Quinlan has served on the ISBA Board of Governors and the CBA Board of Managers, and has been president of the Celtic Legal Society and the Irish Fellowship Club. He is a past trustee and vice president of the National Institute of Municipal Law Officers.
In 1995, he was appointed the state bar association's judicial liaison by then-president Terrence K. Hegarty, and given the task of meeting with reporters and editors to discuss controversial court decisions and misperceptions about the judicial process.
"Judges are not, and should not be, above criticism," Quinlan said. "But in so many cases of judges being taken to task, the critics are looking only at an outcome and not at the process that may have dictated the decision."
He also chaired the ISBA Committee on Judicial Evaluations when it began to evaluate candidates for election and retention in Cook County for the first time, and he chaired the Access to Justice Advisory Board.
As chair of the county's Judicial Advisory Council, Quinlan formed a Committee on the Courts for the 21st Century that examined facilities and recommended improvements. He also formed a Task Force on Judicial Elections that focused on the conduct of candidates and asked them to sign a pledge to abide by certain rules.
The Supreme Court has appointed Quinlan to its Committee on Character and Fitness, its Committee on Professional Responsibility and its Rules Committee. He was vice chair of the Special Committee on Protracted and Complex Litigation and chair of a subcommittee on revising appellate rules.
Im addition to his litigation practice and civic responsibilities, Quinlan serves on the board of advisors of Mundelein Seminary at the University of St. Mary on the Lake, and the boards of the John H. Stroger Jr. Charitable Foundation and Loyola's law school. He is a Stalwart Fellow of the Illinois Bar Foundation.
John Marshall inspired Tony Raccuglia
Academy Laureate Anthony C. Raccuglia loves and respects the law. He's the first to say that it's been good to him, and he's not shy in articulating his thoughts about the profession with respect and humility.
"Tony once spoke with me about his sincere affection for the law as it should be practiced," wrote Ottawa attorney Michael T. Reagan of Herbolsheimer, Lannon, Henson, Duncan & Reagan. "At every turn, he has practiced at the very highest level."
Raccuglia had been interested in political science when he read books about John Marshall. "I thought the law was a noble profession and one that could do good for people," he said. "I decided that's what I wanted to do."
Graduating first in his class at The John Marshall Law School in 1959, he was awarded membership in the select Order of John Marshall.
Appointed first assistant LaSalle County state's attorney in 1960, Raccuglia was soon involved in the prosecution of Chester Weger for the murders of three Riverside women in Starved Rock State Park.
"Personally, the trial was an opportunity for me to become known in a sense that my age wasn't a deficit as a lawyer," he said. "I was able to generate some confidence among the general public that I could handle litigation work."
In 1969, Raccuglia went into full-time practice as Anthony C. Raccuglia & Associates in Peru. He served on the ISBA Board of Governors from 1976 to 1982, and is a past president of the LaSalle County Bar Association and a former member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association board.
A Charter Life Patron Fellow of the Illinois Bar Foundation, Raccuglia's charitable work is also extensive, yet most of it remains private and unheralded. He helped put in place a free clinic that the Elks Lodge provided for crippled children. He also chaired several Lions Club fund-raising drives for polio victims.
Raccuglia is also LaSalle city attorney. Mayor Art Washkowiak said "his reputation as a lawyer is renown throughout our area."
The best advice Raccuglia ever had was that trials cannot be won at their beginning. They must be won before they begin, "and that can only be done through preparation," he said. "You must have everything prepared and organized before you pick the first juror."
He tells lawyers to respect the law because if they don't, how can they expect the public to respect the legal profession. "Most successful trial lawyers are compassionate and understanding," he said, "and they provide a tremendous service for every man, woman and child on the planet."
Raccuglia enjoys being able to help people "who are confused about their rights. I concentrate in personal injury plaintiff's work and find it helpful to get people who are injured through the bad times," he said.
"We perform a service for those folks by keeping them in medical treatment and being able to see them through their problems. At the end of all the legal advice, hopefully they'll end up with compensation to help them live dignified lives."
Raccuglia has accepted pro bono assignments from the Prairie State Legal Services for more than 20 years, not only in personal injury but such work as drafting wills.
"The law has been very good to me," he said. "The opportunities I've had in my field have given me the wherewithal to provide legal services for free, and I think that's an obligation we all have to help people who can't afford it. It's a payback."
Chicago attorney Warren Lupel, an Academy Laureate and president of the Illinois Bar Foundation, is proud of Raccuglia.
"There are some 70,000 lawyers in Illinois," Lupel said, "so when your peers pick you out, it's special. We all want esteem, but it can't be created artificially. You must have integrity of character." He said Raccuglia is "a very competent lawyer and a force for good in his community."
The new Laureate still works seven days a week, totaling 65 to 70 hours, and loves it. "As long as I'm healthy and intellectually capable of handling my load, I do not plan on retiring," he said.
Vegas attorney airs family law issues in Nevada
For the special interest of domestic relations lawyers who may encounter cases involving parties in Nevada, or others who might consider relocating to the Sagebrush State, a local attorney will tell it like it is during an ISBA seminar next month in Las Vegas.
He is Marshal S. Willick, who has a full-time family law practice in Las Vegas, and writes and lectures extensively on domestic relations and technology issues.
The two-day Law Ed Series seminar will take place Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 15 and 16 at The Mirage. Sponsors are the ISBA Family Law, Criminal Justice, and Traffic Laws and Courts Section Councils.
Family law topics are scheduled both mornings, with Willick's presentation, "Practicing Family Law in Las Vegas," at 9 a.m. Sunday.
A 1982 graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center who served on the central legal staff of the Nevada Supreme Court before entering private practice, Willick is a Fellow of both the American and International Academies of Matrimonial Lawyers.
A trial and appellate lawyer, he has chaired several committees of the American Bar Association of Family Law and has represented the ABA in congressional hearings on military pension matters.
Willick has participated in hundreds of divorce and pension cases in the courts of about 40 other states, and has helped draft state and federal statutes in the areas of pension and property division in marriage dissolutions.
Seminar registration fees are $195 for ISBA members and $295 for non-members. Call the CLE registrar at the Illinois Bar Center, (800) 252-8908, to register or obtain more information.
Participants should make hotel reservations through Brandon Koenig at Meeting Solutions, (847) 808-1818. Special rates at The Mirage are $165 per night, single or double occupancy, through 5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 20.
Saturday a.m. schedule
8:50 a.m. Introduction to Family Law program.
9 a.m. Legislative Update, with M. Lee Witte, director of Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation. She serves on the Family Law Section Council and the Committee on Military Affairs.
9:20 a.m. Grandparent Rights: Visitation, No; Guardianship, Maybe, with David N. Schaffer of Brooks, Adams & Tarulis, Naperville, a member of the Family Law Section Council and Illinois Bar Journal Editorial Board.
10 a.m. Jurisdiction: Getting It, Keeping It and Getting Rid of It, with Julie Keehner Katz of Keehner, Cannady & Katz, Belleville. She serves on the ISBA Assembly, the Committee on the ARDC and the Committee on Continuing Legal Education.
10:30 a.m. Custody Changes: What Are Your Odds? with Laura M. Urbik-Kern of Kubiesa, Spireoff, Gosselar, Acker & Kern, Elmhurst, and Matthew G. Shaw of Shaw Jacobs & Associates, St. Charles.
Urbik-Kern is vice chair of the Family Law Section Council and a member of the ISBA Assembly. Shaw serves on the Family Law Section Council and the Committee on Minority and Women Participation.
11 a.m. New Rule 213 as It Applies to Family Law Cases, with Cook County Circuit Judge Edward R. Jordan, a member of the ISBA Assembly.
11:30 a.m. Dissipation of Marital Assets, with Richard W. Zuckerman of Peoria, a member of the ISBA Board of Governors.
Saturday p.m. schedule
1:30 p.m. Introduction to Traffic Laws and Courts program.
1:40 p.m. Consecutive panel discussions: Overview of the Illinois Summary Suspension Law, Including Current Case Law and Legislative Developments; Overview of Illinois DUI Laws, Including Current Case Law and Legislative Developments.
Panelists are Traffic Laws and Courts Section Council chair Michael W. Feetterer of Roth & Feetterer, McHenry; Cook County Judge Lawrence W. Terrell of Maywood, the past chair, and four section council members.
They are newsletter editor Larry A. Davis of DesPlaines, Cook County Judge Charles P. Burns of Maywood, assistant Cook County state's attorney Peter J. Troy of Bridgeview, J. Brick Van Der Snick of Geneva, and Michelle A. Vescogni of Ottawa, who is also newsletter editor of the Criminal Justice Section Council.
3:30 p.m. Representation of the DUI Offender Seeking Driving Relief Before the Secretary of State, with Larry Davis.
Sunday a.m. schedule
8:50 a.m. Introduction to Family Law program.
9 a.m. Practicing Family Law in Las Vegas, with Marshal Willick.
9:30 a.m. Case Law Update, with Adrienne W. Albrecht of Sacks, Albrecht & Gubbins, Kankakee, member of the Family Law Section Council and the Committee on Legal Technology.
10:40 a.m. Child Custody and Visitation Issues for Same-sex Unions, with Patricia M. Logue of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Chicago.
11:10 a.m. International Adoption Issues, with Deborah Crouse Cobb of Crouse Cobb & Bays, Charleston.
11:40 a.m. Treasure Island: Finding a Spouse's Hidden Assets, with 3rd Circuit Judge Barbara L. Crowder of Edwardsville, member of the Bench and Bar Section Council.
Sunday p.m. schedule
1:30 p.m. Trial Tools: Impeachment, Your Concealed Weapon, with Terence F. MacCarthy, executive director of the Federal Defender Program in Chicago.
Judge Stephen D. White of Joliet was elected chief judge of the 12th Circuit on Dec. 10. He succeeds Rodney B. Lechwar, who served for five years. Judge White was elected to the court in 1996 after a one-year appointment that followed four years as an associate judge.
Judge Jan V. Fiss of Belleville was elected chief judge of the 20th Circuit on Dec. 10. He succeeds Stephen M. Kernan, who retired in November after 28 years as a judge and 15 as chief judge. Judge Fiss became an associate judge in 1980 and a circuit judge in 1995.
Scottish trial process produces speedier justice
Justice is swift in Scotland, but vengeance remains in the province of God so far as capital punishment is concerned.
John Alistair Cameron, the Honorable Lord Abernethy of Scotland's Court of Session, recently told members of the Scottish Law Society about his nation's "Heinz 57 system" that combines elements of Roman civil law and English common law.
The system relies more on principle than on precedent, Cameron said during a luncheon in Chicago, and more cases involve common law crimes than statutory offenses.
Scotland has only 32 judges, three of whom are women. The 22 who are assigned to first-instance cases travel around the country. The 10 appeals judges remain in Edinburgh.
A criminal defendant cannot request a jury trial. Only Her Majesty's Lord Advocate can decide which court will handle a public prosecution and whether a jury will be required. A case must be brought to trial in no fewer than 110 days.
There is no problem with jury selection, Cameron said. Fifteen-member juries are impaneled in about five minutes, and no peremptory challenges are permitted.
Full disclosure and specific indictments are standard procedure. Corroboration by more than one source is required, even of confessions. The prosecutor presents the facts of the matter without trying to sway the jury in an attempt to notch a victory.
The standard of proof is beyond reasonable doubt, but the jury does not have to reach a unanimous verdict. It can find a defendant guilty or not guilty, or render the charge "not proven," by a simple majority as thin as eight to seven.
The verdict once was either proven or not proven. Cameron said the not-proven alternative was "quite useful and convenient" and sometimes considered a cop-out for the jury.
The jury plays no part in sentencing, which is entirely within the judge's discretion. The range of years in prison applied may not be consistent because few cases are similar in nature.
No death penalty has been imposed in Scotland since 1965, Cameron said. Capital punishment had been reinstated in 1957 in cases such as murder of a policeman or a killing during commission of another crime, but was repealed eight years later.
A failed attempt to reinstate the death penalty for convicted terrorists was made as a deterrent to members of the Irish Republic Army who sought refuge in Scotland.
Scottish law applied when two Libyans were prosecuted for blowing up Pan American flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988, although the trial was conducted in the Netherlands.
It was the largest mass murder trial in Scottish legal history, and Lord Abernethy (Cameron) attended on standby to the three colleagues who sat as a panel without a jury. He took part in the deliberations but could not vote on any decision on admissibility of evidence or verdict.
Called to the Inner Temple bar in 1963, Cameron was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1966. He was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1979 and was vice dean of the faculty from 1983 to 1992, when he became a judge. He had been legal chair and president of pensions appeals tribunals.
Cameron chaired the International Bar Association Judges' Forum from 1994 to 1998, and he has been president of the Scottish Medico-Legal Society since 1996.