Zimbabweans thrive amid economic crisis – The Zimbabwean

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.

How Much is 100 Trillion Dollars Worth? – The Zimbabwean

Where do you go when the ATM runs out of cash? Has your bank ever failed to provide your requested withdrawal amount? Zimbabweans today continue to endure the complicated relationship their government has with money. The current recession in this southern African nation has highlighted the government’s inability to seize control of its crippling economy. Since the mid-2000s, the rise and fall of Zimbabwe’s inflation has been met with desperate attempts to save the country’s currency and address overwhelming cash shortages. Encapsulating the severity of the situation, Zimbabweans once carried banknotes labeled “Twenty Billion Dollars,” which amounts to an inconceivable $0.00008. Moreover, the depreciated value of their former 100 trillion dollar bill ($0.40) could not even pay for a few groceries. The financial hyperboles in Zimbabwean banknotes were counteracted by a move to solely accept foreign currencies for local transactions. Unfortunately, this multi-currency practice proved unsustainable, leaving Zimbabwe under the will of US pricing, which further spiked inflation. However, in a recent attempt to revive the economy, the government announced plans to return to its original currency—the Zimbabwean dollar (Zimdollar). This reintroduced sovereign currency will soon be the only acceptable currency for future transactions. In enacting such a bold, fiscal move, one must consider the consequent implications.

In December 2018, I became keenly aware of the financial peril Zimbabweans are facing during a simple trip to the supermarket. As an American traveling in Zimbabwe, I was privileged to have US currency on hand to complete local transactions. At the time, the US dollar was among the acceptable currencies in the country, along with the euro and South African rand. Unaware of the high consumer costs, I begrudgingly handed the cashier $20 for five apples, four bananas, two pastries, and one cup of yogurt. Astonished by the high total, I had no choice but to pay the amount due to scarce food sources in the immediate region. Exiting the grocery store, I became a target for people attempting to sell unusable Zimbabwean currency. One man pleaded, “Look! A $250,000 bill! Please use this as a souvenir.” The impending future of the reinstated Zimdollar must not be reduced to a souvenir of its pastime.

In these situations, consumers are left wondering whether Zimbabwe’s economic reform will be restricted to the mere liberation of financial institutions. Will regard to citizen livelihood, like the cost of living, also be taken into account? For Zimbabweans, addressing the devaluation problem could be a way to address broader economic problems.

Economic reform is no easy mountain to climb. During the 2009-2019 abolishment of the Zimdollar, strides in reformation came in the form of Ecocash—Zimbabwe’s mobile-money system for electronic transactions. Hyperinflation was the root cause of the abolishment and has remained an unfortunate trend in Zimbabwe as the inflation rate experiences dangerous periods of escalation. The landlocked nation suffers poor monetary policy, making it exceedingly expensive to produce goods.

Therefore, many local businesses opt to import foreign goods at the expense of affordability. According to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) recent data, Zimbabwean currency experienced a striking sub-200 percent inflation in August 2019. This is considered the highest inflation rate in the world. Zimbabwean financial journalist, Chris Muronzi reports, “This is not the first time Zimbabwe has experienced high inflation. Government figures show Zimbabwe’s peak inflation rate was 79.6 billion percent month-on-month and 89.7 sextillion percent year-on-year in mid-November 2009.

Hyperinflation only ended the following year with the adoption of the US dollar.” The value of the Zimdollar consistently plummets compared to other currencies. The drastic differences have stimulated a growing black market of exchange for foreign currencies. Muronzi adds, “…it took 20 Zimdollars to buy one U.S. dollar hard currency note on Harare’s (capital of Zimbabwe) black-market exchanges.” A debilitated currency coupled with an unstable black market stimulates the rising consumer costs of goods. What Zimbabwe needs is adequate IMF assistance void of interest loans, the absolve of foreign debt, and reformed economic policies, which will stifle the growth of the currency black market.

Financial assistance, though not the sole solution to Zimbabwe’s troubles, is a starting point for tackling the fiscal deficit. November 2019 will mark the re-debut of the Zimdollar in banknote form. Zimbabwe’s Monetary Policy Committee predicts that this debut will resuscitate the economy. Financial sustainability must be a priority moving forward in economic reform to prevent a further downward spiral. Zimbabwe currently owes foreign countries over $8 billion in arrears. It is evident that these debts will not be settled any time soon. Therefore, absolving foreign debts is necessary despite donor countries experiencing their own financial shortfalls. To recover what is left of Zimbabwe’s economy, foreign leaders must impart charitable judgement on this occasion. Sustainable economic change is impractical with a black market consisting of foreign currency. Any structural reform needs to encourage both public and private sector growth. The viability of IMF support in Zimbabwe is unclear as the global economy continues to battle its separate, yet related challenges. Challenges such as global poverty, economic development inequalities, and adverse impacts of global corporations are felt on a universal scale. As Zimbabwe continues to undergo trial-and-error processes, one hopes that this new path to economic liberalization comes with rewards.

Zimbabwean girl, 11, says she poked crocodile’s eyes to save friend’s life

Post published in: Business

Let’s Get Wildly Off Topic

Rudy Giuliani (by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia)

This week’s discussion of law firm growth trajectories never gets to happen as Elie’s irritation with Trump’s lawyers spills into the entire show. Becoming a bag man for the Ukraine deal raises ethical concerns, but is merely representing Trump an ethical problem? More to the point, is it something bar disciplinary committees should really be looking into?

Mistakes

You’ll make mistakes as a lawyer.  “We all make mistakes,” I hear.  Lawyers, judges, law professors, students, friends, and family all make mistakes.

This isn’t a post about the ABA Model rules and committing malpractice.  I’m sure there are lots of posts about avoiding getting sued, fired, or otherwise in trouble for making mistakes.  It’s enough to scare a new lawyer.  Sometimes the CLEs about this will scare you, too.  And I’m not just talking about the fees.

Imagine being perfect.  We actually know people who claim they are.  But they aren’t. Everyone makes mistakes.  Heck, this blog post may be one.  It’ll certainly have grammatical errors and typos.  It may not even be well thought out.

Making mistakes, however, has value.  They make you human.  They make you grow.  They make you learn.  And, they make you humble.

There will be people who will regale in your mistakes, or make sure to keep reminding you about them.  They will make you feel shame about your mistake.  Having your mistake repeatedly shoved in your face will prevent you from learning from it.  Defensiveness isn’t a good way to learn.

But there are paths out of mistake hell.  But those paths aren’t easy.  Most of the blog posts I’ve searched have these as common elements:

  1. Take responsibility for your mistake. It is impossible to learn from a mistake if you are seeking to avoid owning it, or blame others.  Taking ownership is the mature thing to do.  This will be difficult if your boss is abusive or just fires people for fun.  And, the size of the mistake matters.  But regardless, taking ownership is a necessary step.
  1. Correct the mistake, if possible. Some mistakes are correctible.  Some mistakes are not.  Some mistakes continue until behavior is changed.  And some are one-time things.  If the mistake is correctible, you should take steps to correct it.  It might be you do this even before you apologize.  But action demonstrates sincerity.
  1. Implement strategies to not repeat the mistake. If you repeat the same mistakes over and over, that means you have not learned the lessons you were supposed to learn from your mistake.  As an example, I recall as an intern having to do some document review.  I thought it was fun, actually.  However, I was missing the point of document review, and causing some headaches by flagging documents that weren’t important — sometimes, more than once.  I got called out on the mistake.  In response, I asked what I was doing wrong.  In short, I was asking to be taught.  And in doing so, I became a better doc reviewer.  This is what learning from your mistakes means, to teach yourself to avoid making the same mistake repeatedly.
  1. Forgive yourself for your mistake. If you keep beating yourself up for your mistake, you’ll make more mistakes, more often.  You will seep away your own confidence.  You will become your own worst enemy.  If it isn’t you, it might be someone else who tries to shake your by rubbing your face in your mistakes. That is the problem with bosses you scream at you when you make mistakes.  They are basically inducing more mistakes.

If you follow these steps, you’ll learn something about yourself.  Yes, something caused you to make the mistake on a cursory level, but in some instances it is something deep within yourself.  Assess each mistake as an opportunity to learn more about what makes you tick.  That is the path to confidence.

You’ll also learn to be compassionate towards others who make mistakes.  Or at least that is what I would hope would happen, if you’re human.  Often times, people who refuse to look inward do a great job of pointing out the mistakes of others.  We’ve all had that boss who was quick to judge you, but doubly quick to justify their own mistakes with excuses, right?  Don’t be that person.

Mistakes are a part of life.  The important thing is to learn from them, forgive yourself for them, and grow from them.  In short, be human.


LawProfBlawg is an anonymous professor at a top 100 law school. You can see more of his musings here. He is way funnier on social media, he claims. Please follow him on Twitter (@lawprofblawg) or Facebook. Email him at lawprofblawg@gmail.com.

Why Zimbabwe’s consumers favour tough end-of-lay hens to tender broilers – The Zimbabwean

“That gives us the edge over our competition,” says a member of staff at one Sis Bee’s Kitchen outlet. “Our society is getting more perceptive about their food and physical well-being. They like their traditional chicken. But because road-runners have not been commercialised that much yet, we are under-supplied – hence end-of-lay chickens, which are grown commercially, come in. It tastes just like the road-runner.”

Although the end-of-lay chickens are technically an exotic species, they resemble the road-runner in their hardiness – and the lean nature of their meat. Having rendered much value already in terms of the eggs they’ve laid, spent hens give the farmer more when they are bought by restaurants and individuals who crave their almost fat-free meat.

For instance, Mugove Nyoni, a Bulawayo fitness enthusiast says: “I grew up eating the road-runner. I like the toughness of its meat; you almost get no fat in it and it’s tasty like the off-layer.”

Off-layers cost about USD$7 per bird – $3 cheaper than a broiler. Therefore, aside from being attractive because of its perceived health benefits, off-layer meat is increasingly popular due to its lower price.

Rainbow, one of Bulawayo’s biggest hotels, serves traditional food every Wednesday and Friday. End-of-lay and indigenous chickens and sorghum and finger millet meal isitshwala are part of its menu.

“We serve them but the farmer or anyone selling them must represent a company that has a valid tax-clearance certificate,” says Samukele Nkhata, a buyer at the hotel.

While demand from hotels and restaurants is evenly spread across the year, the Christmas period presents opportunities for farmers to sell big volumes directly to consumers hosting weddings and parties.

Like most local farmers, Naomi Bhebhe, who farms in Nyamandlovu, 18 miles west of Bulawayo, does not operate as part of a company, and therefore does not have a tax-clearance certificate. As a result, she is unable to sell directly to Rainbow or Holiday Inn, another leading Bulawayo hotel.

“We have a batch of 9,000 hens that is at point-of-lay,” she says. “In terms of our production cycle, we are getting rid of the older hens to make way for the younger ones. We are fortunate that this Christmas period coincides with one batch being sold off and a newer one coming in. December, as you know, is Zimbabwe’s party month, so it should be easy for us to sell.”

A buyer at one of the city’s hotels says farmers such as Bhebhe, who lack tax certificates, could, in theory, sell to his hotel using other people’s documents. This smacks of criminality but is widely practised in Zimbabwe with little risk of prosecution.

The southern African country, which produces some 15 million dozens of table eggs yearly, is recovering from a bird flu outbreak that saw 180,000 breeding hens being culled last year, resulting in a shortage of day-old chicks. To help revive output, the government suspended duty on imported fertilised eggs in September 2017. The waiver expired in January this year, but will be renewed for a year from 1 January 2019.

According to agricultural economist and newspaper columnist Mhlupheki Dube, egg farmers are paid less for their hens than for broilers. This is somewhat advantageous as the lower price helps them to move big volumes faster when their birds age.

“The value of the layer is in the egg but that of a broiler is in the meat. Therefore, at the end-of-lay stage, the hen would have done its job and what the farmer gets is its residual value. For that reason $7 per bird is actually an attractive price because the hen has already given the farmer about 900 eggs over its production period of 30 months or so”

Some farmers feed their end-of-lay hens on broiler finisher to fatten them, but Bhebhe says doing so destroys the birds’ culinary appeal.

“The reason why customers buy our hens is their leanness. Now, if a farmer fattens the layer he or she is no different from a broiler farmer who strives to achieve weights as high as 2.8kg to 3kg of high-fat birds,” she said.

Reneth Mano, an agricultural economist at the Zimbabwe Poultry Association agrees with her. “A road-runner is popular because it eats the diet of a road-runner. It is raised under the conditions in which road-runners are raised, not those of a broiler,” he says. “So if you want to transform an end-of-lay hen into a broiler you are making a mistake. The market which seeks leaner meat will have no business with you just as they have no business with broiler meat.”

Overall, demand for chicken has grown so rapidly this year that producers are chasing demand, says Mano. Chicken consumption, he adds, has risen by 41 percent.

The reason why customers buy our hens is their leanness. Now, if a farmer fattens the layer he or she is no different from a broiler farmer who strives to achieve weights as high as 2.8kg to 3kg of high-fat birds.

MHLUPHEKI DUBE

“We are bullish about 2019,” he continues. “If we take care of our foreign-currency situation to import soya and vitamins, growth will continue. A drought has been forecast but we are entering it with surplus stocks of maize, a key ingredient in the manufacture of chickenfeed. The poultry industry needs 300,000 to 400,000 tonnes of maize yearly for chickenfeed. As we speak the Grain Marketing Board has more than that in stock. So, yes, we are facing a drought, but I don’t see it affecting the supply of chickenfeed next year.”

His optimism will depend on reliable foreign-currency availability, but the events of the past two months might dash his hopes and those of poultry farmers in general.

In early October the bond, a surrogate local currency, depreciated by more than 600 percent against the US dollar with which it officially trades at par. Although it had recovered to 300 percent by end of November, the margin has remained too wide. Stockfeed prices have shot up to $42 (bond) per 50kg bag from $28 in September. Vaccine prices have risen sharply too, and most suppliers are rejecting payment through the bond, preferring the US dollar or the South African rand, currencies which most farmers do not have access to. Inflation accelerated to 20.85 percent in October, the first time in nine years it has been in double-digit territory.

As Thomas Nherera, a former president of the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union, has said, “The tax incentive is useful but inflationary pressures should be contained for the industry to fully recover from bird flu and grow next year.”

The Future Ready Law Firm: A Guide To New Technologies

Budget season is upon us — and for many law firms, it’s the time of year when any new tech solutions that are being considered for onboarding in the new year will get a thumbs up or thumbs down. As legal technology continues to impact how law firms do business, understanding what technologies are on the market — and what new solutions are on the horizon — has become increasingly vital for legal professionals.

Based on findings from the 2019 Future Ready Lawyer survey published earlier this year, organizations that are already investing in technology are significantly more likely to report higher firm profitability than those organizations that are not adopting technology as quickly. And as Technology Leading firms continue to double down on tech investment — as 65 percent of them indicated in the survey that they intend to do — those firms will become increasingly competitive, widening the gap even further between themselves and lagging organizations.

While these statistics can help to make a business case for legal tech investment, finding the right solution for an organization requires a different kind of conversation — one that is more specific to an organization’s needs. For law firms, there are a number of new types of technology solutions that we expect to see on the rise.

I recently sat down with Jean O’Grady, senior director of information, research & knowledge at DLA Piper US, LLP and author of the acclaimed legal tech website Dewey B. Strategic, to get her take on future technologies that we’re likely to see in the law firm space. Her take: look for increased technology adoption in a few new areas.

“The use of corporate review products like Luminance and Kira has certainly spread,” said Jean. “Analytics products are another area that we’ve seen emerge recently as well. Analytics solutions give lawyers the potential to get insights on trends which may be valuable for litigation strategy. This area has a lot of interest, but I think these solutions pose a challenge for lawyers to understand how to read and interpret the data. The technology is there, but it may be another five years before we have a generation of lawyers who were exposed to these types of solutions in law school and have a strong analytics background to interpret the data and leverage the technology fully.”

Jean also sees the potential for future uses of this technology that integrate different types of analytics to serve new purposes. “In the analytics space, I think there has been a lot of interest around how lawyers can get insights into commonly used clauses — but the next phase could be technology that integrates data around deals with litigation. For example, there could be solutions that examine what deal clauses tend to result in litigation, and those kinds of insights could be very useful to law firms. The next generation of solutions could go further than just identifying trends in data and move into examining long-term outcomes and consequences.”

“Along those lines, I think we’ll also begin to see more pressure in the market to transform analytics solutions into predictive solutions. Instead of just predicting that a judge will rule a certain way, a solution could go further to take various factors into account and say that there’s a 90 percent chance that this will result in a certain outcome. There’s a desire for technology that takes historic case law and regulatory rulings, analyzes it in the context of specific circumstances, and helps lawyers with scenario planning.”

While there is already an abundance of technology out in the market to address specific pain points that law firms experience, there are still clear gaps in how organizations using those solutions. “Billing and alternative fee arrangements still present a challenge to many law firms. Even though solutions for these issues already exist, solving those pain points can’t be done purely with technology — some of them have to do with behavior,” said Jean. “I believe there is still a huge challenge for law firms to find ways to make it easier for lawyers to easily code their time to get accurate entries into timekeeping systems. Data entry is one of the most boring tasks on earth, but having clean, accurate data sets can be highly valuable. Those insights are helpful not only in terms of communicating with a client, but also in terms of creating records for the firm itself to assess how much certain kinds of deals, litigations, or motions can cost.”

Even for law firms that are ahead of the curve when it comes to technology adoption, the challenge that every organization will have to contend with is how best to prepare for the future. “I think there are a lot of questions around what the law firm model will look like in 20 years,” Jean said. “Organizations will have to figure out what steps they will need to take to change and stay competitive as the market continues to evolve.”

As we’ve seen from the Future Ready Lawyer survey, organizations that are investing in technology today believe that they are well equipped to manage change. As trends continue to shift, it’s not easy to say what the law firm will look like even a few years from now — but it has become clear that the use of technologies to achieve better outcomes and offer higher value is not only increasing, but also delivering measurable impact and profitability for firms that know how to use them well.  Armed with this information, legal professionals will be better positioned to prepare for the future.


Dean E. Sonderegger is Senior Vice President and General Manager of Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S., a leading provider of information, business intelligence, regulatory and legal workflow solutions. Dean has more than two decades of experience at the cutting edge of technology across industries. He can be reached at Dean.Sonderegger@wolterskluwer.com.

All The Changes To Expect For The MPRE

Ah, professional responsibility. The extra exam that is part of becoming a licensed lawyer, but still, somehow, sits alone and separate from the rest of the bar exam. Well, consistent with the general trend in standardized testing, the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) has made moves to modernize and generally make the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE) more convenient.

All of the changes in the exam have been gathered by the good folks at JD Advising, and so let’s walk through what you can expect from the MPRE in 2020.

One of the biggest changes is now the test will be offered exclusively on computer (accommodations will be available for those who need them). The NCBE has been slowly rolling out the computer-based version of the exam, and in 2020 they’ll finally be ready to go all digital.

When the MPRE is offered is also getting a shake up. The exam was traditionally offered only on Saturdays, but now students will have options! Over the course of 2020, the test will be offered, in various cycles, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Plus, there are two dates available for the spring administration, two for summer, and two for fall. (Check out the dates and registration deadlines here.) Plus, the fall testing has moved from November to October.

And the cost of the test has gone up (an additional $10 over 2019). But with all the extra administrations of the MPRE, the entire experience will hopefully be a little easier for aspiring esquires!

Closing A Deal: A Lonely Time For The Solo Practitioner

Being called a “closer” is a great compliment for any attorney. This is even more so for a solo practitioner. It implies that one can get the job done. A closer is the individual who finishes the deal. It can refer to anything from closing a residential sale to completing the purchase of a car or finalizing litigation with a monetary settlement. As a solo practitioner, we close, as we begin: Alone. And that is a big deal.

I often discuss the loneliness of a solo practitioner, whether it is the solitude of writing a brief by myself or arguing a motion alone. Who do I go to when I have an idea? Which colleague do I call when I want to check myself? Should I take this case? Anxiety is often difficult to resolve when you work on your own, although feelings of seclusion are present during good times as well.  A case closing is an especially isolating time for the solo practitioner.

In my practice, I work with individuals. I meet with families, often during trying times in their lives. Death, divorce, and illness are the impetus for my firm’s estate plans, lawsuits, and negotiations. In addition to the law, there exists a lot of emotion, a lot of anger, and a lot of tears. Different from some other fields of law, I get to know every one of my clients. I need to in order to aptly represent them.  I meet and speak with them. As time progresses, I sometimes attend their celebrations as do I their funerals.

As a solo practitioner, there are no other associates to send on my behalf or to stand in for me. As such, I get to know my clients very well, especially since the issues we discuss by nature of the practice are so serious. Therefore, when a matter ends, by a court or by settlement, it is a breakup of sorts. From a legal perspective, an attorney wants to finalize cases and close files. But what about the relationships? And how do you get to that closing place, alone?

Working with individuals on family and estate litigation is personal. A lot of time is spent focusing on what the client wants from the litigation and when and how it will be achieved. After years of litigation, a settlement resulting in a check or a business interest provides tangible closure for the client. Unfortunately, the emotional impact of the litigation, often against close family members, may not be healed. As counsel, I often feel the emotion, often having to guide clients from very trying situations, just by the nature of the estate or familial issue.

Getting a client to close is huge, no matter the size of the law firm. It is something to be happy about especially when the case has been active for a significant amount of time, like several years. For me, however, it is more than closing a deal. It affirms my ability to operate on my own. It confirms my legal capabilities. It adds to my confidence. It makes me proud. Beyond legal fees and praise, it lets me know that I am doing what I am meant to do, all by myself.


Cori A. Robinson is a solo practitioner having founded Cori A. Robinson PLLC, a New York and New Jersey law firm, in 2017. For more than a decade Cori has focused her law practice on trusts and estates and elder law including estate and Medicaid planning, probate and administration, estate litigation, and guardianships. She can be reached at cori@robinsonestatelaw.com

Contract Editing Gets A Major Makeover For Lawyers

Lawyers live in constant fear of details.  Superior attention to detail makes lawyers money; a lack of attention to detail makes for malpractice.  But, as law practice becomes more and more complex — contracts amass, details proliferate — it becomes more and more difficult to spot those small mistakes that can come back to bite you.  Of course, smart lawyers understand that technology is the solution for information overload.  Once you’ve figured that out, it’s just a matter of picking the right technology.

If you’re sweating your contract drafting like you’re walking through a field of land mines, Donna offers peace of mind, and protection against those backbiting oversights that keep you up at night.

What Is It?

Donna is a contract editing software, whose purpose is to provide context and relevant information when you need it in order to spot those easy-to-overlook mistakes. Because, let’s face it, when you’re reading a 50-page contract, it’s not quite as enthralling as “Avengers: Endgame”; so, it’s understandable that your mind might drift, and that you’d overlook an inconsistency or misinterpretation that could that could come back and haunt you.  Donna is there to watch your back, to make sure you’re consistently addressing even the most minute variables.

Donna is a cloud-based product that comes as a convenient Microsoft Word plug-in, available for both premise-based (traditional) versions of Word (like Word 2016 and Word 2013), as well as Word Online. And, because Donna is a plug-in that doesn’t require special permissions, it’s super easy to install.  I mean, you could probably install it without even asking your IT person… But, you didn’t hear that from me, okay?  So, when you do tell your IT person (you will, won’t you), it’s still just a one-step download.

Once you download Donna for Word, that’s when the magic happens.

What Does it Do?

What magic, you ask?  Good question.  THIS kind of magic:

After you’ve downloaded Donna, you’ll find a new Donna button on the far right-hand side of the Microsoft Office ribbon; you toggle Donna off and on by clicking that button.  When Donna is turned on, opening any document will automatically set it to work.  Donna will bring up potential suggestions and other interesting details, by generating colored highlights in your document. Clicking these highlights opens up matching snippets in the Donna sidebar. For instance, suggestions are highlighted in yellow and clicking them, Donna explains the potential problem discovered.  Donna will even link other relevant snippets such as related issues or definitions. Every snippet has a “focus” button that allows you to jump to the exact spot in the document where the Donna highlight exists.  Using this information, you can decide to make a change based on Donna’s suggestion, or to skip the suggestion, and optionally any suggestions like it.  In this way, Donna becomes your second set of eyes for contract review — eyes that don’t glaze over thinking about the upcoming weekend’s plans — but, it’s ultimately your choice as the lawyer to make or reject changes related to Donna’s operations. Donna of course can’t write the agreement for you, AI lacks something people like to call “common sense”. But Donna isn’t your typical AI, its Assistive Intelligence, because it ultimately leaves the decision making in the capable hands of the lawyer.

Donna’s baseline is simplicity: it issue-spots, gives you relevant information, and otherwise doesn’t disturb you getting the job done.  You can easily parachute into and out of potential change options by navigating the snippet, focus, and skip options.

And although you’ll be drawn to Donna’s yellow suggestions there are lots of other things Donna can highlight. A favorite seems to be defined terms in light blue. Clicking on this highlight gives you a snippet of how the term was defined in the side-bar. Nod “yes” if you’ve ever frantically scrolled up and down in an agreement trying to find what a term means. Now nod “yes” if you’d be happy to never have to do that again.

By filtering on a single category within Donna, a user can complete their review via the sidebar, rather than struggling through the massive scrolling and scanning challenge presented by traditional document review.  In this way, Donna delivers to you only the information you need, when you need it. With Donna, you can get into and out of your contract documents quickly, with increased accuracy and decreased malpractice risk.

What’s Next?

Donna currently has clients in 50 countries, with additional language capabilities coming.  And, with a $2.5 million capital raise recently secured, Donna will be investing even more resources into designing intuitive workflows as well as adding some great new features. A couple of things on the roadmap are:

– Compatibility with Google Docs and Word for Mac.

– Ability to link related documents and external resources. Imagine clicking on a reference to a specific law and having the relevant text available right there.

– Knowledge sharing features — Donna could allow users within a firm to look for inspiration from other clauses that have been drafted by colleagues for a particular client.

Want to Find Out More?

Schedule a demo or just download Donna today: https://www.donna.legal/

Donna is only $15/user, with enterprise solutions available.

Support options include in-app chat.

. . .

Ritchie Valens really loved Donna, but you might love her even more.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Didn’t Always Earn High Grades At The Supreme Court

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)

Prof. Ruth Ginsburg. C-plus. Very precise. Female. Reads.

— an excerpt from a note written by the late Justice Harry Blackmun during then-professor Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s first argument before the Supreme Court in Frontiero v. Richardson, in January 1973. Blackmun took detailed notes about SCOTUS advocates, grading each of them from A through F (the scale used from 1970 to 1974), from to 1-100 (the scale used from 1975 to 1977), and from 0-8 (the scale used from 1978 to 1994). Over the course of her arguments before the high court, Ginsburg continued to improve, earning some Bs and B-s from the justice. Her final GPA was a 2.8. When recently informed of the grades she earned from Blackmun, Ginsburg had this to say: “Listen to the arguments and judge for yourself.”


Staci ZaretskyStaci 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.