The Will County Child Advocacy Center has moved into larger quarters at 54 N. Ottawa St., Joliet 60432, across the street from its former location at 57 W. Jefferson. The county offered the space rent-free until the center receives its $50,000 state grant.
Scholars rewarded
The Northwest Suburban Bar Association presented scholarships to seven law students during its Judges' Night dinner April 9 in Rosemont. The awards range from $500 to $1,000. The recipients are:
Kristin Howard and Ashok Michael Pinto, University of Illinois College of Law; Adam Sheppard, Chicago-Kent College of Law; Katherine H. Judson, Marquette University Law School; Eileen D. Collins, Loyola University School of Law; Joshua Herman, DePaul University College of Law, and Melissa D. Counley, graduating from Western Illinois University.
NWSBA members are volunteering to help pro se litigants from 1 to 3 p.m. Fridays in the 3rd Municipal District Courthouse, Rolling Meadows. To sign up, call (847) 259-7908.
Bethalto museum shows 'Bar None'
"Bar None," a traveling exhibit about the achievements of pioneer women lawyers in Illinois, will be on display at the Bethalto Historical Museum in Madison County from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturdays through July 12.
Created by the Chicago Bar Association Alliance for Women with funding from the Illinois Bar Foundation, the display received a Superior Achievement Award from the Illinois Association of Museums.
Mock trial success leads Ryan Allen to law school
Ryan Allen of Rock Island will graduate this month from Illinois State University and attend one of the law schools that he has heard from.
He already has the desire to become a lawyer, the inspirational support of his family, and the experience of being an intern for Prairie State Legal Services in Bloomington during the past semester.
Allen apparently also has the ability to practice law. He proved that as captain and lead attorney of Illinois State's mock trial team that made a good run at a national championship this spring.
Competing at the silver (middle) level in qualifying trials at St. Paul, Minn., the team hoped to finish in the top eight and advance to the gold level at the championship tournament in DesMoines, Iowa.
"We won the darn thing!" Allen told a local newspaper reporter after the qualifying trials. "We did not do as well at the gold-level national finals, but we still won a top national tournament to make it there."
A major in politics and government at ISU, Allen received an Outstanding Attorney Award in the Lewis University regional mock trial competition in the Will County Courthouse.
He said he hopes to have "a big-city experience" as an attorney after law school, preferably in the sports and entertainment field.
"I'm lucky," he said. "I have the greatest family in the world that has and will support me in anything I try. The challenge is to get to the next level and handle real trials."
Allen's stepfather is Rock Island trusts and estates attorney Jack L. Leiby Sr. His mother, Jody, has a master's degree in law enforcement and is a Rock Island County probation officer.
Peoria attorney was team coach
Michael A. "Mick" Hall of Johnson, Bunce & Noble, Peoria, coached the Illinois State University team that won the American Mock Trial Association tournament at St. Paul, Minn., in March and qualified for the national championship in Iowa.
It was ISU's first national title since it started fielding mock trial teams in 1987. "Over 150 students have participated in the program," said Hall, who serves on the ISBA Committee on the ARDC. "Many are now practicing attorneys in Illinois and other states."
The ISU team captained by Ryan Allen defeated Gonzaga University for the title, trying a fictional wrongful death case. Teams from St. Louis University and Yale University were runners-up.
ISU also competed this spring in the Northwestern University Invitational in Lake County and was host for its own tournament last fall in the McLean County Law and Justice Center.
Public Defenders present awards at Urbana event
Patrick J. Hughes Jr. of Springfield, retired first assistant state appellate defender, will be honored by the Illinois Public Defender Association during its annual spring conference Friday and Saturday, May 16-17, at the Holiday Inn, Urbana.
Hughes, a former IPDA secretary, will receive a special recognition award during the Friday night dinner. A member of the ISBA Committee on Government Lawyers, he is newsletter editor for the Human Rights Section Council.
The IPDA will present its Richard Cunningham Award to members of the Governor's Commission on Capital Punishment, with special recognition awards to its executive director, Matthew R. Bettenhausen, and research director Jean M. Templeton.
The IPDA's Clarence Gideon Award for distinguished lifetime service to clients and colleagues will be made posthumously to former assistant Cook County public defender John T. Carey, who died in January 2002.
Educational programs will be conducted Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. For more information, call Candace Remington at (217) 782-3654.
The president of the Public Defender Association is Sangamon County chief public defender Brian T. Otwell of Springfield.
Women leaders to be honored
The Chicago Bar Association Alliance for Women will honor two lawyers on Wednesday, May 28, for professional achievements and contributions to the advancement of women in the law and other areas.
They are Judith A. Gold of Altheimer & Gray, who will receive the Founders Award, and Kathleen L. Nooney of Piper Rudnick, recipient of the Alta May Hulett Award.
The presentations will take place during the annual luncheon in the Standard Club, beginning with a reception at 11:30 a.m. Call Kathy McEnroe, (312) 554-2057, for reservations.
Power gains acclaim
Joseph A. Power Jr. of Power, Rogers & Smith, Chicago, will be honored by the City Club of Chicago as Citizen of the Year during its annual Civic Salute dinner on Thursday, June 12, at the Drake Hotel.
A past president of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and former chair of the Supreme Court Rules Committee, Power is vice chair of the Illinois Lawyers Political Action Committee (LAWPAC).
State positions filled
James L. Kaplan of Kaplan & Sorosky, Chicago, has been appointed chair of the Illinois Board of Higher Education. His tenure on the board began in July 1999 and will continue until 2007.
A past chair of the Illinois State Advisory Council on the Education of Children with Disabilities, Kaplan was a member of the Illinois State Board of Education reorganization and monitoring/compliance teams in 1995-96.
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Christopher Meister of Holland & Knight, Chicago, has been named legislative director and associate general counsel for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. A former law clerk to Justice Mary Ann G. McMorrow, Meister served on Gov. Rod Blagojevich's transition team.
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Chicago attorney Erin M. O'Connell-Diaz has been appointed to a five-year term as a commissioner of the Illinois Commerce Commission, where she has been assistant director of the Administrative Law Judges Division for two years.
A former staff member for attorneys general Neil Hartigan and Roland Burris, O'Connell-Diaz joined the Chicago office of the ICC in 1991.
Q:You have previously discussed punctuations before and after quotation marks, but I am still troubled about possible ambiguity. For example, in the quote,"In the blank, insert "A," should I place a period after the final quote marks, before the quote marks, or omit the period altogether. In the statement, "Section 30" should read "Section 31," and "France" should be "Germany," where should the punctuation go? In the abbreviation "cc" (which you discussed in last month's issue) how should it be punctuated?
A: The first quotation should read, "In the blank, insert "A." In the second statement, "Section 30" should read "Section 31, "and "France" should be "Germany." Finally, if you enclose cc. in quotation marks, it should read, "cc."
These punctuation/quotation mark rules are arbitrary, and perhaps may result in ambiguity, and if you are willing to flout rules to obtain clarity, you can, of course, do so. I have never noticed that ambiguity has resulted from applying the rules, but that is only my subjective experience. The rule is that in American English grammar, periods and commas are always placed within the final quotation marks, colons and semi-colons are always placed outside the final quotation marks, and exclamation points and question marks are placed within the final quotation marks if they are part of the quoted material and outside the quoted material if they are part of the complete sentence.
What's good about this arbitrary rule is that you don't have to think once you memorize it. What's bad about the rule is that it may seem unreasonable; and the reader who submitted the question considered its application sometimes ambiguous. I hope this answer resolves the reader's question, although it may not make him happy.
One more point about a subject the reader did not address. Notice that in the first line of his question, he asked about "punctuations," (and my spell-checker at once noticed an error). That is because punctuation in the context in which it appeared in the reader's question is traditionally a "non-count" noun; it does not take a plural marker. Non-count nouns are disappearing in American English, and readers have noticed. They have questioned whether counsel should have an s in the phrase "independent counsel." The answer is no; counsel, like independence, rice, happiness, weather, temperature, and humidity are all non-count nouns (no plurals)
But non-count nouns, in this oral society are dropping like flies; you hear weather reporters saying: "Humidities are on the rise, along with the rising temperatures" instead of the traditional, "Humidity is on the rise, along with the rising temperature." Mental health professionals now talk about behaviors, and depressions, instead of the traditional, "The behavior of persons suffering from depression becomes abnormal." Lawyers and social workers now say "the best interests of the child," but all of us would probably be wiser to use the traditional non- count forms until the "new" becomes firmly entrenched.
Q:I have two questions about number in verbs that modify nouns. Should the verbs in the following sentences be singular or plural?
(1) Statutory and case law was/were sparse.
(2) The law should fail, unless supporting records or documentation is/are available.
A:Example (1) contains a compound subject ("statutory and case law"), so you need the plural verb: "were." In example (2) the conjunction "or" is disjunctive; therefore all elements joined by "or" require the singular verb (in this case: "is"). If all nouns in the list are singular, there's no problem, as in "A mixed drink, beer, or wine is included in the price."
However, when the last item in the list is plural, and previous items are singular, some grammarians apply the "rule of attraction," using a plural verb to match the final item. In the reader's example, if sentence (2) were: "The law should fail, unless supporting documentation or records are available," the verb would be plural to match the closest noun in the list.
FROM THE MAILBAG:
Wheaton Attorney Dick Bales writes, "I enjoyed your reply to Theodore Utchen's inquiry about the novel creation of words. You gave the example of the statement, 'He's not doing any work; he's just desking it up there.' After mentioning two newly created verbs he had recently encountered, to dialogue and to journal, Mr. Bales added, "Ah, but you missed the worst example of a novel word: disrespect, used as a verb."
I am not keen about the verb disrespect, and other readers have expressed their dislike of it, although the noun disrespect is not criticized. Even more irritating to many is the new verb to dis, a truncated form of to disrespect. The verb disrespect is useful, however, in that it says in three words what otherwise would require five: "He holds me in disrespect,"and it creates a verb from a noun, a tradition in the English language.
The reason for the dislike of the verb-in addition to its novelty-may lie in its failure to include the three requirements for standard usage, that the 18th century British grammarian Lindley Murray listed in the eighteenth century. He said that to be acceptable, language must be currently and widely used, and, finally, it must be acceptable to literate speakers and writers. Arguably, the verb disrespect is currently and perhaps widely used, but it probably has not yet been approved by "literate" speakers and writers.
Which reminds me of a probably apochryphal poll of American teenagers who were asked how they felt about a subject that would affect them. Just under 50% responded "Awesome," 30% answered, "Whatever," and 20% said, "Duh?"
Gertrude Block is Lecturer Emerita at the University of Florida College of Law. Her book, "Effective Legal Writing" (Foundation Press), is now available in a 5th edition (1999), with an accompanying instructor's manual. Ms. Block is also co-author of the "Judicial Opinion Writing Manual" (published by the American Bar Association, 1991). Send questions to the ISBA Bar News -- Language Tips, Illinois State Bar Association, Illinois Bar Center, Springfield, IL 62701, or e-mail her at block@law.ufl.edu.
Summaries follow of ISBA-sponsored travel programs that are being coordinated by Global Holidays. Call (800) 842-9023 for reservations or more information.