Tag days will take place May 23, 24 or 25 in Lake Zurich, Matteson, Mt. Prospect, Prospect Heights and Tinley Park, and on May 30, 31 or June 1 in Vernon Hills and Westchester.
Chicago trial lawyer Kenneth T. Lumb will be Major Lumb for awhile, trading in his business suit for an Army uniform to serve in the Judge Advocate General Corps in Washington, D.C.
An associate at Corboy & Demetrio, Lumb was mobilized in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. He oversees day-to-day operations of the 13th local office at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
See page 4 for ways non-military lawyers may assist personnel and their families.
Japanese judges describe similarities, differences of nations' court systems
Members of the ISBA International and Immigration Law Section had a unique opportunity last month to learn about the Japanese court system from two visiting judges.
Judges Hiroshi Ohno of Tokyo District Court and Akiko Ohno of the Yokohama Family and District Courts spoke April 23 during a luncheon in the ISBA Chicago Regional Office (see photo on page 1).
Presently scholars in residence at the University of Notre Dame Law School, they are conducting research about the United States jury system for possible application to the recently established system in Japan.
During their visits to Chicago courtrooms, the Ohnos were accompanied by retired judge Sheila M. Murphy, an ISBA Assembly member who has served on the Board of Governors.
Prof. Mark E. Wojcik of The John Marshall Law School, a member of the International and Immigration Law Section Council and the Human Rights Section Council, introduced the Japanese jurists.
Wojcik also provided an overview of Japanese law and the judicial system that evolved after adoption of the nation's 1946 constitution, in which separation of powers is fundamental.
The Supreme Court, located in Tokyo, hears jokoku appeals, which are limited to constitutional questions and conflicts with precedent, and kokoku appeals of civil and criminal case rulings on constitutional grounds.
The chief justice is appointed by the emperor and holds a cabinet rank equivalent to the prime minister. The other 14 supreme court justices are appointed by the cabinet and attested by the emperor.
The appointments of justices are reviewed in the next general election, and subsequently by plebiscites every 10 years. They must retire at age 70.
The next level, High Courts, have territorial jurisdiction in eight cities. Each is headed by a president who is appointed by the cabinet and attested by the emperor.
There are 50 District Courts and Family Courts with territorial, primarily original, jurisdiction, and 448 Summary Courts in cities, towns and villages to hear civil claims of not more than 900,000 yen (about $7,500 U.S.) and minor criminal matters.
All judges of the inferior courts are appointed by the cabinet from a list provided by the Supreme Court. Each holds office for 10 years and is eligible for reappointment. Summary Court judges must retire at age 70 and other judges at age 65.
The constitution guarantees that judges may not be removed except by public impeachment for serious misconduct or declaration of mental or physical incompetence. Impeachment panels consist of 14 members of the Japanese Diet.
Hiroshi Ohno passed the national bar exam in 1997, graduated from law school in 1998 and completed a two-year course at the Supreme Court's Legal Training and Research Institute in March 2000. He has heard criminal cases on three-judge panels in Tokyo since April 2000.
Akiko Ohno followed the same path, beginning a year earlier, and started hearing civil cases in Tokyo in April 1999 as a panel judge. She has managed juvenile delinquency cases and heard criminal cases in Yokohama since April 2001.
Law network members find an alternativeto global mega-firm
To merge or not to merge? That is a question many law firms in Illinois, and throughout the world, have been asking for the past two decades and continue to grapple with.
The mega-firm mergers that result in a single law firm having several hundred attorneys scattered around the globe draw much media attention.
There is another alternative, however, that does not seem to attract much publicity but appears to be growing in popularity because of its many benefits. That alternative is an international network of "member firms."
The benefits of the so-called "network alternative," versus the "global alternative" created by merging firms, were discussed at the inaugural meeting of the Central Region of the International Lawyers Network (ILN) on April 9 in Chicago.
The ILN's Chicago member, Arnstein & Lehr, was host for the meeting, which was attended by members from Cleveland, Houston, Indianapolis and Baton Rouge.
Formed in 1988, ILN is one of the largest international law member networks, with 82 member firms in 61 countries. Arnstein & Lehr, with nearly 125 attorneys, has been a member for seven years.
"Being part of this network has proven very beneficial to our firm in efficiently serving our clients' needs around the world," said Howard J. Swibel, chair of Arnstein & Lehr's Executive Committee. "One of the advantages of being part of the ILN is the consistency in the quality of services."
Swibel noted the suitable criteria for membership in ILN. "When we refer one of our clients to another ILN member, we are confident that our client will receive the high quality of service and responsiveness that our firm's attorneys provide," he observed.
"The firms tend to be midsized. Each offers a full range of high quality legal services and yet has the hometown advantage in a foreign jurisdiction," said Arnstein & Lehr partner William K. Blomquist. "They offer local knowledge and home-grown relationships in the foreign jurisdiction."
Jeffrey B. Shapiro, managing partner of the firm's Miami office, also noted the dependable quality among ILN member firms, as opposed to sometimes inconsistent quality among offices of mega-firms.
"When clients retain a large firm with many offices, they are sometimes disappointed by the lack of uniformity among offices," Shapiro said.
He added that a large firm may acquire a smaller firm where attorneys may not have the same caliber of credentials and trial or corporate transaction experience as the acquiring firm. "There are a lot of litigators out there, but very few trial attorneys," Shapiro said.
Cleveland attorney William J. O'Neil, a partner with McDonalds Hopkins, noted that another benefit of a member network is the conflict issue.
"In the post-Enron environment, conflicts are increasingly becoming a concern, and there is far less potential for conflicts arising when you refer a matter to a separate firm," O'Neil said.
Rates are also a big advantage of the member network alternative, according to Martin D. Beirne, managing partner of Beirne, Maynard & Parsons in Houston.
"When a big firm acquires another firm via merger, the acquired firm often needs to bump up its rates to match, or nearly match, the acquiring firm," Beirne said. "However, an ILN member will not have that type of rate pressure and will charge the market rate in its particular community."
Rudy Aguilar, managing partner with McGlinchey Stafford in Baton Rouge, mentioned that he enjoys the camaraderie with attorneys at other ILN member firms.
At some large global firms, he said, there may not be that same degree of friendship because of financial disincentives for one office to refer a matter to another.
In order to build on the cooperative spirit enjoyed among its members, the ILN is starting to launch smaller regional meetings in addition to the annual global and area-wide meetings.
"The members have expressed the desire to meet with their colleagues at other member firms to exchange ideas as to how they could leverage their resources to best service their respective clients," said Alan Griffiths, ILN executive director.
"Although we encourage electronic communications among our members, there is no substitute for face-to-face contact," he added.
Sue Ginsberg, ILN's outreach program director, believes there is a great deal of untapped potential for business referrals among member firms. She and Griffiths are focusing their efforts to reach out to members to help realize that potential.
"The business potential is increasing as large corporations and other clients realize the advantages of using a network firm as opposed to a global mega-firm," Ginsberg said.
The law firm of McVey & Parsky was formed by D. Timothy McVey and Mark Parsky in March in suite 2060 at 200 W. Madison St., Chicago 60606; telephone (312) 551-2130. Also in the firm are Paul Kaulas, Robert DeLora, Ami DeMarco and Elizabeth Lundholm. The practice includes nursing home, product liability and insurance coverage litigation.
Bradley H. Foreman has opened a solo practice in commercial litigation and transactional matters at 6914 W. North Ave., Chicago 60707; telephone (773) 622-4800. He previously practiced with Cohen, Salk & Huvard, Northbrook.
The Law Office of David J. Heyer opened recently in suite 908 at 212 W. Washington St., Chicago 60606; telephone (312) 372-4950. Michael J. Hennessy, Steve O. Ross and Mark S. Schwartz are of counsel.
The mediation and insurance defense firm of Torricelli & Limentato have relocated to suite 101 at 2504 Galen Drive, Champaign 61821, with no change in the telephone number, (217) 355-5510. Members are Ken R. Torricelli, Sam A. Limentato, James E. Long and Aaron R. Cramer.
After 14 years at 333 W. Wacker, the firm of Handler, Thayer & Duggan has moved to the 23rd floor of the new Hines building at 191 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago 60606, with no change in telephone number, (312) 641-2100.
Holland & Knight has signed a 12-year lease for its new quarters occupying 120,978 square feet in the Bank One Corporate Center, 131 S. Dearborn St. Since its merger last summer with McBride, Baker & Coles, the firm has doubled in size. Holland & Knight has 24 U.S. offices and others in Brazil, Mexico, Finland and Japan.
OutofSight exterminates your lurking Metadata
"The Electronic Lawyer"
Metadata: Confidential information that ends up being electronically distributed, thereby causing embarrassment and allowing your law firm to be placed at great risk in the hands of any and all outsiders to your firm.
I realize that I may not be Webster when it comes to defining words, but I think that this really is the definition of the word Metadata.
Truth be told, Metadata is information embedded in all Microsoft Office Documents, including the last 10 authors, file paths, editing time, track changes and comments, plus much more that you never see but is really there!
Moreover, each and every time you or someone in your firm sends an email attachment, whether it be a document or an excel spreadsheet, you also send vital and confidential information to your opposition
So how do you find Metadata? You can look at your file properties. Just open any of your Excel or Word documents, select File, Properties, and Metadata can be found on each of the several tabs.
If you think that is amazing, then you should try this: Select File, Open and highlight a file. Next, from the files type drop down menu, select "Recover Text from Any File" and then open the file.
Scroll through that document and you will find more Metadata than you could possibly imagine. I was amazed to find unbelievable items in my files and you will be too!
I have heard a lot of Metadata war stories lately. How about this: Your firm finally hacks out that 50-plus-page settlement, on the case you've been longing to close. But, lo and behold, the case doesn't settle because of Metadata that was transmitted with the attachment.
Included was a note from lawyer A in your firm to lawyer B saying, "Hey don't offer this SOB the initial $400,000; make him suffer and only offer up $250,000 because he has always been a real jerk about this case and no one likes him or his attitude!"
With this staring opposing counsel in the face, do you really think he will want to settle with your firm? So now you know that Metadata is out there, lurking in your files and attachments. What can you do?
If you're smart, you will go right to www.SoftWise.netand order the best of the Metadata killers: Out-of-Sight. Do this before your headaches get any worse! I have been using this fine product for several months now and I no longer worry about Metadata.
Out-of-Sight is a user-friendly Metadata management utility from the SoftWise Corp. It enables a safe, effective way to manage all of your Microsoft Office documents and to protect all of your valuable information.
What it does exactly is provide a mechanism to safely analyze and clean all your documents before they are sent out, and it works with all Microsoft Office products.
As the people at SoftWise put it, "it's a shrink-wrapped engine that provides an easy-to-use single dialog, and the administrative module enables central management of the product and the establishment of enterprise standards, all using a simple GUI (graphical user interface)."
In addition, Out-of-Sight integrates with multiple e-mail systems, so every time you use it, you get a prompt asking whether you care to remove Metadata prior to sending the e-mail. With its Batch processing system, you can clean multiple documents, or a directory or directory tree, in a single operation.
Without question, the product wins over all others that I have seen in the marketplace, and I think you will enjoy the ease of use that comes with it.
If you want to sample the Out-of-Sight product for a trial evaluation, just download the eval copy and begin. Out-of-Sight can be found at www.SoftWise.net.
You will find it simple and easy to use, and better yet it will work for you without a hitch. In a few short mouse clicks, you will be amazed at how all your Metadata is magically and. more important, perfectly removed from all documents.
After your first use of Out-of-Sight, you will wonder why you didn't have it at your disposal a long time ago and you will be glad your law firm has it from now on!
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Northbrook attorney Alan Pearlman serves on the ISBA Assembly, the Committee on Legal Technology and the Law Office Management and Economics (Standing Committe on) Council, and is a member of the Editorial Board of the ABA General Practice Technology and Practice Guide. He is co-author of "The Busy Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Word for Windows '95," published by West Group. Contact Pearlman at pearlman@lectrniclawr.com.
For more information about current trends, ISBA members may subscribe to the newsletter published by the Committee on Legal Technology. It is available online as well as in printed form. Call Lisa Standefer at (800) 252-8908 to become a subscriber.