ISBA Assembly member Thomas M. Battista of Rock, Fusco & Garvey, Chicago, who chairs the Administrative Law Section Council, will welcome participants to the program at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 9, in the Chicago Regional Office.
Judge Pallmeyer's discussion on The Importance of Evidence in Administrative Proceedings will follow. The remaining schedule of speakers and topics for the first day follows.
9:15 a.m. - Maintaining Your Own Trial Notebook on Evidence in Illinois, with past section council chair Edward J. Schoenbaum, an administrative law judge for the Illinois Department of Employment Security in Springfield.
9:30 a.m. - Overview of Significant Illinois Decisions on Evidence in Administrative Adjudication, with Appellate Justice Robert J. Steigmann of Urbana.
10:30 a.m. - Motions in Limine, Door Opening, Offers of Proof, and Privilege, with Justice Steigmann.
11 a.m. - Expert Witness Testimony in Illinois Administrative Adjudication, with Claire A. Manning of Chicago, former chair of the Illinois Pollution Control Board.
12 noon - Luncheon break.
1:15 p.m. - Making and Preserving Objections in the Hearing, with Alfred G. Burton Jr., an administrative law judge for the Office of Hearings and Appeals of the Social Security Administration, Chicago.
2:15 p.m. - Impeachment, Including Partiality and Prior Inconsistent Statements, with Justice Steigmann.
3:45 p.m. - A panel discussion on Unique Evidence Questions in Administrative Hearings: Government records, social policy exclusions, exclusion of witnesses, investigative files, discovery files, written statements, expert reports, authentication, original writing rule, official notice, and character for truthfulness.
Panelists are section council past chair Joann M. Fratianni of Lake Forest, an arbitrator for the Illinois Industrial Commission; Vickie A. Gillio of Chicago, Schoenbaum, Burton and Manning.
Friday, Oct. 10, the second day of the seminar, will begin with a series of presentations by Prof. Penny White of the University of Tennessee College of Law:
8:45 a.m. - Hearsay Definition, Admissions, Statements of Testifying Witnesses, and Hearsay Exemptions.
10 a.m. - Hearsay Exceptions, Multiple Hearsay, and Credibility of Hearsay Declarant.
11 a.m. - Relevancy and Exclusion of Relevant Evidence, Competency, and Opinion of Lay Witnesses, followed at 12 noon by a luncheon break.
1:15 p.m. - Collateral and Non-collateral, Good Faith Basis, Leading Questions, Refreshing Recollection, Direct and Indirect, and Cross-examination.
At 2:30 p.m., Judge Blanche M. Manning of U.S. District Court for the Northern District will discuss Ensuring that Your Evidence Will Survive Administrative Review.
Real estate taxation issues to be explained for experienced counsel, general practitioner
A day-long ISBA seminar on real estate taxation, divided into two levels of experience, will be conducted Wednesday, Oct. 29, in the Securities Training Corp. auditorium on the second floor at 205 W. Wacker Dr., Chicago.
The Law Ed Series presentations by the State and Local Taxation Section are titled "Real Estate Tax Issues in Every Day Practice" and "New Issues Confronting the Real Estate Tax Practitioner."
Program coordinator is section council past chair Timothy E. Moran of Schmidt, Salzman & Moran, Chicago.
The morning session, designed for the general practitioner level of experience, will have section council chair John K. Norris, of Rubin & Norris, Chicago, as moderator. The schedule follows.
8:45 a.m. Prorating Real Estate Taxes in Sales Transactions, the advantages and disadvantages versus straight tax credits in residential and commercial transactions, new construction and conversions.
The speakers are section newsletter co-editor Mary Ann Connelly of the Law Offices of Terrence Kennedy Jr., Chicago, and John Norris.
9:30 a.m. Navigating the Tax Appeal Process, with section council member William J. Setiz of Fisk, Kart, Katz & Regan, Chicago, and Mary Ann Connelly.
They will focus on assessment relief offices - assessor, Board of Review, Property Tax Appeal Board and circuit court - with various deadlines, burdens of proof, evidence and arguments, and taxing district involvement.
10:45 a.m. Title Issues Involving Real Estate Taxes, with Hugh E. Pollard, trust officer of Guaranty Trust Co. (an Attorneys' Title subsidiary), Chicago, and Timothy Moran.
Discussion topics are tax sales, understanding and responding to a "take notice," ordering an estimate and making a redemption, reviewing a tax deed proceedings, certificates of error, title indemnity agreements, and title insurance coverage.
11:15 a.m. Other Real Estate Taxes: Transfer Taxes and IRS Section 1031 Deferred Exchanges, with William Seitz and Hugh Pollard.
Transfer tax issues are calculation of tax due, types of properties subject to the tax, and personal property not subject to tax. Deferred exchange issues are identification of qualifying property, understanding compliance time frames, choosing an exchange trustee, and executing appropriate forms.
After a break at 11:45 a.m. for luncheon, which will be provided, the afternoon seminar will be conducted at the experience level of real estate taxation specialist.
The moderator will be section council past chair James W. Chipman of Springfield, executive director of the Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board. The schedule follows.
1 p.m. Current Appraisal Issues - investment value vs. market value, use of letter updates, and use of appraisals as admissible and competent evidence of value in non-triennial years.
Speakers James A. Rooney of Chicago and Michael J. Kelly of MAI Real Estate Analysis Corp., Chicago, will include discussion of the apparent dichotomy between PTAB and the circuit court.
1:45 p.m. Taxing District Involvement in Assessment Appeals - implications of interventions and underassessment complaints, standing, time frames, and potential assessment increases.
Speakers are section council members Thomas A. Jaconetty, chief deputy commissioner of the Cook County Board of Review, and Thomas J. McNulty of Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg, Chicago, and James Chipman.
2:45 p.m. Case Law Update, with James Rooney, Thomas McNulty, Thomas Jaconetty and James Chipman.
3:30 p.m. Newly Enacted Legislation, with the same speakers.
Business clients that are growing need legal skills
"Advising Your Growing Business Client: How Do You Take It to the Next Level?" is the title of a half-day ISBA Law Ed Series seminar that will take place Friday, Oct. 24, at the Radisson Hotel in Bloomington.
Presented by the Corporation, Securities and Business Law Section, the seminar will provide insights into important legal issues and techniques that the practitioner must understand before counseling a client on the formation and organization of a business.
After welcoming remarks at 8:30 a.m. by section council chair Brent H. Gwillim of Heyl, Royster, Voelker & Allen, Peoria, the seminar will consist of two parts. The moderator is John T. Doyle of Chicago.
Part I, Practical and Legal Issues Affecting Your Client at the Formation Stage, will begin at 8:35 a.m. with a discussion by Gwillim of Professional Liability Exposure of Attorneys Engaged in Transactional Law.
At 9 a.m., William A. Price will answer the question, What Are the Key Issues and Documents in Organizing Your Client's Business? An attorney, Price is an adjunct professor of high technology entrepreneurship at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Wheaton.
At 9:30 a.m., Gene A. Petersen of Husch & Eppenberger, Peoria, will speak on What Are Your Client's Alternatives with Respect to Financing Future Growth?
Beginning at 10 a.m., Part II of the seminar will explore Practical and Legal Issues Affecting Your Client as It Grows and Expands.
Nancy A. Fallon-Houle of Downers Grove will open the discussion with What Practical and Legal Issues Are Triggered by Raising Private Equity for Growth Capital?
At 10:30 a.m., the concepts of Raising Private Equity and Venture Capital Financing will be reviewed by Zane M. Cohn of Chicago.
At 11 a.m., Robert J. Wild of Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, Chicago, will cover Negotiating the Sale of Your Client's Company for Shares of a Publicly Held Acquirer.
At 11:30 a.m., Robert C. Knuepfer Jr. of Baker & McKenzie, Chicago, will explain what happens when Your Client Wants to Go Public and Conduct an IPO.
The seminar will conclude with a question-and-answer session from 11:50 a.m. to 12 noon.
The ISBA Board of Governors will meet at 9 a.m. Friday, Sept. 19, in the Chicago Regional Office, and Friday, Oct. 17, at The American Club in Kohler, Wis.
Board meeting dates planned in 2004 are Friday, Jan. 23, in the Westin Hotel River North, Chicago; Friday, March 26, in the Park Hyatt Hotel, Chicago, and Friday, May 14, in the Westin Hotel, St. Louis.
The 128th ISBA Annual Meeting is scheduled Thursday through Sunday, June 17-20, at The Abbey on Lake Geneva, Fontana, Wis., where Ole Bly Pace III of Sterling will succeed Terrence J. Lavin of Chicago as president.
Federal civil practice seminar to include bankruptcy, ethics
A wide-ranging federal practice seminar will be presented from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Springfield.
Sponsored by the Bar Association of the Central and Southern Federal Districts with co-sponsorship by the ISBA Federal Civil Practice Section, the program will consist of concurrent civil, criminal, bankruptcy and ethics discussions. The sessions and speakers follow.
Current Topics in Ethics for Criminal Practitioners - Peter L. Rotskoff of Springfield, litigation group manager for the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, member of the ISBA Committee on Corrections and Sentencing and past chair of the Committee on Legal Education, Admission and Competence.
Current Topics in Ethics for Civil Practitioners - James J. Grogan of Chicago, chief counsel for the ARDC and member of the joint Special Committee on Ethics 2000.
Current Topics in Federal Criminal Practice - Melissa A. Day of Benton, assistant federal public defender, with members of her office and staff. The discussion will include the Protect Act and U.S. Sentencing Commission, firearms issues, white-collar sentencing, and downward departure motions.
Current Topics in Bankruptcy Practice - Case management and electronic filing in the Southern and Central Districts, with views from the bench. The moderator is Peoria attorney Timothy J. Howard, a member of the Federal Civil Practice and the Commercial, Banking and Bankruptcy Law Section Councils.
Panelists include Chief Bankruptcy Judge Gerald D. Fines and Judges Larry L. Lessen, Thomas L. Perkins and William V. Altenberger of the Central District, Danville; Judge Kenneth J. Meyers of the Southern District, East St. Louis.
Others are James L. Magill of the Office of U.S. Trustee, Mary Kelemetc, systems manager for the Southern District Bankruptcy Court, and Pam Schuster, chief deputy clerk of the Central District Bankruptcy Court.
For registration information and other details, call the CLE registrar in the Illinois Bar Center, (800) 252-8908.
The Missouri Bar has authorized four total hours and two professional hours of minimum continuing legal education credit for attending this program.
Post mortem issues in trusts, estates management reviewed
Five members of the ISBA Trusts and Estates Section Council are among speakers for upcoming Law Ed Series seminars titled "Planning Opportunities in Post Mortem Administration of Trusts and Estates."
The presentations will take place Friday, Oct. 24, in the concourse level auditorium of the James R. Thompson Center, Chicago, and Friday, Nov. 7, at the Gateway Center in Collinsville.
Program coordinator and moderator is section council vice chair James M. Marion of LaSalle Bank Corp., Chicago. The schedule follows.
9 a.m. Recent Developments in Case Law and Legislation, with Prof. Malcolm Lee Morris of the Northern Illinois University College of Law, DeKalb, a section council member who also serves on the Committee on Legal Education, Admission and Competence.
9:30 a.m. Federal and Illinois Estate Tax Changes: Planning Responses, with section council member David A. Berek of Kirkland & Ellis, Chicago.
10:45 a.m. Ethical Issues in Representation of Fiduciaries and Beneficiaries, with Raymond J. Koenig III of Peck, Bloom, Austriaco & Mitchell, Chicago.
11:30 a.m. Post Mortem Planning with Retirement Assets, with section council member Philip E. Koenig of Konecky, Koenig, Kutsunis & Weng, Rock Island. Koenig also serves on the ISBA Assembly and the Committee on Continuing Legal Education.
12:15 p.m. Luncheon period.
1:30 p.m. Disclaimers: Powerful Tools in Post Mortem Planning, with section council member William A. Peithmann of The Peithmann Law Office, Farmer City. A former member of the ISBA Board of Governors, Peithman serves on the Task Force on the Unauthorized Practice of Law and the Illinois Bar Foundation board.
3:15 p.m. Trust Reformations and Conversions, with James R. Carey of Levin & Schreder, Chicago.
The ISBA Young Lawyers Division has scheduled a social event to raise funds for the Illinois Bar Foundation. The benefit will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3, at My Bar, 3555 N. Ashland, Chicago.
The $10 cost of admission includes unlimited pizza and refreshments, with $5 of it contributed to the bar Foundation. Call Janet Sosin, (312) 726-8775, for further details.
Court Rules Committee to probe use of cell phones, laptops
In addition to a proposed rule that requires disclosure to clients of lack of malpractice insurance coverage (see page 1), several other proposals will be reviewed during the Supreme Court Rules Committee hearing Friday, Oct. 17, in Chicago.
Courtroom technology
The Automation and Technology Committee of the Illinois Judicial Conference has offered a proposal to head off the use of electronic equipment in courtrooms to photograph or disseminate proceedings.
With the development of cell phones that take pictures and laptops with recording and transmitting capability, courts have become wary of abuses that contravene codified restrictions.
An amendment to Rule 63 (Canon 3) would expand paragraph (7) by defining new technology that could violate the ban on photographing or broadcasting court proceedings beyond what has been authorized by the Supreme Court. The new language follows.
"For the purposes of this rule, the use of the terms 'photographs,' 'broadcasting,' and 'televising' include the audio or video transmissions or recordings made by telephones, personal data assistants, laptop computers, and other wired or wireless data transmission and recording devices."