Category: News Feeds

* Elon musk has joined the list of celebrities who have behaved poorly at depositions. [Business Insider]

* A Texas lawyer has been convicted of scamming Colombian drug dealers out of $1.5M. Guess there is no honor among theives. [Dallas Morning News]

* Lawyers have sought a delay of the trial involving former House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s alleged agreement to pay hush money to a former student. [NBC Chicago]

* A California court has found that a municipality’s requirement that city attorneys graduate from an ABA-approved law school is constitutional. This seems like a pretty basic requirement. [The Recorder]

* A copyright lawsuit about Taylor Swift’s song “Shake It Off” has been revived. I’m not going to make the same lazy joke about this story that pretty much every news source has already made… [USA Today]

* Two California law firms have settled a suit alleging that they engaged in a civil RICO conspiracy by filing ADA claims and forcing defendants to fork over quick settlements to avoid costly litigation. [ABA Journal]

* The first lawsuit against a fertility doctor accused of substituting his own sperm for that of an anonymous donor has been filed. This story sounds like a bad version of that Vince Vaughn flick Delivery Man. [CBS Denver]

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.

The latest move in the country’s long-running dispute between the Government and its bureaucracy came when the Apex Council, representing all PS employees except those in the security and health sectors, delivered the ultimatum to President, Emmerson Mnangagwa.

It comes at a time when junior doctors at Government hospitals are already on strike, demanding a review of their salaries in line with the prevailing interbank exchange rate.

The doctors say their current fixed salaries are too quickly eroded by inflation, which the International Monetary Fund has estimated is running at 300 per cent annually.

The Apex Council said the notification of inability to work did not amount to a strike, but nevertheless urged the Government not to victimise any worker who failed to report for duty due to lack of money for transport.

“This declaration is meant to protect those of our number, who are the majority, that at any one time they may find themselves unable to proceed to work because they have no money for transport, food and accommodation and more,” the Apex Council said.

It stressed that Government workers should not borrow money for transport as it was the responsibility of their employer to adequately provide such funds.

The Apex Council statement noted that inflation had eroded the average PS employee’s salary from A$730 in 2018 to A$58 today — “and it is declining further every day”.

“We are the only people carrying the burden of austerity … our salaries are first taxed by the employer, then the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and more steeply by mobile money agencies,” the Apex Council said.

“We cannot bear the burden of austerity on our own.”

In August the Government suspended publication of annual inflation figures until February 2020, arguing the move was meant to avoid miscalculation of the country’s inflation rate.

In what is being seen as an attempt to appease PS employees, the Government has announced it will pay them full end-of-year bonuses pegged on gross income — a departure from last year, when the so-called thirteenth cheque was based on pensionable salaries.

There was widespread anger last year after the bonuses workers were paid reflected only the basic salary without allowances being factored in.

Post published in: Business

The last round of fuel price hikes on Oct. 5. saw prices rise 27% and was followed by a 320% increase in the cost of electricity, triggering a spike in the cost of basic goods such as sugar, maize meal and milk.

Petrol will now cost 16.67 Zimbabwe dollars ($1.07) a litre while diesel will cost 17.47 Zimbabwe dollars, the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Agency said.

The latest hike has failed to ease nationwide shortages, with most of the fuel pumps in the capital still dry.

With prices surging, economists examining the official monthly data put inflation in September at 380%.

Hopes that the economy would quickly rebound under President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who took over after the late Robert Mugabe was deposed in a coup in 2017, have dimmed fast as ordinary people grapple with economic hardships.

The southern African nation is experiencing its worst economic crisis in a decade, seen in the triple-digit inflation, 18-hour power cuts and shortages of U.S. dollars, medicine and fuel that have evoked the dark days of the 2008 hyperinflation under Mugabe.

Mnangagwa, who critics accuse of lacking commitment to political reforms and using his predecessor’s heavy-handed tactics to stifle dissent, has pleaded for time and patience to bring the economy back from the “dead”. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Alison Williams)

Post published in: Business

What Biglaw firm recently announced their new managing partner (effective January 2020) would be a woman for the first time in the firm’s 183-year history?

Hint: The Am Law 200 firm was founded in 1836, and currently has offices in New York; Washington; Los Angeles; Chicago; Stamford; Parsippany; Houston; San Diego; and Brussels.

See the answer on the next page.

—ADVERTISEMENT—

Passed more than a year ago, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) goes into effect on January 1, 2020. It is considered the most comprehensive privacy law in the United States to date. If corporate legal operation professionals have not taken steps to comply with these new privacy and data protection rules, it is essential to now focus intently on getting your organization ready.

The CCPA was passed in response to growing consumer concern about data protection and privacy and to provide residents of California some level of control over the personal information that companies collect. In mid-October, the California Attorney General’s Office also published proposed regulations designed to help implement the new law and clarify some of the law’s requirements

What is your organization doing to comply? Below is a summary that may prove helpful.

For-profit companies doing business in California that collect the personal information of consumers are required to comply with the CCPA. It is worth noting that your organization need not be headquartered in California to be subject to the law. The CCPA applies to businesses operating in California for which any of the following are true:

• Annual gross revenues over $25M;
• Annually buys, receives, sells, or shares personal information of over 50,000 California consumers, households, or devices; or
• Derives at least 50 percent of its annual revenue from selling California residents personal information.

Clearly, Facebook and Google are implicated here. But companies — even those outside of the Golden State — need to evaluate whether they fall within these parameters.

The protections that the CCPA grants to consumers are fairly broad in scope. California residents will now have the right to know the “what, who, and why” of their personal information, including:

• The categories of information collected, shared, or sold;
• The sources from which their personal information was collected, with whom it was shared, and to whom it was sold; and
• The specific personal information that has collected about that consumer and why it was collected.

California consumers will also be able to request that a company delete the personal information it has collected about them. And residents will also be able to direct a company to not sell their personal information to third parties.

Most regulatory schemes like the CCPA are enforced by the government. But the CCPA also creates a private right of action to consumers. Any consumer may bring an action under the law.

In many companies, legal operations professionals are likely to be asked for input to lead the CCPA compliance efforts. Compliance could also fall to information governance professionals.

In order to meet the obligations of the CCPA, companies will need to begin by (1) analyzing the requirements of the CCPA; (2) identifying the scope of the impact on existing and new processes; (3) assigning specific stakeholders to own the new process; (4) creating a project plan for complying with the law and the new regulatory requirements identified by each organization; and (4) implementing monitoring processes to ensure compliance.

Penalties for noncompliance with the CCPA will range from civil penalties of up to $7,500 per violation to be imposed by the government or $750 per consumer violation for breach of the law in a private action.

The CCPA has been amended to provide a grace period for businesses to come into compliance. The California Attorney General cannot bring an enforcement action until six months after publication of that office’s regulations, or July 1, 2020, whichever comes first. This grace period does not apply, however, to the private right of action consumers can bring under the CCPA.

Earlier this month, the California AG’s office proposed clarifying regulations that mostly outline procedural issues for consumers and the manner in which businesses affected by the law will need to provide notice, respond to consumer requests, and comply with the CCPA.

It would be prudent for companies doing business in California to assess whether they understand the data they are collecting and their internal ability to respond to data subject requests that will inevitably flow from the CCPA. Better yet, perhaps now organizations will begin to evaluate the data they have, why they collect it, and whether they may be able to dispose of it sooner.

There are additional amendments to the CCPA that are still pending in the California legislature. Readers will need to stay tuned to see exactly what the final law looks like.

Mike Quartararo is the managing director of eDPM Advisory Services, a consulting firm providing e-discovery, project management and legal technology advisory and training services to the legal industry. He is also the author of the 2016 book Project Management in Electronic Discovery. Mike has many years of experience delivering e-discovery, project management, and legal technology solutions to law firms and Fortune 500 corporations across the globe and is widely considered an expert on project management, e-discovery and legal matter management. You can reach him via email at mquartararo@edpmadvisory.com. Follow him on Twitter @edpmadvisory.

HARARE, Zimbabwe

Touting for customers, 26-year-old Tenson Javangwe pushes a cart, stopping now and then in the midst of heavy traffic in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, wearing a waist pouch loaded with U.S. and Zimbabwean dollars.

“I make money, my brother. I’m not in Harare to play,” he brags as he gleefully shows off his pouch brimming with mostly U.S. one dollar bills.

Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he said he works extremely hard to earn his own money as a vendor, a job he claims to have started when he was 16.

As Zimbabwe’s economy teeters on the brink of collapse, entrepreneurs like Javangwe are thriving, even as the Poverty Reduction Forum Trust (PRFT) in July this year said an average family of six needed at least 1,685 Zimbabwean dollars to sufficiently secure food and non-food items.

The PRFT is a Zimbabwean civil society organization which seeks to influence the formulation of ‘pro-poor’ policies by conducting research on poverty-related issues and engaging with policymakers.

Although a 2017 report by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT), a semi-autonomous agency under the Ministry of Macro-Economic Planning and Investment Promotion, pointed out that 71% (over 10 million) of the country’s population lived in poverty, vendors like Javangwe claim otherwise.

“I make 80 U.S. dollars every day and I have my own home because of vending using my cart. People see me like a mad person. But I tell you, those are the same people who are crying, saying Zimbabwe’s economy has destroyed them. Yet I have pounded the same harsh economy with my bare hands,” he said.

High unemployment

Although he is no longer among the ranks of Zimbabwe’s poverty-hit, Javangwe is one of millions of unemployed Zimbabweans.

According to labor unions like the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), 90% of the country’s roughly 14 million people are jobless.

Other entrepreneurs like Artwell Hungoidza and Trymore Mdzipurwa are also among the few apparently making strides amid the nation’s comatose economy.
Like Javangwe, they have swum against Zimbabwe’s economic tide, where month-on-month inflation has averaged 17% since February this year, according to civil society organizations like PRFT.

Hungoidza runs a number of market stalls in Mbare Township in Harare, where his business is thriving.

Dollar magic

“I have ditched accepting the Zimbabwean dollar, opting for the U.S. dollar — a true store of value — and people love it because my prices are low and don’t just change overnight, unlike Zimdollar prices,” Hungoidza told Anadolu Agency.

Boasting of employing 70 salespeople at his market stalls dotted around several locations in Harare, he said on a good day, he takes home approximately US$800, meaning on average, he earns US$24,000 a month before deducting rental costs and employee wages.

As such, Hungoidza is one of Zimbabwe’s unsung entrepreneurs who have silently surmounted the country’s economic hardships despite the government imposing a ban this year on the use of all foreign currencies.

Enduring a hostile economy

Even as Zimbabwe’s economy teeters, indigenous entrepreneurs, most of whom are young people, are having to make do with the harsh economy.

Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate soared to nearly 300% in August, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Despite this, Mdzipurwa, who has invested in events management, has made a mark within two years after starting his business.

Not a crybaby anymore like many in Zimbabwe who daily bemoan the country’s faltering economy, Mdzipurwa is now a topnotch events manager and owns an events company called Kimstan Enterprises Private Limited.

In a country with approximately five million people involved in indigenous businesses, according to the government, of which Mdzipurwa now stands out, he said on average, he makes approximately US$400 at the minor events he secures weekly.

“I started my events company in 2017. It was not easy for me to penetrate the market, as it was already dominated by great people by the time I joined the industry. I would ‘play for free’ during some events to endear myself to the market,” he said.