Linda Schurman and Kenneth Crews have joined Goodsmith, Gregg & Unruh, Chicago, as partners in the firm's transaction practice. They come from Latham & Watkins.
New shareholders at Greenberg Traurig, Chicago, are Mark J. McCombs, national governmental affairs practice, and James G. Richmond and Kevin D. Finger, in the litigation department.
Christopher E. Tracy, a 1993 honors graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law, has joined the Kalamazoo office of Howard & Howard in commercial litigationHe was an assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago from 1995 to 1999.
Ned Othman has joined the Chicago office of Kelley, Drye & Warren as a partner, representing domestic and international institutions in public and private finance and investment. He was a partner and chair of corporate finance with Duane Morris.
Mark E. Wilson has joined Kerns, Pitrof, Frost & Pearlman, Chicago, as a partner. He concentrates in commercial litigation, reinsurance and commercial institutions.
Ronald L. Sandack has joined Levenfeld Pearlstein, Chicago, as a partner in its litigation service area. He was a partner at Lowis & Gellen. New associates are Aaron S. Kase, Michael J. Osty and Steven M. Weiss.
Jeffrey J. Pochowicz and Richard E. Russell III have joined McGuire Woods, Chicago, as associates.
Rick Darke has joined Quarles & Brady, Chicago, as an associate.
Former Bloomington attorney J. Mark McKinzie has joined Riley, Bennett & Egloff in Indianapolis as a partner. Previously senior vice president and general counsel of the Meridian Insurance Group and Indiana Lumbermens Mutual Insurance Co., he was a partner in Costigan & Wollrab until 1989.
DAWL awards two law scholarships
Two recipients of Judge Helen C. Kinney Scholarships of $1,000 each were honored Dec. 4 by the DuPage Association of Women Lawyers during its 20th anniversary dinner in Oak Brook.
They are second-year law students Melissa L. Burger of Lombard, at the Chicago-Kent College of Law, and Eileen D. Collins of Hinsdale, at the Loyola University School of Law.
Burger, who has a master's degree in liberal studies from Northern Arizona University, serves on the editorial board of Chicago-Kent's Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal and the Kent Justice Foundation. She has interned at the Chicago Legal Clinic and the Citizen Advocacy Center in Elmhurst.
Collins, who helped build homes for impoverished families in Nepal with Habitat for Humanity after college, has been a law clerk in the Cook County state's attorney's Felony Trial Division. Fluent in Spanish, she acted as a translator to assist prosecutors in trial preparation. She has run in four marathons.
The scholarships were presented by Angela Imbierowicz, president of the DAWL Foundation, and Irene F. Bahr, chair of the scholarship committee and member of the ISBA Board of Governors.
The association's next meeting will take place Wednesday, Feb. 5. Call (630)221-0802 for details.
Federal housing finance expert speaks in Peoria
By Stephen Anderson
Few lawyers know more about the effect of the economy on the housing industry, or are better positioned to influence the development of residential areas, than Jamie S. Gorelick.
The vice chair of Fannie Mae, the Federal National Mortgage Association, Gorelick will bring her Washington, D.C., expertise to the heartland on Friday, Feb. 7, as keynote speaker for the Peoria County Bar Association's 95th Lincoln Memorial Banquet in the Hotel Pere Marquette.
With a diverse background as a corporate litigator and government counsel, she joined Fannie Mae in 1997 because "the product was housing ... and making more housing finance available to a broader cross section of Americans is good for individuals and good for our country."
She shares responsibility for the trillion-dollar company's management, oversees its external legal and regulatory relationships, and directs efforts to reach underserved markets.
A graduate of Harvard Law School, Gorelick has done her share of pro bono work. She serves on the board of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, is a recipient of an Outstanding Public Interest Advocate of the Year Award, and is a past president of the District of Columbia Bar.
From 1994 to 1997, Gorelick was deputy U.S. attorney general, the second ranking official of the Department of Defense, and a recipient of its Edmund J. Randolph Award. During the previous year, she was general counsel of the Department of Defense, where she received a Distinguished Service Medal.
She currently serves on the Central Intelligence Agency's National Security Advisory Panel and the President's Review of Intelligence, and is a past co-chair of the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection.
Gorelick has a Wickersham Award for Exceptional Public Service and Dedication to the Legal Profession, an American Bar Association Margaret Brent Award, a Prominent Women in International Law Award, a Women's Bar Association Lawyer of the Year Award, and an American Jewish Committee Judge Learned Hand Award.
For reservations to the Peoria Lincoln Memorial Banquet, which begins at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 7, call (309) 674-6049.
ISBA President-elect Terrence J. Lavin has announced that he will lead a state bar-sponsored travel program in Paris, France, next fall. The dates are Sept. 26 to Oct. 4.
Participants will stay for seven nights in the superior first class Sofitel Paris Forum Rive Gauche Hotel, visit highlights of the City of Lights at leisure, or take optional excursions to other venues.
The prices are $1,699 with Chicago departure and $1,799 with St. Louis departure, both per person, double occupancy, plus taxes. Call Global Holidays, (800) 842-9023 for more information.
The package includes round-trip, non-stop airfare via American Airlines or Air France to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, with luggage handling and transfers between the airport and hotel on a deluxe motorcoach.
There will be a welcoming reception, daily buffet breakfast, and a farewell dinner. A Global Holidays representative will be available on site with a hospitality desk.
Other tours
Brochures may be obtained in ISBA offices for travel programs that are being coordinated by Global Holidays. Call (800) 842-9023 for reservations or more information.
Caribbean: Jan.-Feb.
Remaining dates of the Western Caribbean cruise aboard the Costa Victoria, are Feb. 9 to 16 and Feb. 23 to March 2. Departing from Ft. Lauderdale, the ship will make port at Progreso (Meridia), Cozumel, Ocho Rios and Grand Cayman.
Dates of the Eastern Caribbean cruise are Feb. 2 to 9. From Ft. Lauderdale, the ship will dock at San Juan, St. Thomas/St. John's, and Catalina Island/Casa de Campo.
The prices start at only $899 per person, double occupancy, plus government taxes and fees. Both Chicago and St. Louis departures are available.
South Africa: March-April
Dates for six departures to South Africa from Chicago and St. Louis are March 24 to April 6, March 26 to April 8, March 31 to April 13, April 2 to 15, and April 7 to 20.
The price is $3,399 per person, double occupancy. The tentative itinerary includes Cape Town, the Mother City on a peninsula of soaring outcroppings, with nearby wineries and historic towns; the Garden Route of dense forests, wide bays and rocky cliffs, and the Entabeni Game Reserve.
Danube River: April-May
The 10-day, eight-night trip will include visits to Prague, Vienna and Budapest, with a new price of $2,299 per person, double occupancy. Five Chicago and St. Louis departures are planned: April 19 to 28, April 21 to 30, April 27 to May 6, April 29 to May 8, and May 5 to 14.
The itinerary includes the Czech Republic's ancient palaces, churches and gardens in Prague; a four-night cruise from Linz, Austria, to the spa town of Budapest, Hungary, through the Wachau Valley with stops at Melk, Durnstein and the art and architecture of Austria's capital city of Vienna.
Richard French tried 600 cases in 52-year career
Richard G. French, founder in 1964 of the firm that became French & Rogers and French, Kezelis & Kominiarek with offices in Chicago and Wheaton, died Dec. 26 at age 78 of emphysema in his home at The Landings of Skidaway Island, near Savannah, Ga.
Mr. French joined the Navy after high school as a 17-year-old aviation cadet and became a fighter pilot and lieutenant commander during World War II. Although he had no college degree, he qualified by examination for entrance into The John Marshall Law School.
First in his class, he received a bachelor of laws degree in 1950 and was admitted to the bar before graduating with a juris doctorate in 1951. He drove a taxicab while studying law.
Mr. French practiced plaintiff personal injury with Heineke & Conklin and the law firm of James A. Dooley in Chicago before joining Hinshaw, Culbertson, Moelman, Hoban & Fuller as a defense attorney and helping to open its satellite office in DuPage County.
Although he moved to Georgia in 1993, he remained active as counsel to his firm. During his career he tried more than 600 cases. He became an arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association in 1967.
Mr. French was president of the Society of Trial Lawyers in 1984-85 and of the Illinois chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates from 1988 to 1991. He was a member of the International Society of Barristers and the International Association of Insurance Counsel.
He received a Citation of Merit as a Distinguished Alumnus of John Marshall in 1971 and was honored as an ISBA Senior Counsellor in 2000.
Survivors include a daughter, 18th Circuit Associate Judge Dorothy K. French, and a son-in-law, Chicago attorney Richard F. Mallen.
Basil Greanias
Former Macon County state's attorney Basil G. Greanias died Dec. 18 at age 74 of cancer in his Decatur home. A 1952 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, he had served in the Army from 1945 to 1948.
Mr. Greanias was elected state's attorney in 1960 and served four terms before losing the 1976 election. He was re-elected in 1980. His five-term tenure was a record in Macon County and was believed to have been the second longest in state history.
Retiring to private practice in 1984, Mr. Greanias was awarded special prosecuting assignments in DeWitt, Champaign and Morgan Counties. He was a past president of the Decatur Bar Association and former vice president of the Illinois State's Attorneys Association.
Survivors include a daughter, Peoria Heights attorney Diane E. Greanias, and two cousins: 6th Circuit Judge John K. Greanias of Decatur, and former Decatur attorney Nicholas T. Greanias of Washington, D.C.
William Grotefeld
Retired Chicago attorney William Sven Grotefeld died Dec. 5 at age 84 in his Oswego home. A former resident of Oak Brook, he was a 1944 graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law after Army service during World War II.
A partner in Ruff & Grotefeld from 1949 to 1980, he subsequently formed the firm of William S. Grotefeld & Associates and was general counsel for the Evangelical Hospital Association.
Mr. Grotefeld was involved in the establishment of Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove and Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington.
Survivors include two sons, William Stewart Grotefeld and Mark S. Grotefeld of Grotefeld & Denenberg, Chicago.
S. S. Schneider
Bloomington attorney Stanford Sterling "Joe" Schneider, a past chair of the ISBA Committee on Bar Services and Activities, died Dec. 13 at age 82 in St. Joseph Medical Center.
During World War II, Mr. Schneider was a Navy officer in the southwest Pacific, serving with the 7th Amphibious Fleet and participating in several battles. He was given command of LSTs and rose in rank from ensign to lieutenant before his assignment to the admiral's staff at Coronado, Calif.
After the war, Mr. Schneider sold insurance for two years before entering the University of Colorado Law School. He graduated in 1949 and was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1950. He was honored as an ISBA Senior Counsellor in 2000.
Mr. Schneider affiliated with State Farm Insurance as an agency manager in Dixon, and was named the company's assistant director in Bloomington in 1952. He became a vice president in 1959 and continued as a consultant after 1976, when he joined Hayes & Flynn. He retired from State Farm in 1985.
Mr. Schneider was appointed McLean County public administrator and public guardian in 1983 by Gov. James Thompson, and was retained by Governors Edgar and Ryan through five four-year terms. He opened a solo practice in 1993.
A member of the Bloomington City Council, Planning Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals, Mr. Schneider served for 12 years as a trustee of Eureka College and was board chair for two years.
He was co-chair of a committee to build a human resources center for the Girl Scouts of America, and he was a deacon, elder and board chair of University Christian Church in Normal during more than 50 years of membership.