James Demos a 'true giant' for victims
Chicago attorney James Thomas Demos, who died Aug. 28 at age 67 of cancer, was "one of the true giants in this legal community for the last 35 years," said ISBA past president Leonard F. Amari, who nominated him for recognition as an Academy Laureate.
"Jim Demos was universally respected as a brilliant trial lawyer, an individual who truly cared about victims of catastrophic injury, and a voice as a leader," Amari added.
A member of the ISBA Board of Governors from 1980 until he ran for third vice president in 1984, Demos was the son of Greek immigrants. He was a varsity football guard on scholarship at Northwestern University before two years of Army service, and he graduated from the DePaul University College of Law in 1961.
Demos began his law practice in the office of Philip H. Corboy, then opened his own firm in 1966. He formed the firm of Demos & Burke in 1987. According to the Cook County Jury Verdict Reporter, his $1 million judgment in 1974 for a brain-damaged child was the first to break the million-dollar mark.
A member of the ISBA Tort Law Section Council from 1972 to 1977, Demos also served on the Committee on Personnel and the Special Committee on Mediation and Arbitration, and he chaired the Special Committee on an Institute for Public Affairs in 1983-84.
President of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association in 1978-79 and recipient of its Leonard M. Ring Award in 2000, he was elected to the Inner Circle of Advocates and the American College of Trial Lawyers. He was honored in 1993 by the Hellenic Bar Association of Illinois as its Hellene of the Year.
"Jim is deserving is recognition as a Laureate because of his contributions to the profession," said retired attorney John J. Cassidy Jr., who served with him on the Board of Governors. "His high ethical standards were a hallmark of his career."
Cassidy added that those standards "were a reflection of his personal beliefs concerning the proper approaches to the practice of law. (Demos) frequently discussed the ethical and moral responsibilities lawyers have to their clients, to the bench and to the bar."
Joe DuCanto is a pioneer in family law
Joseph N. DuCanto of River Forest, a founding partner in Schiller, DuCanto & Fleck, Chicago, started handling matrimonial law cases after years of practice in tax and estate planning. Now he is recognized nationally as a leader in the field of family law.
"Joe was surprised that most matrimonial lawyers lacked knowledge of tax law that offered opportunities to litigants to resolve their cases with advantageous tax savings," said partner Donald C. Schiller, a past president of the Illinois State Bar Association.
DuCanto lectured and published articles about his innovative theories, and made courts throughout the nation aware of the tax impact of orders and rulings on the real net spendable dollars available to parties, Schiller added.
Calling DuCanto "a real pioneer in the field of tax effects of divorce settlements," Schiller noted that "Joe's famous tax charts are used by lawyers and judges throughout the United States."
An orphan who joined the Marine Corps at age 16, Joe DuCanto served with distinction in heavy combat on Iwo Jima that later affected his hearing. After the war, he served in Manchuria, helping the Japanese relocate.
"He is modest about his combat experience," said Bernard F. Kolb, a retired officer who calls DuCanto "truly an icon within the Marines" and a committed supporter of its scholarship foundation. Thomas P. Sullivan of Jenner & Block recalls DuCanto being the first non-commissioned officer to receive a commandant's award.
DuCanto attended the University of Chicago Law School on a National Honor Law Scholarship and graduated in 1955. In 1964 one of the first lawyers to be awarded a fellowship in the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, he was national president from 1977 to 1979 and chair of its Institute of Matrimonial Law for six years.
He served on the ISBA Board of Governors from 1983 to 1989 and the ABA Family Law Section Council from 1983 to 1986, chairing its taxation subsection in 1983-84. DuCanto also is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and a guest lecturer on family law and taxation at the Loyola University School of Law.
"At a time when divorce lawyers were not recognized to be in public favor, he utilized his vast intellectual resources to bring dignity and respect to what has now become a very specialized practice," said Floyd N. Nadler of Nadler, Pritikin & Mirabelli. "He has been acknowledged as the foremost authority on issues of divorce taxation."
Miles N. Beerman of Beerman, Swerdlove, Woloshin, Baresky, Becker, Genin & London added, "He has, at all times, taken the high road in attempting to preserve the integrity of the family in the most difficult of situations... He has consistently put the welfare of his client and the children of the family first and foremost, and has always refrained from unnecessary litigation."
The AAML presented its Samuel S. Berger Award to DuCanto in 1994, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the practice, his standards of integrity, courtesy and knowledge, and his demonstrated ability to solve human problems.
DuCanto devotes much of his time these days to serving as president and board chair of Securatex, a private detective agency and security contracting firm he founded in 1982.
His mission is to help businesses avoid being devastated by white collar crimes in a time of computer literacy. "They receive little assistance from public law enforcement offices," he said, "because they are beleaguered by the need to respond to crimes of violence with limited resources."
Teddy Gordon presided over two bar groups
Although discouraged from entering the male-dominated legal profession after she graduated in 1947 from the University of Chicago Law School, Theodora "Teddy" Gordon got a career break when she was hired by the Toni Company.
Toni's founders decided that since the firm made hair-care products for women, it should have women lawyers. Gordon represented Toni in product liability cases and other matters for the next 25 years.
When she entered private practice, her first clients were people she had worked with at Toni, and she concentrated in product liability for 25 more years. She also became active in several bar associations and served as president of the Women's Bar Association of Illinois and the Decalogue Society of Lawyers.
"Teddy was counselor in the old-fashioned sense of the word," said Jacqueline Stanley Lustig, another WBAI past president. "She was an adviser. She wasn't a lawyer for the money or the success. She was a lawyer to help people. Her friends were her clients, and her clients were her friends."
President of the WBAI in 1964-65, Gordon later served on the board of the Women's Bar Foundation. A scholarship in her name is one of many the foundation awards annually.
In 1997, she became the first woman president of the Decalogue Society at age 73. Her tenure was marked by such innovations as a Hanukkah party and a program on domestic violence in the Jewish household.
Gordon also was a board member and past president of the Elaine Settler Foundation and a board member of the Levinson Center for Mentally Handicapped Children. She taught business law at the Keller Graduate School of Business.
"Teddy was the consummate network builder," said Susan C. Haddad, also a WBAI past president. "She always had her eye on her colleagues as professionals and as persons. She was the most committed professional I have ever met."
Barbara Meyer, chair of the Decalogue Past President's Council, recalls Gordon most as a leader, always mentoring and encouraging other women.
"Fondly remembered for her loud laugh, bold outfits and multitudes of friends, Teddy showed many young lawyers what it meant to live a full and productive life as an attorney and as a woman committed to her community," Meyer said.
In 1990, one year after completing treatments for breast cancer, Gordon held a social called "Life Is Sweet" in the Marshall Field's Crystal Palace ice cream parlor. She did it again after her fifth cancer-free year.
In the months before her death in July 2000 of breast and brain cancer at age 76, Gordon continued to entertain colleagues at her health care center. Her estate provided funds for a festive dinner party for many close friends at Red Light, a Chinese restaurant on Chicago's west side.
Gordon had started to study Hebrew at age 73, and she had her adult bat mitzvah in June 1997 at Temple Sholom of Chicago. "We live in a culture and society that denigrates age, the ability to learn and do things," she said at the ceremony. "Age should not be a barrier to learning."
She said she could still hear her parents saying, "What you have learned and have in your head, no one can take away from you."
Dolores Hanna opens doors for women in law practice
Dolores K. Hanna "has achieved prominence in the practice of intellectual property and trademark law (and) has brought other women along with her," said Sharon Eiseman, a past president of the Women's Bar Association of Illinois, the organization that nominated Hanna for recognition as a Laureate.
Her success in getting law firm partners to hire competent women lawyers is due to "the philosophy that the best way to convince others to believe you is through evidence," Eiseman said, "so she is inspired to win people over by demonstrating the strength and value of her position rather than by simply demanding notice."
Hanna, herself, sets a pretty good example. In addition to her tenure as WBAI president in 1962-63, she has been president of the Women's Bar Foundation, the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago, the International Trademark Association and Cook County Court Watchers.
She was vice chair in 1966 of the WBAI scholarship committee that evolved into the Women's Bar Foundation two years later. The first scholarship of $300 was awarded to a woman law student in 1966. Last year, 10 scholarships totaling $44,000 were presented.
A 1952 graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law who was honored in July as an ISBA Senior Counsellor, Hanna is special trademark counsel at Bell, Boyd & Lloyd. She filled similar roles previously with Hill & Simpson and Kraft Inc.
She chaired the Trademark Review Commission from 1985 to 1987, a critical time during which it developed recommendations for the first comprehensive changes in the Lanham Act since the federal trademark statute became law in 1946.
"The new law, in short, made a more honest and credible system for how products are brought to market," said Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow of U.S. District Court. "Not only did Dolores chair the commission, she spearheaded the effort through Congress."
Hanna is honorary chair of the Trademark Association's Brand Names Education Foundation, a board member of the Public Interest Law Initiative and an advisory board member of the John Marshall Law School Center for Intellectual Property Law.
Her expertise and leadership has been recognized twice by the Chicago Bar Association, which honored her with a Justice John Paul Stevens Award in 2001 and an Alliance for Women Founder's Award in 1997.
She also has received a President's Award from the International Trademark Association and a Professional Achievement Award from the Chicago-Kent Alumni Association. The Brand Names Foundation moot court competition has named a Dolores K. Hanna Best Brief Award in her honor.
Elmer Jenkins, age 82, never stops learning
"Elmer's law library is formidable," Benton attorney Pamela Lacy wrote of Elmer Jenkins in 2000, when she originally nominated him to be a Laureate.
"Important places in the hundreds of books in the library are marked by pieces of paper which predate Post-It notes," she said. "Every day, Elmer can be found poring over cases and other publications. He clearly continues to enjoy learning."
Two years ago, Lacy bought the law building that Jenkins had designed on a napkin 30 years earlier in a coffee shop. "I told him that he didn't have to go away," she said. "There's plenty of room in the building for both of us."
Lacy is elated that Jenkins will be inducted Jan. 30 as a Laureate. "I thought he deserved it with my first nomination," she said, "and I'm glad that persistence has paid off and he's been recognized."
The importance of small-town lawyers and their significant role in promoting justice cannot be overlooked, Lacy pointed out. At 82 years of age, Jenkins can be found in his office and library every day. His daily routine hasn't changed much.
"In a small community, people get to know you," Jenkins said, "and an older lawyer who goes to his office will have a number of people who still call on him. They don't always follow up and give a lot of business, but they do call."
After Navy service from 1937 to 1941, Jenkins was an Air Force test pilot from 1942 to 1945. "Although they put the name test pilot on it," he said, "it was more of being a check pilot."
Jenkins was stationed with a maintenance squadron, where planes were repaired and modified. He likened it to a mechanic who fixes a car and drives it around the block.
"It wasn't dangerous work," he explained. "If you got the damn thing started, that was half the test." His favorite planes were the P-51 Mustang and P-47 Thunderbird, and he was fond of the twin-tailed P-38.
A graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, Jenkins was admitted to the bar in 1949. "I thought the law would be a good profession and career ever since high school," he recalls. From 1950 to 1951, he was an FBI special agent, a job he enjoyed very much.
Then Jenkins began a half-century of private practice in Benton.
"For many years I was engaged in trial practice," he said, "and I did more personal injury work than anything else. I conducted a number of jury trials, and I thought that that was the exciting part of the law practice."
Like other practitioners of his generation, Jenkins has weathered many changes. "You can't practice without checking the statutes," he said. "You don't dare do anything without first preparing yourself as to what the statutes and case law say."
Jenkins also has done his share of pro bono representation. "That comes about from practicing in a small community." he said. "There are more poor people, they're needy, and they get to know you."
His feelings about volunteering are strong. "The lawyer who does not engage in some pro bono work is derelict in his duties," he believes.
"As a result of Elmer's actions and integrity," Lacy wrote, "our system of justice has been better served in our rural and poverty-stricken part of Illinois."
Harold Levine: Pro bono, yes; UPL, no!
As long as the unauthorized practice of law plagues the profession and public, and as long as the need for pro bono representation of the indigent persists, you can count on Harold I. Levine to be in the forefront of initiatives to deal with those situations.