Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Argentina: World countries with highest inflation rate – The Zimbabwean

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Open source

The IMF has published inflation figures in various world countries since the beginning of 2019:

Venezuela – 905%. Since 2010, the country has been in the grip of an economic and political crisis that spins the inflation spiral. Accordingly, the country faces a shortage of food and medicine. Due to record inflation, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans suffer from malnutrition, and millions of people fled to other countries. In June 2019, the Central Bank of Venezuela introduced new banknotes of 10,000, 20,000 and 50,000 Bolivars to make calculations more efficient and facilitate business transactions.

Oleksandr Mishyn (Facebook)

Venezuelan inflation. The cost of tomatoes – 5 million Bolivars

Zimbabwe – 73%. The key reason for inflation is the shortage of foreign currency, which caused large disparities in the exchange rate of the surrogate currency of Zimbabwe – bonds (“zollars”) to the US dollar. Zollars rate fall against foreign currency caused a rise in the price of key commodity items, such as sunflower oil and flour. The economic situation in the country is worsened by world high fuel prices, connected with the reformatting of the local oil market to the needs of Russian business.

In January 2019, the cost of fuel in Zimbabwe was the highest in the world.

Sudan – 49%. The local economy has not yet compensated for losses after the secession of South Sudan in 2011, which limited the proceeds from the sale of oil – the main item of Sudanese exports. The growth of debt dependence, lack of access to foreign borrowing, US sanctions – all this holds back the development of the country. The people’s revolution, which began in December 2018 (against the regime of ex-President Omar al-Bashir), finally paralyzed the Sudanese economy. Political instability, which has been going on for six months, makes the progressive development of the republic impossible, and the economic actions of the military junta are not effective.

Argentina – 43%. The issue of curbing inflation will be key in the presidential elections in this country in October 2019. Chronic inflation and the devaluation of the Argentine currency have consolidated the advantage of the dollar as a means of preserving value. Mandatory “pesoization” in January 2002 (when existing deposits and loans in dollars in the country’s banking sector were forcibly converted into pesos) provided only a temporary and artificial reduction in the domestic use of the US dollar. Savings rates are low, and a sizeable share of private savings is kept outside the country.

Iran – 37%. The restoration of the US sanctions regime and the growth of international tension around the country due to its disruptive foreign policy in the Gulf region caused the fall of Iranian GDP by 6%. Statements by the government of Rahbar Khamenei about full withdrawal from the “nuclear deal” increase inflationary pressure in an economy that is weakening.

South Sudan – 24%. The country bears the burden of the consequences of the civil war of 2013-2018, which undermined the economy. It is important to note that the volatility of oil prices affects the South Sudanese economy. The country is most dependent on oil exports in the world – almost 100% of exports. Last year, inflation has been decreasing due to relative internal political stabilization (in 2016, inflation was a record 83%).

Liberia – 22%. For the third year in a row, the country is experiencing a deficit of fiscal revenues in the budget, which forces the government to block it by issuing money. Broad dissatisfaction with the policy of the government of ex-footballer George Wea is growing.

Yemen – 20%. Since 2011, total internal political instability has reigned in the country, and since 2015, Saudi Arabia and the Allied states have begun an armed intervention against the Hussite regime. Permanent hostilities destroy the fragile local infrastructure and undermine the remnants of the economy.

Angola – 17%. Like many other countries – exporters of oil, Angola has suffered greatly from the fall in oil prices in 2014 and experienced a shortage of foreign currency, which has not been overcome to date. Inflation rose sharply in 2016 and reached 41.12% in December of the same year, but since then it has been slowly but surely falling.

Oil production in Angola fell to its lowest level in 10 years

Turkey – 17%. As you know, the lira fell by 40% against the dollar in the first months of 2018. The reasons were highinflation and a huge current account balance deficit in Turkey. Due to these factors, the Turkish economy remains very vulnerable to external shocks.

Zimbabwe corn crop forecast to decline by 54% – The Zimbabwean

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As a result, the USDA estimated that Zimbabwe will have to import about 1 million tonnes of corn in 2019-20 to meet domestic demand and maintain the mandated strategic grain reserve of 500,000 tonnes.

“Countries that could supply Zimbabwe with corn include Tanzania, Mexico and limited amounts from South Africa,” the USDA said. “Zimbabwe’s policy on Genetically Engineered (GE) corn allows for imports if milled into flour under government supervision. Cultivation of GE corn is still prohibited.”

In 2018-19, Zimbabwe produced 1.7 million tonnes of corn, which was a 21% decrease from the prior year when it produced a 20-year high of 2.2 million tonnes.

Zimbabwe only imported an estimated 100,000 tonnes of corn in 2018-19, according to the USDA.

The USDA noted that in addition to climatic challenges, high prices and cash availability limited the purchases of inputs by most Zimbabwe farmers.

The country already is facing a crisis in wheat availability as stocks have drastically declined, according to a June 17 statement from the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe. Officials are concerned that this could lead to shortages of fresh bread.

The association said it is in contact with the Reserve of Zimbabwe to unlock wheat consignments that are in Beira and Harare.

“We are also constantly updating our key stakeholders who include bakers on the obtaining situation,” said Garikai Chaunza, media and public relations manager for the association. “We are also jointly working with the bakers in engaging the authorities on a number of issues that would improve bread supplies.”

Scarcity in foreign currency and insufficient imports to meet demand has many firms relying on the central bank to provide foreign currency, New Zimbabwe reported. This has negatively impacted manufacturing since many firms rely on imports for production.

The Standard reported that a leading bakery has suspended operations. Bread prices have gone up more than three times this year.

The government has blamed the situation on cartels, which it said have monopolies in the industry. Government officials have said the shortages are artificial.

Thembi Moyo elected president of regional railway body – The Zimbabwean

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Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister Joel Biggie Matiza, in a speech read on his behalf by his human resources director, Mr Andrew Murungweni, congratulated Mrs Moyo on her appointment and said he believed this was the first time in SARA’s 23 year history that it had a woman at its helm.

The Minister emphasised the importance of the region’s railways and their potential to improve the regional competitiveness of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), given their suitability for transporting the bulk products which characterised the region’s economies.

“The connectivity that exists among SADC railways provides opportunities for cooperation among the operators to provide cost effective and seamless rail transport services, as dictated by the SADC Protocol on Transport, Communications and Meteorology,” he said.

He said the demands on the economies of the region’s nations, as developing countries, required more than ever before efficient rail transport delivery systems.

Zimbabwe, he said, upholds the railway sector as a national and regionally strategic mode of transport, especially given its geographic position and the fact that most of the SADC regional railway corridors pass through Zimbabwe.

“We recognise that railways have the requisite design capacity to facilitate movement of the volumes of strategic cargo being transported and traded through all ports in the SADC region.

“We also recognise that industry impacts on the wholesale and retail pricing of our commodities, prices of manufacturing, agricultural and mining inputs, as well as on the competitiveness of our exports on the global market,” he said.

Emphasising the importance of regional integration, he said the ultimate objectives of SADC infrastructure development initiatives were to boost traffic and the carrying capacity of surface transport networks, reduce transport and communication costs and improve transport reliability and efficiency within the region.

However, he said the performance of railways had been a major concern for governments, customers and the general public.

Lack of capacity coupled with inefficiencies had contributed to a significant decline in the railways’ market share, to the detriment of regional economies.

“With efficient railway services, we expect our regional economies to enjoy benefits of reduced product prices to the consumer as well as an increased and reliable supply of production inputs for our economic sectors,” he said.

He added that these benefits would lead to increased export income from extractive sectors such as mining and enhanced regional market integration through uninterrupted logistical connectivity to coastal ports.

He acknowledged that the rail industry in the region suffered from a huge backlog in maintenance and rehabilitation of infrastructure as well as construction of new strategic links, which required significant capital investment.

“The mining developments, the growing agricultural market, the increasing trade of bulk retail and commercial products, amongst other reasons, create an increasing demand for efficient railway services,” he said.

He said SADC governments were aware of the capacity related challenges confronting railways, including ageing infrastructure and equipment, lack of funding for rail infrastructure, insufficient capacity to meet growing demand, theft and vandalism of railway infrastructure.

However, he said they were convinced railways could nevertheless do better with their current resources.

He said that going through the board meeting’s agenda, he considered the association’s real challenge was the disjointed regional railway operations.

“The interconnectivity of the regional railways can only be optimised as an opportunity for enhanced trade logistics, if we have harmonised operations,” he said, adding that the challenges that the board’s members, who represent railways throughout the region, faced were not insurmountable.

Answering a question on linking the region’s railways at a Press conference after the board meeting’s official opening, Mrs Moyo said the region’s railways were already linked physically and bilateral agreements existed allowing railway operators to operate on each other’s lines.

The different railways were also working on standardising operational systems and infrastructure.

The challenge was the delays in crossing from one jurisdiction to another. The association would like to see governments in the region coming up with a policy that would allow a seamless crossing of borders.

Zimbabwe corn crop forecast to decline by 54%
Anti-Corruption Commission Candidates: New Timetable for Public Interviews

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Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: The Return Of The Tiger Cub

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At the U.S. Supreme Court (photo by David Lat).

Let’s talk about the Supreme Court. No, not the juicy merits opinions that are finally starting to hit, but the juicy law clerk hiring news we have not yet covered in these pages. There are several reasons why now is an opportune time.

First, it has been forever since our last comprehensive SCOTUS clerk hiring roundup, published back in October 2018. And the new crop of clerks, for October Term 2019, will start at One First Street next month — so let’s get their names out there before their official start at the Court.

Second, it’s a good time to talk about SCOTUS clerk hiring — and SCOTUS feeder judges — because law clerk hiring in the lower courts, pursuant to the new (or resurrected) Law Clerk Hiring Plan, is now in full swing. If you’re a law student in the privileged position of choosing between two or more federal clerkships, which judge is the bigger feeder — i.e., which judge has a stronger ability to send you into a SCOTUS clerkship — could be a relevant factor for your decision.

Third, Supreme Court clerk hiring has been in the news — specifically, Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s hiring of Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld, daughter of Yale Law School professors Amy “Tiger Mother” Chua and Jed Rubenfeld, as a law clerk for October Term 2019. After I tweeted this news, controversy erupted, with many angry or critical tweets, blog posts, and op-eds appearing in response. (The acrimonious state of our discourse, reflected in these reactions, is something I don’t miss in my new life as a legal recruiter.)

Here’s an abridged version of the brouhaha. His critics attacked Justice Kavanaugh’s hiring of Chua-Rubenfeld as “rewarding” Professor Chua for her high-profile endorsement of his SCOTUS candidacy — especially her describing, in a widely discussed Wall Street Journal op-ed, then-Judge Kavanaugh’s longtime mentorship and support of women.[1]

To get the flavor of the criticism of both Justice Kavanaugh and Professor Chua, here’s an excerpt from a CNN op-ed by Kate Maltby:

For many in the establishment — and not just Trump loyalists — the corruption is the point. The nepotism is the point. Appointing the daughter of the powerful woman who may have helped your nomination — it’s the latest way to “own the libs.” Kavanaugh wants us to know he simply doesn’t care what we think of him. He’s won.

See also, e.g., Jeremy Stahl in Slate — who pointed out how, at the time of Chua’s original op-ed, Elie Mystal in these pages (correctly) predicted that Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld would someday clerk for Justice Kavanaugh, giving rise to the appearance that Chua successfully curried favor with the justice in order to secure a SCOTUS clerkship for her daughter.

Now, I don’t want to get too embroiled in this dispute — remember, I have a new career now, which thankfully does not involve getting into political debates — but allow me to make a few brief observations.

1. In spring 2016, at the end of her 1L year at Yale Law School, Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld was hired to clerk for then-Judge Kavanaugh on the D.C. Circuit, for the 2018-2019 clerkship year. This was more than two years before Kavanaugh was nominated to serve on the Court. Chua-Rubenfeld had excellent credentials: Harvard for college, ROTC, and Yale for law school, where she had a perfect transcript. (Yes, Yale has grades, the same basic system as Harvard and Stanford — Honors, Pass, Low Pass, Fail — and it’s quite difficult to graduate without at least one or two “P” grades.)

2. Chua-Rubenfeld’s parents were not involved in her hiring; she had three other professors as her recommenders. (But sure, her parents having dealt with Kavanaugh in their capacity as clerkship advisors and recommenders for other YLS students undoubtedly helped her application get noticed; the power of connections to open doors in the legal profession is nothing new.)

3. After Judge Kavanaugh became Justice Kavanaugh, Chua-Rubenfeld became an “orphaned” clerk — i.e., a clerk without an appellate clerkship. She applied to the newly confirmed Judge Britt Grant (11th Cir.) — a former Kavanaugh clerk herself, by the way — and got the job. Chua-Rubenfeld is currently clerking for Judge Grant in Atlanta.

4. Folks who follow SCOTUS clerk hiring know that it’s quite common for elevated judges to eventually “bring up” their orphaned clerks to join them at SCOTUS (sometimes after helping them find lower-court clerkships where they can get some training in the interim).

From Professor Dan Epps (read the whole thread, noting that others, such as Justice Sotomayor, have done the same):

5. Justice Kavanaugh followed this standard practice with at least three other “orphaned” D.C. Circuit clerks of his. In the lists of October Term 2019 and October Term 2020 clerks below, you’ll notice at least three other clerks who were originally hired to clerk for Judge Kavanaugh on the D.C. Circuit: Trenton Van Oss (Harvard 2017 / Friedrich (D.D.C.) / Grant), Tyler Infinger (NYU 2016 / Rao), and Zoe Jacoby (Yale 2019 / Barrett).

So I’m not as inclined as others to see Justice Kavanaugh’s hiring of Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld as some nefarious form of “payback” for Amy Chua having his back during his bruising confirmation battle. And he certainly didn’t lower his standards and hire an unqualified candidate for such a purpose. Even Kate Maltby, who criticizes both Kavanaugh and Chua harshly in her CNN piece, reports that Chua-Rubenfeld’s “[c]ontemporaries at Yale Law School have told me she’s genuinely brilliant.”

But yes, I will freely concede that Kavanaugh’s hiring of Chua-Rubenfeld is… not a good look. If “hindsight is 20/20,” here’s what I’d say post-Lasik (echoing some of the points made by Maltby and also by Vivia Chen):

1. In hindsight, perhaps Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld should have gone to a different law school — like her younger sister, Lulu Chua-Rubenfeld, who is headed to Harvard Law School (the alma mater of her parents, but not where they teach).

2. In hindsight, as both Maltby and Chen suggest, maybe Sophia should have tried to land a clerkship with a different justice — which she would have had a good shot at, to the extent that anyone has a good shot at a SCOTUS clerkship, given her excellent credentials. (Maybe she could have kept the Kavanaugh clerkship as a “safety,” in the event that she did not obtain a different SCOTUS clerkship.)

3. In hindsight, since Justice Kavanaugh seems to be spreading out his orphaned clerks over at least two Terms, perhaps he should have saved Sophia for OT 2020, when there might have been less of an angry reaction — because the passage of time helps with such things. Had this happened a year from now, there would have been less outrage.[2]

But again, this is all hindsight. And on item #3, it’s not clear that Justice Kavanaugh could have deferred Sophia to OT 2020, even if he had wanted to.

As some readers might recall, Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld, a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army (she did ROTC in college), was originally scheduled to have started her three-year, active-duty service commitment this year. (This is why, at the time, she responded to Elie’s post by pointing out that she was scheduled to join active-duty JAG after her circuit clerkship.)

It would now appear, based on Chua-Rubenfeld’s imminent clerking at the Court, that the military powers-that-be ultimately agreed to defer her service by a year and have it start in 2020, after her SCOTUS clerkship. It’s not clear that the powers-that-be would have permitted her to finish her circuit clerkship in 2019, serve a year in the Army, go back to clerk for SCOTUS for a year, and then serve two more years — a very disrupted and disjointed schedule, not very conducive to training.

So, to make a long story short, several aspects of the Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld SCOTUS hiring are unfortunate, especially from an optics standpoint. But I’m not as troubled or offended by the situation as many others, especially when the situation is viewed in proper context and in light of historical practice.

Now, on to the lists of Supreme Court law clerks for October Term 2019 and October Term 2020. For true devotees of SCOTUS clerk hiring, many of these hires are old news, since they were tweeted previously over at @SCOTUSambitions (originally the Twitter feed for my novel, now converted to a clearinghouse for SCOTUS clerk hiring news). You can follow that feed for real-time SCOTUS clerk hiring news.

As you can see below, we have the entire roster of OT 2019 clerks except for two clerks to Justice Alito and one clerk to Justice Gorsuch. So there’s a good chance that, for a second year in a row, an Alito clerk will be the subject of a special profile in these pages as ATL’s “Mr. Irrelevant.” (Last year the honor went to David Casazza (Harvard 2015 / Elrod).)

If you have any corrections to this information, or if you have any hiring news I have not yet reported, please reach out by email or text (917-397-2751). Please include the words “SCOTUS Clerk Hiring” in your email or text message, perhaps as the subject line of your email or the first words of your text, because that’s how I locate these tips in my overwhelmed inbox Thanks!

[1] Chua’s WSJ op-ed appeared before Dr. Christine Blasey Ford alleged that Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her when they were teens (accusations that Kavanaugh vehemently and repeatedly denied). But Chua never disavowed the op-ed — and letting her daughter clerk for Kavanaugh suggests to me that Chua stands by her words.

[2] It seems that his colleagues at the Court aren’t holding Justice Kavanaugh’s rocky confirmation against him. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the liberal icon also known as the #NotoriousRBG, recently gave him props in her speech at the Second Circuit conference for his clerk hiring practices: “Justice Kavanaugh made history by bringing on board an all-female law clerk crew. Thanks to his selections, the Court has this Term, for the first time ever, more women than men serving as law clerks.”

OCTOBER TERM 2019 SUPREME COURT CLERK HIRES (as of June 18, 2019)

Chief Justice John G. Roberts
1. Zaki Anwar (Harvard 2017 / Sutton / Srinivasan)
2. David Beylik (Harvard 2018 / Kavanaugh / Friedrich (D.D.C.))
3. Megan Braun (Yale 2016 / Brinkema (E.D. Va.) / Katzmann / Bristow Fellow)
4. Joseph Falvey (Yale 2017 / D. Friedrich (D.D.C.)/ Griffith)

Justice Clarence Thomas
1. Caroline Cook (Chicago 2016 / Sykes / Katsas)
2. Brian Lipshutz (Yale 2015 / W. Pryor / Katsas)
3. Matt Rice (Berkeley 2016 / Ikuta)
4. Laura Wolk (Notre Dame 2016 / J.R. Brown / Hardiman)

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
1. Alyssa Barnard (Columbia 2015 / Nathan (S.D.N.Y.) / Katzmann)
2. Marco Basile (Harvard 2015 / Watford / Barron)
3. Susan Pelletier (Harvard 2016 / Garland)
4. Michael Qian (Stanford 2016 / Garland / Bristow Fellow)

Justice Stephen G. Breyer
1. Celia Choy (Yale 2012 / Rakoff (S.D.N.Y.) / Katzmann)
2. Dahlia Mignouna (Yale 2016 / Srinivasan)
3. Nicholas Rosellini (Stanford 2016 / C. Breyer (N.D. Cal.) / Friedland / Cuellar (Cal.))
4. Eugene Sokoloff (Yale 2012 / Sack)

Justice Samuel Alito
1. Richard Cleary (Columbia 2015 / Livingston / Leon (D.D.C.))
2. Jessica Wagner (UVA 2014 / O’Scannlain / J. Smith)
3. ?
4. ?

Justice Sonia Sotomayor
1. Siobhan Atkins (NYU 2014 / Furman (S.D.N.Y.) / Lohier)
2. Nick Crown (Yale 2016 / Ellis (E.D. Va.) / Higginson)
3. Jodie Liu (Harvard 2015 / Livingston / Millett)
4. Anuradha Sivaram (Berkeley 2014 / Thapar (then-E.D. Ky.) / Kozinski)

Justice Elena Kagan
1. Jordan Bock (Berkeley 2017 / Friedland / Chhabria (N.D. Cal.))
2. Alex Miller (Harvard 2017 / Moss (D.D.C.) / Griffith)
3. Mica Moore (Chicago 2017 / W. Fletcher / Chhabria (N.D. Cal.))
4. Zayn Siddique (Yale 2016 / D. Pregerson (C.D. Cal.) / Tatel)

Justice Neil M. Gorsuch
1. Michael Francisco (Cornell 2007 / Tymkovich)
2. Kelly Holt (Chicago 2017 / Wilkinson)
3. Stephen Yelderman (Chicago 2010 / Gorsuch)
4. ?

Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh
1. Audrey Beck (Notre Dame 2017 / Larsen / Sutton)
2. Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld (Yale 2018 / Grant)
3. Trenton Van Oss (Harvard 2017 / Friedrich (D.D.C.) / Grant)
4. James Xi (Stanford 2017 / Sutton)

Justice John Paul Stevens (retired)
1. Michael Knapp (Harvard 2016 / Gleason (D. Alaska) / Garland)

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy (retired):
1. Clayton Kozinski (Yale 2017 / Kavanaugh)

Justice David H. Souter (retired):
1. Mark Jia (Harvard 2016 / W. Fletcher)

OCTOBER TERM 2020 SUPREME COURT CLERK HIRES (as of June 18, 2019)

Chief Justice John G. Roberts
1. Patrick Fuster (Chicago 2018 / Watford / Chhabria (N.D. Cal.))
2. Benjamin Gifford (Harvard 2017 / Rakoff (S.D.N.Y.) / Katzmann)
3. Stephen Hammer (Harvard 2018 / Sutton / Katsas)
4. ?

Justice Clarence Thomas
1. Phil Cooper (Chicago 2017/ W. Pryor/ Stras)
2. Jack Millman (NYU 2016 / O’Scannlain / E. Carnes)
3. ?
4. ?

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
1. Jack Boeglin (Yale 2016 / Srinivasan / Calabresi)
2. Eliza Lehner (Yale 2017 / Watford / Furman (S.D.N.Y.))
3. David Louk (Yale 2015 / Boasberg (D.D.C.) / Katzmann)
4. ?

Justice Stephen G. Breyer
1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

Justice Samuel Alito
1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

Justice Sonia Sotomayor
1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

Justice Elena Kagan
1. Peter Davis (Stanford 2017 / Srinivasan / Boasberg (D.D.C.))
2. Isaac Park (Harvard 2018 / Srinivasan / Oetken)
3. ?
4. ?

Justice Neil M. Gorsuch
1. Trevor Ezell (Stanford 2017 / Sutton / Oldham).
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

Hired by Justice Gorsuch for OT 2021: Louis Capozzi (Penn 2019 / Scirica / Wilkinson).

Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh
1. Harry Graver (Harvard 2019 / Wilkinson)
2. Tyler Infinger (NYU 2016 / Rao)
3. Zoe Jacoby (Yale 2019 / Barrett)
4. Megan McGlynn (Yale 2017 / W. Pryor / Friedrich (D.D.C.))

Hired by Justice Kavanaugh for OT 2021: Athie Livas (Yale 2019 / Thapar / Friedrich (D.D.C.)).

Justice John Paul Stevens (retired)
1. ?

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy (retired):
1. ?

Justice David H. Souter (retired):
1. ?

Once again, do you know about a hire not previously reported, or do you have an addition or correction to any of this info? Please share what you know by email or text (917-397-2751). Please include the words “SCOTUS Clerk Hiring” in your email or text message, as the subject line of your email or the first words of your text, because that’s how I locate these tips in my inundated inbox. Thanks!

Earlier:

DBL square headshotDavid Lat, the founding editor of Above the Law, is a writer, speaker, and legal recruiter at Lateral Link, where he is a managing director in the New York office. David’s book, Supreme Ambitions: A Novel (2014), was described by the New York Times as “the most buzzed-about novel of the year” among legal elites. David previously worked as a federal prosecutor, a litigation associate at Wachtell Lipton, and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at dlat@laterallink.com.

Some (Tentative) Good News For Alan Dershowitz… And Some More Bad News

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(Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images for Hulu)

It took awhile, but Professor Alan Dershowitz has finally gotten some good news, however tentative, in the looming defamation case brought against him by a sex trafficking victim of Dershowitz’s buddy and former client Jeffrey Epstein.

To recap, a few of Epstein’s underaged victims claim that Epstein directed them to have sex with Dershowitz. Dershowitz strenuously denies the claim and goes on television demanding that his accusers take him to court if they really believe these claims. So one of his accusers has taken him to court.

Dershowitz kicked off the proceedings by immediately moving to have Boies Schiller, the pro bono attorneys for the now-adult woman, disqualified. This move took her attorneys aback since the filing violated all manner of Judge Preska’s individual rules and was promptly struck from the docket.

But Dershowitz’s attorneys wrote a letter in an effort to cure the situation, asking for a pre-motion conference to get the motion heard. Upon hearing from Boies Schiller, Judge Preska has determined that a pre-motion conference would be a waste of her time given the clearly unresolvable conflict and asked the parties to set up a briefing schedule.

So, the good news is that Dershowitz will have his disqualification motion heard. The bad news is that there’s no guarantee how Judge Preska will take it. The original motion was 28 pages long — exceeding Judge Preska’s page limit, naturally — but BSF’s initial response (not even a full brief) clocked in at 3 pages and seemed fairly compelling in that short span. You can check out the original motion here and BSF’s response here for comparison.

We’ll see how this turns out.

In the meantime, the Second Circuit also got in on the act yesterday, filing a curt:

Appellant Alan M. Dershowitz’s submission of a letter does not comply with the Court’s prescribed filing requirements. Despite due notice, the defect has not been cured.

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the said letter is stricken from the docket.

When it rains, it pours a never-ending stream of misfilings apparently.

HeadshotJoe 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.

Earlier: Dershowitz’s Motion To Disqualify Boies Schiller Immediately Dumped For Hilarious Reason
Harvard Law School’s Dershowitz Moves To Disqualify Boies Schiller In Sex Trafficking Case
Dershowitz Wanted A Trial Over Sex Trafficking Accusations — He’s Getting One

Senior Deutsche Bankers Defecting To Citi And HSBC So, Yeah, It’s THAT Bad At Deutsche These Days

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Time to “update” your resumes, Deutsche rainmakers.

So Many Mistakes, So Little Time

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Joe and Kathryn have a freewheeling chat about legal news, which is a more professional way of saying they improvised for 30 minutes after Elie Mystal overslept and failed to show up for the scheduled recording. Above the Law is basically a late-stage rock band.

But the pair carry on and discuss Alan Dershowitz bumbling through the early stages of the defamation case he’s asked for, Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court clerk hiring, Alabama Law School throwing away millions, and many more of the week’s screw-ups.

The Harvard Law School Alum Who Totally Disagreed With The Dred Scott Decision In Real Time

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Dred Scott

Who was the first Supreme Court justice to graduate from law school with a degree (he graduated from Harvard Law School in 1832)? Justices appointed to the Court prior either became lawyers via apprenticeships (as Kim Kardashian is currently attempting) or attended law school without graduating.

Hint: This justice is also notable for being one of two dissenters in the Dred Scott case. Acrimony over that decision led, in part, to the justice’s decision to resign from the Court.

See the answer on the next page.

Legal Ops Pros: Keep A Finger On The Pulse Of The Industry

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In the past few years, we’ve seen a great deal of merger and acquisition activity among legal service providers. And we’ve seen it not just on the services side, but also in software. This can be great for business if you’re inclined to use vendors to supplement or manage your eDiscovery or litigation support services. Sometimes mergers result in the availability of additional services. But it can also wreak havoc on organizations that use a single vendor and who could wind up working with a vendor they have not previously worked with, or worse, one they specifically decided not to work with.

The bottom line is that most people who work on the vendor side, from the executive running to the company, to the salesperson who originates work, to the project manager who actually executes — are well-intentioned, hard-working people looking to deliver valuable services in exchange for a fair fee.

People make mistakes. Heck, companies make mistakes. If there is one thing I’ve learned about eDiscovery and litigation support, it is that mistakes are going to be made. You’re dealing with data and systems and people that are not perfect. Anyone who expects the delivery of legal support services or eDiscovery to be perfect is clearly working in the wrong business.

One way to stay on top of the latest developments in the legal software and support services industry is to attend trade shows and conferences. Given that the Summer is here, and the conference “season” is fast approaching, I thought it would make sense to highlight a few things to look for when faced with challenges in continuity among legal service providers.

First of all, consider whether the law firms your organization is working with are either able to handle your software and support needs, or whether they are able to leverage their relationships with third-party providers to ensure you receive the most value. Law firms offering software and services can provide a hedge against merger activity.

If your organization is among those that have already contracted with software or service providers, continue to assess whether you are getting the value and quality of service you need on a matter by matter basis.

Keep your finger on the pulse of the industry. We’ve seen a lot of price compression, particularly around processes involving eDiscovery. Make sure you are getting current pricing on project proposals.

And understand the legal services market in general. Look beyond project proposals and costs and make sure you are getting quality services, that the management and ownership team at the software or service provider are attentive to your particular needs.

Demand things like solid project reporting, workflow metrics, and post-project reviews. It’s one thing to complete a project successfully; it’s another to have the comfort and knowledge that it was completed in the most efficient and cost-effective manner.

And lastly, have contingency plans. Given the merger and acquisition activity in the industry, make sure you have a plan should the vendor or software company you are using be acquired. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, or at least have a backup plan if your favorite vendor suddenly no longer exists.

Many software and services providers are owned by investors, and investors are interested in securing a return on their investment. These interests may not be aligned with the objectives of your operations team. A firm understanding of the legal services market, greater emphasis on process and workflow metrics, and the development of contingency plans should help your organization weather any merger and acquisition storms.

Mike Quartararo

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.