In short, he joined the notorious cartel of land barons that have ripped off Zimbabweans in recent years; coming clothed in ZANU-PF robes. They are many, and only those that went astray with political correctness have been punished- albeit politically and never judicially. They can’t be taken to jail or to court for fear of exposing the worst in the system.

This is the only reason Energy Mutodi was serving as a Deputy Minister, not a long term prisoner.

So the President saw it fit to politically reward Mutodi for his appreciated runner role against G40 machinations when factionalism was at its peak in Zanu-PF.

He did a lot to send coded messages about ED’s hidden presidential ambitions at the time, including the famed picture where he and ED posed with a mug marked “I am the Boss.”

That did not only sent shockwaves into the opposite camp but also got Jonathan Moyo to look for Sydney Sekeramayi as a counter decoy to try and neutralise ED’s influence within ZANU-PF.

Certainly, no one bothered to orient Mutodi on policy regarding Information, Publicity or Broadcasting. There is a lady Minister there doing a fairly decent job overseeing the sector, and Mutodi was deployed there as a do-nothing deputy, only there to enjoy the perks.

Idleness and mediocrity are a bad combination. They created a nonsense-tweeting idiot out of the evidently energetic Energy Mutodi, and the man became a Grade A Nuisance on social media, annoying friends, foes and neutrals in equal measure.

He was a burdensomely unhelpful comrade to the Vakarashi Brigade and a provocative idiot to the opposition.

The cost of rewarding mediocrity is what Mutodi’s has taught us as a nation.

What was such a man doing in the top 100 politicians governing our country? He does not even deserve to govern himself, all respect being accorded to him, and to whoever appointed him.

Now that he has been relieved of his duties in government, can the appointing authority begin to look at merit before loyalty, merit before factional affiliation, merit before patronage, and of course merit before ethnicity and tribe?

Zimbabwe we are one and together we will overcome. It is homeland or death!

Post published in: Featured

As if the law school class of 2023 didn’t have enough to worry about with a cratering job market and a literal plague out there, Harvard Law School is offering one more twist of the knife over the summer by reminding everyone that they didn’t get into Harvard.

Specifically, the school is opening up its “Zero-L” program — an online program designed to orient students to the law school vibe before physically arriving on campus. While designed to help incoming Harvard Law students, the school is offering it to the masses (through participating law schools) this year since the world is burning and there’s only so much original Netflix content. A nice gesture for everyone who didn’t need to be reminded that they’re going to Hollywood Upstairs Law School (an Infilaw company).

In all seriousness, the Zero-L initiative is a welcome recognition by a law school that students don’t necessarily come to the first day of class with the same set of experiences. Fourth-generation lawyers-to-be find their footing in lectures far faster than those coming to the law cold and for decades schools have acted like this is complete happenstance.

Harvard Law School Dean John F. Manning ’85, a first-generation college graduate and law school student, knows from personal experience the importance of what a program like Zero-L has to offer. “When I arrived at HLS as a first-year student, I felt very much out of my depth in those crucial first weeks. I didn’t know the differences between state and federal courts, what the common law was, or even what a ‘litigator’ does for a living. Like a lot of other new law students, I felt that everyone around me ‘got it,’ and I just didn’t. We launched Zero-L to give incoming students from day one a common baseline of knowledge about the American legal system and about the vocabulary of law and to give them the confidence that they can succeed.”

The course provides 12-14 hours of material and “optional comprehension checks” — definitely the term we should’ve used in lieu of “Pass/Fail” — and participating law schools can offer modules from the whole Zero-L catalog to tailor the course to their incoming class. It’s nice to see this opened up to more schools (Boston College, Northeastern University, Seton Hall University and the University of Baltimore were offering the program already) although one hopes this could inspire schools to make their own versions of the program rather than relying on presentations from professors the students are never going to see again. Not that I’m suggesting schools force faculty to take on extra work without additional compensation, but for a modest investment, every school could have their own programs modeled on Harvard’s.

Because as nice as this is, it definitely just reminds people that they aren’t good enough to go to Harvard.

Well, except the Yale folks.

Harvard makes online course for incoming students available to all law schools for free this summer [Harvard Law Today]

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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.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is getting a lot of stick these days for his wife’s alleged habit of using State Department employees to run her errands, and then for getting his inspector general fired when said inspector general decided to generally inspect that practice. Now comes word that Pompeo also throws lavish dinners at taxpayer expense of questionable diplomatic value.

State Department officials involved in the dinners said they had raised concerns internally that the events were essentially using federal resources to cultivate a donor and supporter base for Pompeo’s political ambitions — complete with extensive contact information that gets sent back to Susan Pompeo’s personal email address.

* Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former attorney, will finally be released today from prison to serve the rest of his sentence at home. His situation is not unlike many Americans right now. [BBC]

* Environmental lawyer Steven Donziger has been ordered to continue his home confinement pending a contempt of court trial in September. Again, less of a burden given the current environment. [Intercept]

* A New York lawyer who forgot to attend oral arguments has been forced to pay his adversary’s costs for coming to the courthouse. [ABA Journal]

* The College Board is facing a class action lawsuit over glitches with online Advanced Placement exams. [Washington Post]

* An Ohio lawyer has been suspended for a number of ethical violations, including offering a client a Xanax. [Bloomberg Law]

* Kendall Jenner has agreed to pay $90,000 because of her promotion of the ill-fated Fyre Festival. If you haven’t seen the documentaries about this dumpster fire of an event, check them out! [Page Six]

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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.

Mr Cross said that, in order to avoid Zim dollar depreciation and triggering inflation, RBZ is not increasing the money supply as it introduces new Zim dollar notes.

Rather, its only increasing the cash supply and leave the money supply as it was before the new $10 and $20 notes. This is being done by swapping existing RTGS electronic balances with the new cash notes.

That means banks will have to first remit RTGS electronic balances to RBZ and,in return, RBZ will release new notes to them. Here’s the full statement by Eddie Cross:

If there is an increase in the amount of money in circulation, as was happening during the Gideon Gono era, then there is direct relationship between money supply, exchange rate and the inflation

But the only way to prevent the increase in base money (total money supply) with new cash in the market and the impact on the exchange rate is for the banks to acquire these notes using their RTGS dollar balances.

What we are doing is that we are swapping existing RTGS cash for cash in another form and so there is no impact on money supply and if we maintain that everything should be fine.

In normal circumstances, increasing cash supply without increasing money supply should not lead to a further loss of value of the Zimbabwe dollar nor trigger inflation.

However,a deep-seated mistrust of the RBZ by the public has given birth to speculation that the central bank is actually increasing money supply and not merely increasing cash supply.

As a result, the black market has swiftly reacted by increasing the exchange rate of US Dollars to Zim dollars to at least ZWL$53. Business will likely increase their prices to neutralize this loss of value of the Zimbabwe dollar against the US dollar and,as a result, this will lead to an increase in inflation.

Post published in: Business

Chitungwiza Municipality has issued a cease notice to a Chitungwiza woman who was feeding hundreds of people per day through her soup kitchen during the lockdown. This was revealed in a letter addressed to the lady who operates the Chitungwiza Kitchen.

The notice issued by the Chitungwiza local authority to Samatha Muzoreki reads:

Dear Madam

You being guided by this notice that the above mentioned feeding kitchen taking place has not been approved by this department according to Chitungwiza Urburn Council By-laws, 1981 part 11,6. You are being advised by this office to take neccessary procedures to meet minimun requirements for a feeding kitchen. You are therefore advised to cease operations with immediate effect.

According to one Twimbo, some people went home crying when they were told there will be no food tomorrow. This did not go down well with one Twimbo who said the local authority must have stepped in to help her comply with their bylaws.

Samantha was reportedly serving 1500 meals per day through her Kitchen.

Post published in: Featured

Three female leaders, members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change–Alliance (MDC-Alliance) were allegedly abducted in Harare by some unknown men, last week, on Wednesday. They had first been arrested at roadblock.

Abducted and tortured

The three women were later found on Friday severely beaten and traumatised. They had been dumped by the roadside some 80 kilometres north of Harare in Zimbabwe.

The opposition leaders were part of an MDC-Alliance COVID-19 demonstration that the government termed illegal. The three, Joana Mamombe (MP for Harare West), Cecilia Chimbiri (MDC Alliance Youth Assembly Vice-Chair) and Netsai Marova (Deputy Organising Secretary of the Youth wing) were protesting the government’s COVID-19 lockdown implemented without social protection for the country’s poor.

Christian leaders say attacks offend Christian and cultural norms

In a strongly-worded statement released in the capital, Harare this week, the Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations (ZHOCD) to which the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference (ZCBC) is a part, denounced the abductions of the female MDC leaders. They also drew attention to the brutal assault of two Zimbabwean women in the country’s second-largest city, Bulawayo, on 16 April at the hands of six police officers.

“Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations (ZHOCD) has received with shock and disbelief the news of yet another abduction and inhuman treatment of three young women including a Member of Parliament. This comes only some few days after the barbaric physical assault of two women, Ntombizodwa and Nokuthula Mpofu, of Cowdray Park, Bulawayo by six police officers. It should be stated that the reports suggesting that Harare West Legislator, Joana Mamombe and her colleagues Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova were taken from police custody, and were tortured and sexually assaulted and inhumanely treated by yet to be known agents point to something that is against the heart of the Constitution of Zimbabwe and the various International Conventions to which Zimbabwe is a signatory and, above all, to our cultural norms and our fundamental Christian beliefs regarding the sanctity and dignity of life,” said Zimbabwe’s Church leaders.

Need for a full investigation

“First, it is deeply disturbing that the country has seen so many cases of abductions in the last few months, most of which have not been conclusively investigated. What is further disturbing are the insinuations, from some state agents, that all these abductions arc either stage-managed or carried out by an unrecognisable “third force” without substantiating such claims with credible and irrefutable evidence. This constitutes the denigration of responsibility of the highest order on the part of government,” said the Church leaders.

ZHOCD has called for a full investigation. They condemn the ill-treatment of women as a whole, particularly, “in 2020 when the whole world is celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Beijing Declaration, which was a global high point in recognition of the dignity of women after centuries of patriarchal domination and treatment of women as second class citizens of the world.”

Amnesty International decries disappearances

Muleya Mwananyanda, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for East and Southern Africa, condemned the abduction of the three MDC female politicians.

“Zimbabwe has a history of enforced disappearances, with some activists having gone missing for years now. Many activists have been tortured in police custody, despite denials by police,” said the Amnesty International representative.

Various rights groups say since 2019, about 50 social and political activists have been abducted and tortured by unknown persons. One of 2019’s widely publicised abduction was of Peter Magombeyi, leader of Zimbabwe’s medical doctors, who were agitating for better working conditions.  He was taken away by some unknown men, beaten and later dumped by the roadside.

Zimbabwe’s Minister of Home Affairs orders an investigation

Zimbabwe’s Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister, Kazembe Kazembe has since ordered the Commissioner-General of Police to institute a full-scale investigation into the abduction of the three female MDC leaders. He said the Commissioner-General should “establish what transpired, who did what, and the motive behind the actions.”

Church leaders pledge continued pastoral care

In the meantime, Zimbabwe’s Church leaders under the auspices of ZHOCD have pledged to continue offering pastoral support, comfort and protection to all victims of abductions and brutality.