Category: News Feeds

To:
1- Gokwe Town Council;
2- The district Development Coordinator- Gokwe South;
3- The resident Minister;
4- The Dispol, ZRP Gokwe
5- The Minister of Local Government
6- ZACC;
7- National Prosecuting Authority
8- Propol, ZRP Midlands Province

From: Anti-Corruption Trust of Southern Africa- Zimbabwe Chapter- 16, 2nd Ave, Kwekwe, Tel: 055-2525235 e-mail: [email protected]

Date: 4 June 2020

Re: Stop Persecuting Whistleblowers who exposed Corruption at Gokwe Town Council
—————————————————————-
ACT-SA is gravely disturbed by reports of increased reprisals against individuals suspected of having exposed corruption at Gokwe Town Council that resulted in the arrest of the Town Secretary Melania Mandeya and the Director of Finance. After the expose the management of the local authority and it’s sympathisers launched a ‘witch hunting’ mission to identify the whistleblowers. All those suspected of having leaked the corruption scandals are facing increased reprisals on a daily basis. In one of the reports received, a suspected whistleblower was visited and threatened during the night. The matter was reported at CID Gokwe. In another case, a suspected whistleblower is facing trumped-up charges that are allegedly totally unfounded. Other suspected whistleblowers are being harassed by the local authority.

That said these suspected whistleblowers are exposed to great danger and hence this request for the following
1- That the Gokwe ZRP Dispol gives security to these suspected whistleblowers
2- That the Gokwe ZRP Dispol launches an investigation of these allegations of reprisals against whistleblowers in Gokwe
3- That policy/law makers make it criminal for anyone to threaten whistleblowers
4- That ZACC investigates and takes appropriate action
5- Punitive action against all those threatening whistleblowers

Post published in: Featured

Mpofu is accused of obstructing the course of justice after he allegedly represented in court a nonexistent person who was allegedly challenging President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s appointment of Prosecutor-General Kumbirai Hodzi. Below is the association’s statement which was issued before Mpofu was granted $20 000 bail on Wednesday.

1. The Southern African Development Community Lawyers’ Association  (SADC-LA) condemns the acute escalation of the harassment and intimidation of lawyers in the region. The most recent of which is the curious arrest of Advocate Thabani Mpofu in Zimbabwe. There remains a sustained trajectory of attacks on the independence of the legal profession in the region.

2. SADC-LA is deeply concerned about the manner of arrest and further detention of Advocate Thabani Mpofu in circumstances that show deployment of excessive state force. In this regard, Advocate Thabani Mpofu’s home was besieged by 11 armed police on 31 May 2020 and the deployment of a special Police Anti-Corruption unit against a single and cooperative legal practitioner indicates use of excessive force. Advocate Mpofu handed himself over to the police in the company of his lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa on 1 June 2020. Presently, he is detained at Rhodesville Police Station in circumstances where he is cooperating but the police have unusually elected to use maximum means of restraining him.

3. SADC-LA notes that the use of excessive force in this matter and preference of charges that constitute a matter which is sub judice is a travesty of justice and an affront to the rule of law. Further, that there is a submission pointing to the fact that the state is aware of the existence of which litigant it claims is fake. At the time of releasing this statement, a third and equally frail charge had been preferred on him concerning the irregularity of the source of fees paid to Advocate Mpofuin respect of a different matter. In all instances, Advocate Mpofu as an Advocate would have never come into contact with individual clients or their funds but with instructing attorneys who could have been responsible for both client and payment.

4. In the premises the proceedings deployed by the state appear to the SADC-LA to be prima facie a deliberate attempt tp victimise and intimidate a lawyer who was acting in the course of his professional mandate. An act that unlawfully associates a lawyer with the cause of his client.

5. We seek urgent assurance from the Committee of Ministers of Justice and Attorneys General of SADC that the independence of the legal profession still remains guaranteed in the constitutions of member states, Further that the regional body will remind the political leadership of SADC of their duty to take measures to ensure that lawyers involved in the complaint or in the investigation of human rights violations are protected against ill-treatment, intimidation or reprisals.

6. The Association stands with the legal profession of Zimbabwe and all concerned citizens in calling for the immediate response of the Zimbabwean government to guarantee the safety and security of Advocate Thabani Mpofu and all legal practitioners, and to ensure that due process is carried out in a fair and proportionate manner.

Post published in: Featured

Flatten the Research Curve

Flatten the Research Curve

Wolters Kluwer

Ed. Note: Welcome to our daily feature Trivia Question of the Day!

According to data collected by the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, for the Class of 2019, what percentage of July first-time bar passers from ABA-accredited law schools had full-time, long-term jobs where bar passage was required?

Hint: The number dipped ever so slightly from last year, but it’s still a very strong stat.

See the answer on the next page.

“Roger was a victim of a corrupt and illegal Witch Hunt, one which will go down as the greatest political crime in history. He can sleep well at night!,” the president tweeted yesterday. Which is an odd way to describe a unanimous jury verdict and conviction secured by his own Justice Department, but Donald Trump’s commitment to logical consistency is spotty at best.

Trump was responding to a tweet by conservative agitator Charlie Kirk, who went to college for five minutes before dropping out to write books about the scam of higher education and practice the art of wingnut grifting full time.

The president duly RT’d. Which is probably not an official pardon.

Here on Planet Earth, Roger Stone was convicted of lying to congress, obstruction, and tampering with a witness. Because when the House Intelligence Committee asked him “So you have no emails to anyone concerning the allegations of hacked documents . . . or any discussions you have had with third parties about Julian Assange? You have no emails, no texts, no documents whatsoever, any kind of that nature?” Roger Stone said, “That is correct.”

In fact, he had multiple exchanges with conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi and shock jock Randy Credico exhorting them to use their connections to find out which stolen Clinton campaign emails Wikileaks had received from the Russians, and when they were going to be released.

“Get to Assange at Ecuadorian Embassy in London and get the pending Wikileaks emails . . . they deal with Foundation, allegedly,” he texted Corsi on July 25, 2016.

“Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps. One shortly after I’m back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging,” Corsi emailed Stone on August 2, 2016.

Then Stone tried desperately to throw the Intel Committee off the trail by leading them to believe that Credico was his connection to Assange, and Corsi was not, going so far as to threaten to kidnap Credico’s dog if he wouldn’t go along with the deception when he testified before congress. And he did it all by text, leaving a digital trail a mile wide. Which is why a jury of his peers found him guilty on all seven counts.

After an angry Trump tweet, Bill Barr leapt in to cut the legs out from under the Stone prosecutors, forcing them to walk back their own nine year sentencing recommendation in favor a mealy-mouthed statement that they’d rely on the court to be fair. This prompted four line attorneys to withdraw from the case, with one resigning from the DOJ entirely. But apparently this intervention for Donald Trump’s pal Roger, won’t cut it, because it still winds up with him serving time like any other criminal.

Without further intervention, Stone will have to report to serve his sentence on June 30. But, as Josh Gerstein at Politico notes, while Stone has appealed his conviction, he hasn’t moved postpone serving the sentence. Does he have it on good information that he can “sleep well at night” because he’ll never serve a night in jail?

We’ll have to watch Trump’s twitter feed to find out.

“LAW AND ORDER!” the president tweeted last night, without a hint of irony.

Indictment [U.S. v. Roger Stone, No. 1:19-cr-00018-ABJ (D.D.C. January 24, 2019)]

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Elizabeth Dye (@5DollarFeminist) lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

You know that great idea you had that just ended up languishing half-finished in your basement? The one that probably would be worth something if you just took the time out of your already busy schedule to get it done and show it off to the world?

Well, statistically speaking, your idea is probably worthless. But there are big companies out there with some actual expertise who live out the exact same scenario on a higher level. For these companies, it’s all about intellectual property amassed over the years that they never really leveraged or that they used for their own very limited purposes without considering how others could deploy it for their own applications. But with the economy mired in the rough, it might be time to take stock of what’s down in the proverbial basement and see if it has any value.

But that’s easier said than done for these companies, which is where a new joint venture between Polsinelli and UnitedLex comes in. The idea is to take the IP experience of an established law firm and partner it with the technological advantages of a legal services company, with the result being a new approach to IP investment, management, and, where necessary, enforcement capable of bringing new revenue streams to businesses with under-leveraged intellectual property.

From a press release announcing the venture:

Providing a synergistic approach to patent drafting and prosecution, the partnership of Polsinelli and UnitedLex provides many business-level advantages, including: the ability to handle large patent prosecution projects; a coordinated process that ensures issuance and the strongest possible patent coverage; strategic advice regarding patent filings, including identifying the most impactful markets to pursue; and, the development of a large patent portfolio without a need for extensive in-house resources.

Polsinelli Intellectual Property Department Chair Patrick C. Woolley explained that companies should reconfigure how they think about intellectual property. “IP should be considered a ‘real’ asset with many advantages compared to traditional real assets. Our goal is to enable companies to protect and develop new assets while establishing a new way of leveraging valuable IP assets for years to come.”

Like many of the tech advancements hitting the legal industry these days, it’s unfortunate that it takes a global pandemic to spur changes, but if this leads to a revolution in how companies understand their own assets it should return dividends for years to come.

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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.

Why am I not getting the same opportunities? I know how black people see and think. It is very similar to how my grandparents felt, my parents felt. How I feel. We’ve expressed that, so now I think other people need to do the hard work of challenging what they’re thinking and feeling and doing something about it.

How do non-black people address racial issues in their circle and their family? On the golf course? How do they respond to comments and statements and stereotypes? The rooms that black people aren’t in, those are the environment where people need to stand up and speak out and have the courage to speak out. Those backroom deals, the golf course, those are incredibly important for justice and equality.

— Angela Crawford, co-founder of corporate compliance boutique Crawford & Acharya who previously spent time as a partner at both DLA Piper and Kirkland & Ellis, commenting on the inequalities black lawyers face in Biglaw. According to the latest data from ALM, while black lawyers make up 3.6 percent of the Biglaw community, only 2.1 percent of them have been elevated to the ranks of partnership within the Am Law 200.

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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.