The registration fee of $10 includes a box lunch. Call (312) 341-8530 for credit card registrations.
The American Bar Association will conduct its 64th midyear meeting from Feb. 5 to 11 in Seattle, Wash., with headquarters at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center.
The ABA Board of Governors will meet from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 6, and Friday, Feb. 7, in the convention center to consider recommendations on policy matters to be reviewed by the House of Delegates.
The House of Delegates will meet from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 10, and 9 a.m. to 12 noon Tuesday, Feb. 11, in the convention center.
Other events of interest to the organized bar include:
Thursday, Feb. 6, 1 to 6 p.m. "Charting our Future: Hearings on the Status of Women in the Law," in the Sheraton Seattle Hotel. The Commission on Women in the Profession will take testimony on the extent to which barriers have or have not been eliminated.
Saturday, Feb. 8, 8:15 a.m. Presentation by the ABA Committee on Delivery of Legal Services of the Louise M. Brown Award for Legal Access, in the convention center.
A work day at the Greater Chicago Food Depository has been scheduled by the ISBA Young Lawyers Division from 9 a.m. to 12 noon Saturday, Feb. 22.
After an orientation, a videotape on operations of the food depository and a tour of the warehouse at 4215 W. 45th St., the young lawyers will sort donated food items and pack boxes for distribution to food banks for the needy around the Chicago area.
The YLD Council will meet after the work detail for a pizza luncheon at the Home Run Inn, 4254 W. 31st St. For more information, call the council chair, Franco A. Coladipietro, at (312) 255-8550.
Volunteers should wear long pants, sleeved shirts and closed shoes with non-skid soles. Do not wear shorts, tanktops or sandals. Lockers will be provided for purses and other belongings.
Bar needs to provide better minority lawyer opportunity
Following are excerpts from the remarks of ISBA President Loren S. Golden during the Minority and Women Participation Luncheon at the Midyear Meeting last month in Chicago.
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The ISBA Committee on Minority and Women Participation was formed in the 1980s with a goal of providing opportunities for minority and women lawyers to serve in leadership positions in the state bar association, and at the same time to advance their legal careers.
While women have made impressive gains in achieving success in the legal profession, I would like to reflect on the other half of the scope of the Minority and Women Participation Committee.
I have been troubled by the recent phenomenon known as "driving while black," in which motorists are pulled over by police for no apparent reason other than the color of their skin.
I was thinking about this and happened to ask some black lawyers about it. Every one of them said, "yes," it had happened to them. Not just once, but on repeated occasions.
I have a difficult time accepting the fact that in 21st century America four decades after Dr. King and others led us through the civil rights movement we still have vestiges of racial repression occurring on our highways.
And this isn't Bull Connor and his boys. This is here. Today. In the Land of Lincoln!
Now that I've gotten myself upset, I'm looking around for what can be done. Not that the ISBA is going to solve the problem of black motorists being singled out for extra scrutiny on the interstate. That's not the reason I'm bringing this up.
But my liberal Republican soul feels there must be something that an association of 35,000 lawyers can be doing to acknowledge the struggles that minority lawyers face in the everyday practice of law, and to make it better for them.
I'm looking for the magic solution out there, and at the same time, I realize that if there were such a solution, it would have been found by now.
Still, I have a concern that minority lawyers remain too much of a minority within ISBA. By that, I mean that I would like to see more members of minority groups serving in appointed and elected positions on sections and committees, on the Board of Governors and in the Assembly.
I would like to see the association truly reflect the diversity that exists in the practice of law in Illinois. I commend the Committee on Minority and Women Participation for its many accomplishments, and I would like to leave you with this challenge.
Let's make sure that the ISBA stands for the proposition that all lawyers women and men of all ethnic backgrounds have every opportunity to participate fully in our association and to succeed in their profession.
If any of you have ideas how we can better accomplish this goal, I would love to hear from you.
Assembly consensus: Judicial evaluations vital
The ISBA judicial evaluation process may be down but it's not out. Assembly members expressed a mix of frustration and hopefulness in 45 minutes of discussion Dec. 14 at the Midyear Meeting in Chicago.
President-elect Terrence J. Lavin said frankly that during his tenure he will recommend to the Board of Governors that "we get out of the evaluation business."
Evaluating judicial election and retention candidates represents a budget drain of about $150,000 annually, he said, yet produces "absolutely no return" in improving the quality of the bench by eliminating substandard judges.
"It's time to admit that what we do doesn't make a difference," Lavin said. "If we get out, that might send a message to the public that it's time for merit selection and merit retention."
The Assembly had reviewed a report indicating that five Cook County judges found not recommended by the ISBA committee returned to the bench with approval of from 62.4 to 70 percent of voters in November. Two downstate judges not recommended received more than 70 percent yes votes.
In Cook County primary elections last March, seven candidates found not recommended succeeded, and four of them were elected in November. In downstate primaries, 12 not recommended candidates survived, and five of them were elected in November.
Despite those results, the consensus of Assembly members is that judicial evaluation is one of the association's most vital responsibilities to the profession and the public.
"Whatever the cost, nothing is more important to the bar," said Joseph G. Bisceglia of Chicago, a member of the Board of Governors and past chair of the Committee on Judicial Evaluation.
"The problem is not the process," Bisceglia said. "We need to spend more time at the end of evaluations to do a better job of getting word out to people in a better way."
"If not us, who?" asked Lawrence J. Weiner of Chicago. Noting the probable impact on chief judges of some judges' low ratings, he pointed to Cook County Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans' recently announced remedial mentoring plan.
Myles L. Jacobs of Joliet agreed. "We see losses, but we don't see the gains. We may have influence we are not aware of." Many judges, looking over their shoulders at low ratings, may work harder to get better grades next time, he said.
Some Assembly members asked why other members of the Alliance of Bar Associations for Judicial Screening in Cook County don't contribute financially to expenses incurred by the ISBA.
But past president Tim Eaton of Chicago pointed out that many members of the participating associations also belong to the ISBA, and "they work with us on other projects" that are important to the bar.
"The Alliance is not perfect, but it's closer to being good than being bad," said Andrea M. Schleifer of Chicago. She also reminded the Assembly that some primary candidates have withdrawn because of their low evaluation ratings.
Others observed that if the ISBA is committed to judicial evaluation in Cook County, the process could not be completed in time to be effective without the full participation of all associations in the Alliance.
Sheila M. Murphy of Chicago, a retired judge, said she would talk with other former judges about seeking outside sources of funding, such as civic organizations and foundations.
John W. Damisch thought consideration should be given to an initiative to raise the retention bar from 60 to 70 percent, but Thomas A. Bruno of Urbana tsuggested that might hurt some qualified candidates who are targeted politically.
Willis R. Tribler of Chicago recalled that the 1970 Constitutional Convention originally considered adopting the Missouri standard of 50 percent for retention, but settled on 60 percent "to get rid of the real jerks. It didn't work, but 70 percent is too high," he said.
Laureates of the Academy of Illinois Lawyers
We pay tribute on these pages to Laureates of the Academy of Illinois Lawyers who will be inducted Jan. 30 in Chicago. Articles about Elmer Jenkins, Madalyn Maxwell and Anthony Raccuglia are by freelance journalist Jeff Cappel. The others are by ISBA Bar News editor Stephen Anderson.
Here is a listing of all four Laureate classes to date.
2002/2003
Barry S. Alberts
James T. Demos
Joseph N. DuCanto
Theodora Gordon
Dolores K. Hanna
Elmer Jenkins
Harold Levine
Prentice H. Marshall
Madalyn Maxwell
Nat P. Ozmon
William R. Quinlan
Anthony C. Raccuglia
2001/2002
Stanley B. Balbach
C. Allen Bock
William F. Costigan
F. Dennis France
H. Joseph Gitlin
Harold Hannah
Jerald E. Jackson
Esther O. Kegan
Terence F. MacCarthy
Ronald S. Miller
Daniel M. Moore Jr.
William C. Murphy
2000/2001
James J. Ahern
Eugene Crane
James J. Elson Sr.
Thomas A. Foran
Theodore A. Gottfried
Harlan Heller
Harold Katz
Mary Lee Leahy
George N. Leighton
Francis X. Riley
Jerold S. Solovy
Willis R. Tribler
1999
Kennard J. Besse
Robert E. Bradney
Philip H. Corboy
Ivan A. Elliott Jr.
Thomas F. Geraghty
Richard O. Hart
John T. Holmstrom Jr.
Warren Lupel
Martha A. Mills
James D. Montgomery
Esther R. Rothstein
James R. Thompson
Barry Alberts: Committed to pro bono, professionalism
Barry S. Alberts of Evanston, a partner in Schiff, Hardin & Waite, Chicago, is an effective and inspiring advocate and trial lawyer who "brings together creativity, strategic acuity and eloquence," say the 10 colleagues who submitted his Laureate nomination.
"Rarely has any one person combined so many qualities that make him the finest lawyer any client, any colleague, any adversary, any judge and any friend could ever hope to find," the nominators add.
A 1971 graduate of the University of Chicago Law School and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Alberts has chaired the Ethics and Professionalism Committee and Trial Evidence Committee of the ABA Section of Litigation. He teaches trial advocacy and professional ethics classes at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University.
Alberts has been a committed participant in pro bono efforts since early in his career, when he became involved in civil rights cases that challenged systemic housing and employment discrimination.
That commitment led to his immediate decision during a 1999 conference to volunteer for participation in an ABA Death Penalty Project initiative to represent indigents on death row in Alabama.
Rather than seek an easy case with good issues to argue, Alberts asked only, "Who is most in need of counsel?" As a result, a prisoner has obtained "the type of justice to which he is entitled but never received," Elisabeth Semel of the University of California's Boalt Hall recalls.
"Barry's concern was taking on the work, not receiving kudos for his generosity," said Semel, who was director of the nationwide representation project for four years.
Also active in community service, Alberts recently joined the board of directors of the Chicago Children's Choir, an "organization that brings opportunity and beauty to a rainbow of talented children," his nominators pointed out.
Northwestern Law Prof. Steven Lubet, who has worked with hundreds of lawyers in directing educational programs, said he know of "no individual among them who is regarded with more respect than Barry Alberts." He wins cases "by doing right."