In Will County, a major issue was made of whether it is proper for a prosecutor to be married to a judge, or vice versa. Republican Jeff Tomczak won anyway, despite some rhetoric that forecast doom for the criminal justice system.
In Saline County, the Republican challenger contemplates a recount of incumbent Rod Wolf's apparent 42-vote victory. Wonder where he got that idea?
Time was when campaigning was less like pandering, and a candidate had more to say about his or her virtues than an opponent's lack thereof.
Matrimonial law ethics aired in NWSBA seminar
What, if any, are the ethics involved in the practice of matrimonial law? James J. Grogan, chief counsel for the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission will tackle that delicate subject during a Northwest Suburban Bar Association seminar next month.
"Lights, Camera, Action: Sex, Lies and Matrimonial Law" will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 10, at the District 214 Community Education Center, Arlington Heights. Call (847) 290-8071 to register.
Malpractice issues in matrimonial law will be discussed by attorney Karen Dilibert, vice president and director of marketing for the ISBA Mutual Insurance Co.
H. Joseph Gitlin of Gitlin & Gitlin, Woodstock, will review spousal maintenance, how much and how long, and Larry R. Kane of Davis, Friedman, Zavett, Kane & McRae, Chicago, a member of the ISBA Family Law Section Council, will speak on property classifications marital, non-marital, transmutation, reimbursement.
The NWSBA also will conduct a workers' compensation seminar from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 30, in the District 214 center.
Decalogue Society
The Decalogue Society will present a special Jewish legal lecture at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 20. Linda Saiger will provide an "Update on Holocaust Compensation Plans and Asset Recovery."
There will be no Decalogue Society seminar Dec. 27 or Jan. 3. The next 12:30 p.m. Wednesday program, Jan. 10, will be on Reverse Exchanges and Other Parking Arrangements, with Martin S. Edwards. On Jan. 17, Steven L. Baerson will discuss Estate Planning for the Protection of Assets. Call (312) 263-6493 for a complete schedule.
Winnebago County Bar
The Winnebago County Bar Association will start the new year with a "Back to Basics" series of luncheon seminars in the Rockford bar office. Call (815) 964-4992 to make the required advance registrations.
On the first month's schedule of Tuesday programs are traffic and DUI law, Jan. 9, with Alberto F. Altamore and Timothy K. Whitham; personal injury, Jan. 16, with Richard R. Haldeman and Don M. Mateer, and family law, Jan. 30, with Cheri N. Greenlee of the ISBA Committee on Legal Education, Admission and Competence and Norman E. Lindstedt.
Peoria County Bar
The Peoria County Bar Association will begin its five-session legal education series from 9 a.m. to 12 noon Saturday, Jan. 13, with a general practice seminar at Packard Plaza. Peoria attorneys on the faculty include Matthew P. Jones of the ISBA Committee on Supreme Court Rules and Kenneth R. Eathington of the Agricultural Law Section Council.
Call (309) 674-6049 for registration details. Future seminars are family law, Jan. 20; civil practice, Jan. 27; probate and elder law, Feb. 3, and business and consumer law, Feb. 10.
Matrimonial Lawyers
"The Financial Side of Divorce: Litigation Issues 2001" is the title of a seminar that will be conducted from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 15, by the Illinois chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and the Clifton Gunderson accounting firm.
A reception will follow the seminar, which will take place at the Hyatt Hotel in Deerfield. Call Wendy Gugora, (630) 573-8600, for registration details.
Alan J. Toback of Lake, Toback & Yavitz will open the program with an introduction during the 8 a.m. breakfast and registration period. He is past president of the chapter and vice chair of the ISBA Family Law Section Council.
Jurists on the faculty include Timothy C. Evans, presiding judge of the Cook County Law Division; Moshe Jacobius, presiding judge of the Cook County Domestic Relations Division; Edward R. Jordan of Cook County, John W. Demling of the 18th Circuit, and David Hall of the 19th Circuit.
Cook County Bar
The Cook County Bar Association will present a seminar on "Running a Practice Without Running into Trouble" from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 27, in suite 1212 at 111 W. Washington, Chicago. Call Shirley Thomas, (312) 630-1157, to register.
Speakers are Mary F. Andreoni, administrative counsel for the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission; Anne E. Thar, vice president and general counsel of the ISBA Mutual Insurance Co.; Donald Hubert, past president of the Chicago Bar Association, and attorneys A. Leo Wiggins and Karen J. Porter.
DePaul College of Law
Doris Estelle Young, attorney adviser with the legislative and international affairs office of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, will speak Wednesday, Jan. 31, during a "Lunchscape" program at the DePaul University College of Law. Her topic is "Advancing E-commerce in the Global Environment."
Service Jan. 12 for Judge Pell
A memorial service for Wilbur F. Pell Jr. will be conducted at 1:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 12, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in the 25th floor ceremonial courtroom of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, Chicago.
A member of the court from 1970 until his death Sept. 25 at age 84, Judge Pell had been on senior status since 1984. A 1940 graduate of the Harvard Law School, he was a special agent for the FBI during World War II and a deputy Indiana attorney general in addition to private practice. (See ISBA Bar News, October 16, page 22, for full details.)
New circuit clerk is lawyer and CPA
Chicago attorney Dorothy Brown was installed Dec. 1 as clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court, the position to which she was elected Nov. 7. She succeeded Aurelia M. Pucinski, who served three terms.
A 1995 honors graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law, Brown is also a certified public accountant who received a master's degree from the DePaul University College of Law.
She had been the general auditor for the Chicago Transit Authority for nine years, and previously was an accountant with Commonwealth Edison, Arthur Andersen, First National Bank of Chicago and Odell Hicks.
The circuit clerk's office has more than 2,000 employees and an annual budget of about $102 million. Brown said she would appoint an advisory committee from the legal community to evaluate performance.
Judges are recalled
Six retired Cook County judges have been recalled by the Supreme Court for service next year. They include Albert Green, presiding judge of the Chancery Division, and Benjamin E. Novoselsky, former presiding judge of the Probate Division.
Others are Allen A. Freeman, Walter J. Kowalsi and James S. Quinlan Jr. in the Law Division, and Robert E. Cusack in the Probate Division.
Recent assignments
Judge Michael P. Toomin has been named acting presiding judge of the Cook County Crimnal Division. He replaces Thomas R. Fitzberald, who was elected to the Supreme Court in November.
Judge Nancy J. Arnold was moved from the County Division to the Chancery Division to fill the vacancy caused by the assignment of Judge Ellis E. Reid to the Appellate Court last month. Judge Susan Fox Gillis, formerly of Traffic Court, has replaced Arnold in the County Division.
Will County honors volunteers
"Pro bono representation is the most visible manifestation of what the legal profession is all about," new Supreme Court Justice Thomas L. Kilbride observed during the Will County Bar Association Pro Bono Project luncheon Nov. 15 in Joliet (photo on page 3).
Congratulating the volunteers who were honored by the Will County Legal Assistance Program, Kilbride compared their efforts with triage in the television series, "M.A.S.H." deciding how to help those who need it most.
Recipients of plaques from Judge Herman Haase are WCBA President Dorothy Ann Seaborg, married law partners George McCarter Stuhr and Lea Armstrong Drell, and the law firm of Stefanich, McGarry, Wols, Okrei & Braun.
Seaborg presented the association's legal aid assessment check of $10,240 to Robert S. Krockey and ISBA Assembly member J. Jeffrey Allen, president and managing attorney of the Legal Assistance Program.
Rita Fry honored
Cook County public defender Rita A. Fry received a Distinguished Public Service Citation from the Public Interest Law Initiative during its 16th annual luncheon Dec. 7 in Chicago.
The McDonald's Corp. received a Pro Bono Initiative Award. PILI Alumni Awards were given to Richard F. Klawiter of Piper, Marbury, Rudnick & Wolfe and Jean Maclean Snyder of the MacArthur Justice Center.
Scholarships awarded
Ana Maria Mencini, a working mother and evening student at the Chicago-Kent College of Law, received a Helen C. Kinney Scholarship from the DuPage Association of Women Lawyers on Nov. 17 (photo on page 3). She is managing editor of the law review and a member of Women in Law.
The DAWL dinner at the Brookfield Zoo was a benefit for the Child Friendly Courts Foundation, which supports Safe Harbor, the children's waiting room in the 18th Circuit Judicial Center in Wheaton.
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The Justinian Society recently presented scholarships totaling $38,500 to 26 students of Italian-American heritage at Illinois schools. The amounts ranged from two $5,000 awards to several of $2,500, $1,500 and $1,000 each.
Committee members are ISBA Secretary Umberto S. Davi and Richard B. Caifano, chairs; Anthony M. Farace of the ISBA Board of Governors, and Assembly members Franco A. Coladipietro, Mauro Glorioso, Lisa A. Marino and Stephen D. Phillips.
By Gertrude Block
Q: Chicago reader Howard L. Stovall has sent me a clipping (from the Chicago Tribune, Sunday, October 1, §2),to which he added the following message: "I know you've addressed this matter before, but I thought this might be an interesting follow-up." The news clipping was a column by Michael Higgins titled "'Shall' we litigate?" about the current decision of the Illinois Gaming Board regarding the application of Emerald Casino Inc. to renew its gambling license. Although 1999 law stated that the board "shall grant [Emerald's] application," the Gaming Board decided that "shall" does not mean "must," and the board's attorney cited legal cases in which "shall" had been determined to mean "may" ("is permitted to" or "might").
A: True, appellate courts have sometimes held that "shall" means "must," and have sometimes held that "shall" means only "may." Litigation caused by the word "shall" fills pages of Words and Phrases, and promises to fill even more if statute and contract drafters continue to use "shall" in legal documents with the meaning of "must."
The etymology of "shall" explains its ambiguity. Until the end of the 17th century, both modals ("shall" and "will") indicated simple futurity, and were used interchangeably. But then a mathematician who wrote in Latin and signed himself Johannis Wallis arbitrarily decided to change the meanings of the two modals. He announced in his writing that "shall," in the first person ("I" or "we") would henceforth indicate simple futurity, but in the 2nd and 3rd persons ("you," "he/she," and "they") the modal "shall" meant "must." (That is, that "shall" was determinative.) On the other hand, the modal "will," Wallis decreed, would mean exactly the opposite. It would be determinative in the first person and indicate simple futurity in the 2nd and 3rd person.
Although nobody had previously bestowed the meaning "must" upon either "shall" or "will," 18th century grammarians, almost in lockstep, enthusiastically adopted Wallis's directive and the "rule" was placed in copybooks, forcing generations of unhappy schoolchildren to learn it. Copybooks declared that "shall" meant "must": "If you (or he/she or they) shall do something," you, ( or he/she, or they) must do it. Grammarians loved the rule; writers ignored it.
To understand 18th century grammarians' embrace of Wallis' rule, one must know that they believed it to be their mission to "purify" language and to prevent its "deterioration." One grammarian, Bishop Lowth, scholar and Oxford professor, declared that the most distinguished writers are often guilty of "egregious solecisms," and that the English language as spoken by "the politest" people, is error-ridden. Prescriptive grammarians seemed to believe in a grammatical deity who somehow decided what was "correct"; 20th century descriptive grammarians, on the other hand, rely on usage to decide correctness.