Mayor Daley to address Midyear event
Kilbride speaks at court dinner
By Stephen Anderson
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley will be the keynote speaker Friday, Dec. 10, for the joint luncheon of the Illinois State Bar Association and Illinois Judges Association in the Sheraton Chicago Hotel.
The city's chief executive since 1989, Mayor Daley is a graduate of the DePaul University College of Law, a former Illinois senator and Cook County state's attorney.
The luncheon will be one of several programs that are parts of the ISBA Midyear Meeting and IJA Annual Convention, which will begin officially with an opening reception at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 9.
Justice Thomas L. Kilbride will speak during the annual Illinois Supreme Court dinner that begins with a 6 p.m. reception Friday, Dec. 10. The ISBA and Chicago Bar Association are co-sponsors of the black-tie optional event.
The ISBA meeting will be preceded by a Future of the Profession Conference that is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Thursday with a presentation by Florida futurist Charles Robinson.
The opening reception, which concludes the invitational conference on Thursday evening, will precede the traditional two-day format of business meetings, seminars and special events.
A 45-minute ISBA-IJA seminar titled "Raising the Bar (and Bench)" at 11 a.m. Friday, Dec. 10, will explore four of the most troublesome ethical dilemmas faced by lawyers and judges as they attempt to avoid scrutiny by the Judicial Inquiry Board and the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission.
The issues of disqualification, the Himmel rule, impaired lawyers and judges, and letters of recommendation or testimony from judges will be illuminated as subjects of amusing and informative scenarios.
Judge Carolyn Quinn will act as moderator of performances by Judges James P. Flannery Jr., Moira S. Johnson, Edmund Ponce de Leon and Michael T. Caldwell, and assistant attorneys general William X. Elward and Patricia Mendoza.
Explanations will be provided by Chief Justice Mary Ann G. McMorrow of the Illinois Supreme Court, Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans of the Cook County Circuit Court, Judge John O. Steele, president of the IJA, and Mary Robinson, administrator of the ARDC.
Family Law and General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Updates are scheduled Friday, along with an early morning program on Commercial, Banking and Bankruptcy Law. Seminars on Real Estate Law and Trusts and Estates basics will be held Saturday morning. See page 6 for details.
Friday afternoon receptions are scheduled by law alumni of the University of Illinois, Northern Illinois University and The John Marshall Law School. The Southern Illinois University School of Law and the ISBA Health Care Section Council will conduct a joint reception.
ISBA past presidents will meet for breakfast at 7:30 a.m. Saturday, prior to their introductions at the start of the semi-annual meeting of the ISBA Assembly at 9 a.m.
Among agenda items is a legislative report that includes proposed revisions of the Illinois Custody Act to create a new Parental Responsibilities Act.
The Assembly also will discuss a public image advertising campaign, changes to Rule 225 on class actions, and the addition of law student representatives. Vacancies on the American Bar Association House of Delegates will be filled.
Dues discounts given to members for recruiting
ISBA's newest Get-a-Member and Save Campaign is well on its way to saving members money, and enhancing the association. You, too, can save on dues or even pay no dues at all - by participating.
Here's how: If you recruit one new member, you receive 25 percent off your dues rate for one year. Bring in two, three or four, and you get 50, 75 or 100 percent off your dues, respectively.
Plus, the new members you recruit still get 50 percent off THEIR dues for a one-year period. There are a few rules, one being that the new member must not have previously been a member for at least the past two years.
We can help you recruit by providing a packet that includes informational ISBA brochures, a sample recruitment letter, an application form and other important details. Contact Ann Boucher at (800) 252-8908 or aboucher@isba.org. Or go to the ISBA Web site at www.isba.org and download the same materials.
Now we'd like to recognize those members who have helped ISBA grow, and saved on dues. We invite you to join the growing list soon.
Martin B. Carroll, Chicago - 4
Sandra Crawford, Chicago - 1
Warren J. Dominick, Orland Park - 1
Michael E. Fox, Chicago - 4
Joseph A. Fuchs, Lincolnshire - 1
Audrey L. Gaynor, Chicago - 1
Kevin L. Geisler, Charleston - 1
David R. Gervais, Crystal Lake - 2
Stuart Gordon, Highland Park - 1
Roger B. Harris, Chicago - 4
Mark L. Karno, Chicago - 1
James L. Kopecky, Chicago - 1
Rebecca M. Leynaud, Peru - 1
George G. Leynaud, Peru - 1
James M. Marion, Chicago - 8
James H. Mutchnik, Chicago - 1
Matthew Nielsen, Chicago - 1
Robert J. O'Connor, Oswego - 1
James Reichardt, Villa Park - 1
Gary L. Schlesinger, Libertyville - 1
Thomas B. Underwood, River Forest - 1
Wenona Whitfield, Carbondale - 1
Bar associations to challenge FTC appeal
Privacy rules not applicable for attorneys
The Illinois State Bar Association has transmitted a request to bar associations throughout the country to join an amicus curiae brief in support of challenges to an appeal of a declaratory judgment against the Federal Trade Commission.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in favor of the position of the American Bar Association and New York State Bar Association that lawyers should not be subject to privacy and notification provisions in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.
The FTC and U.S. Department of Justice have appealed the ruling, and the ABA and NYSBA plan to respond to the appeal with separate briefs that can be combined if the cases do not remain separate.
Judge Reggie B. Walton ruled May 12 that the FTC may not use the act to require lawyers to provide privacy notices to clients in matters involving financial services. He agreed with the associations that Congress never intended the privacy provisions to apply to lawyers.
The ISBA participated in an amicus brief in support of the NYSBA lawsuit. The ABA filed a subsequent lawsuit that was consolidated in the adjudication (ISBA Bar News, May 2004).
The FTC had argued that lawyers who represent clients in tax and estate planning, real estate closings and bankruptcies should be subject to the act, which is also known as the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999.
The bar associations contended that applying the act to lawyers is a violation of the 10th Amendment because only states have authority to license and discipline lawyers. The Justice Department agreed in June 2003 not to enforce the act against lawyers before the district court ruled.
ISBA first assistant counsel Melinda J. Bentley, in a memorandum circulated electronically by the ABA on Oct. 18, sought response from bar associations that are "interested in joining the effort to provide relief for all of our members from the burdens of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act Title V restrictions..."
Washington, D.C., attorney Peter Buscemi and Tom Morgan of the George Washington Law School are serving as pro bono counsel in drafting the amicus brief on behalf of state and local bar associations. Bentley said she would provide copies of the brief as soon as it becomes available.
For background information about provisions of the act and the involvement of the ABA, access the Web site www.abanet.org/poladv/glbfactsheet.html.
Parental Responsibilities plan on agendas
A special committee of the ISBA Family Law Section is drafting a final version of a revision of the Illinois Custody Act that replaces references to custody and visitation with creation of joint parenting plans and provisions for parenting time.
The legislative proposal is called a "kindercentric" approach by section council past chair Laura M. Urbik-Kern of Elmhurst, who heads the Special Committee to Implement the New Parental Responsibilities Act.
Urbik-Kern told the ISBA Board of Governors in January that the proposal "seeks to have the parents address the children's issues first." She reported back to the board on Oct. 8 with the status of the three-year initiative.
The board was expected to receive and review a final legislative draft during its Nov. 12 meeting, and to send a recommendation to the Assembly for deliberation Dec. 11.
One issue that needs addressing, Orbik-Kern said, is the standing of persons other than parents such as step-parents, grandparents and other relatives when parenting time is allocated.
She reiterated her observation that custody and visitation are loaded words that often promote dissension instead of unity, and enable parents to use children as possessions in their disputes over post-marital issues.
"It is our hope that if this proposal becomes law, children going through the process will grow up healthier because of it," Urbik-Kern told the ISBA governors in January.
Section renamed
The name of the ISBA Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section has been changed to Human Rights Section. "Human Rights" also will be the title of the section newsletter, previously "Constitutional Law and Liberty."
The change was adopted Oct. 8 by the Board of Governors on the recommendation of the Committee on Scope and Correlation.
Assembly to air adding students
A proposal to add 13 law student representatives to the 201-member ISBA Assembly for a five-year trial period was adopted Oct. 8 by the Board of Governors on the recommendation of the Committee on Scope and Correlation.
The pilot program will be placed on the agenda for the Midyear Meeting session of the Assembly at 9 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 11, at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel.
The proposal would require amendment of ISBA bylaws to provide that during the years 2005 to 2010, law student members at each affiliated school may elect a member to hold office as a representative of the school to the Assembly.
To be eligible, a delegate must have completed at least 15 law school credit hours before election. A delegate would be eligible to serve no more than two consecutive one-year terms. The signatures of 10 eligible student members would be required for nomination of a law school's delegate.
Speaking of the importance of time management, as Paul Sullivan did in his column, The Lawyer's Office, in the September issue of the ISBA Bar News, the subject was explored during a recent exchange on ISBA's freewheeling ISBAcafe e-mail discussion group (to join, visit <www,isba.org/Discussions>).
The issue in question was setting strategies for avoiding interruptions that add hours to the work day and take them away from personal life. The query and two responses follow.
* * *
I feel like my day is controlled by the ringing phone, drop-ins and closings and outside appointments, and it is only in the evening, after 5 p.m., that I can get the actual work done.
This means clients are unhappy because I can't get things done as quickly as they would like, and I only see my spouse for about one hour every night, because I don't get home until 8:30.
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From ISBA Assembly member Gary L. Schlesinger of Libertyville:
I do not do drop-ins. My office is not a deli. You need an appointment. If you need to do something, do not answer the phone. Let the messages pile up and then take them off the system and return the calls.
By answering the phone every time it rings, you let it set the agenda for the day. Block out time to do the work that need doing. Set aside a couple hours a day with no phones and no appointments. This is the time to do dictation, writing, reading, thinking.
Do not let your marriage and spouse time be your last priority. You are working to live, not living to work. If you do not schedule home time, there will be none, and after a time, no marriage.
The job of being a lawyer will take as much time as you let it. Do not let it take all your time.
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From Matthew A. Maloney of Princeton, secretary of the General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Section Council:
At one time I believed that I wasn't doing what I was supposed to do unless I was at the office. When I was public defender, I used to take my two youngest children with me to jail every Sunday after church. One of the jailers would entertain them for the hour I was there.
I stopped doing all of this stuff 10 years ago but still find myself getting into bad work habits. Best thing I saw, and which I continue to use, came from John H. Maville (Belvidere attorney who received the General Practice Section Tradition of Excellence Award in June).
He doesn't talk to anyone on Tuesday, including his staff people. He can talk to them, but they can't talk to him. No phones, no appointments, no nothing.
I started doing this a few years ago and confine it to noon to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays. Works great. You know that the phone won't ring and no one will bother you.
A list of remaining fall ISBA Law Ed Series seminars follows. Registration details are on pages 16 and 17. See pages 6, 20 and 21 for information about seminars that will be presented during the Midyear Meeting next month.
Thursday, Nov. 18, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. - Real Estate Law Update (Real Estate Law Section); University of Chicago Gleacher Center, downtown Chicago.
Friday, Nov. 19, 8:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. - Trial Techniques: Terence F. MacCarthy on Cross Examination and Impeachment, a Master Series program; Holiday Inn, Collinsville.