Business advice subjects include ethics, ADR use
The ISBA Business Advice and Financial Planning Section will present the Law Ed Series seminar, "Advising Illinois Business Law Clients," on Friday afternoon, Feb. 20, at the Securities Training Corp., Chicago.
Section council chair Herbert J. Klein of the Law Offices of Walter J. Zukowski, Peru, will be the moderator. Section council member Gene A. Petersen of Husch & Eppenberger, Peoria, is the program coordinator.
The seminar will begin at 12:30 p.m. with two presentations on Recent Developments in Business Law. Stephen D. Sayre of Rooks Pitts, Chicago, will give a case law update; past section council chair John J. Horeled of Crystal Lake will provide a statutory update.
At 1:15 p.m., section council member James A. Nepple of the Nepple Law Offices, Rock Island, will discuss Recent Developments Involving Employee Benefits and Retirement Plans. The remainder of the schedule follows.
1:45 p.m. Piercing the Veil, with Cary R. Rosenthal of Rosenthal & Associates, Chicago.
2:30 p.m. Effective Use of Arbitration for Business Disputes, with ISBA past president Cheryl I. Niro of Quinlan & Carroll, Chicago.
3 p.m. Ethical Issues for Business Leaders, with ISBA Assembly member Eugene F. Friedman of Friedman & Friedman, Chicago, a member of the Committee on Professional Conduct.
3:30 p.m. Recent Developments Involving Family Limited Partnerships: The IRS Application of Section 2036, with section council member Leonard S. DeFranco of Oak Brook.
4 p.m. Planning for the Illinois Estate Tax, with Susan T. Bart of Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood. See the January issue of the Illinois Bar Journal for Bart's article, "This Is Me Leaving You: Illinois Departs from the Federal Estate Tax Scheme."
June CLE plans are due March 3
Detailed proposals for ISBA Law Ed Series seminars to be presented during the Annual Meeting in June at The Abbey on Lake Geneva must be submitted for review by the Committee on Continuing Legal Education by Wednesday, March 3.
Section council and committee officers may obtain copies of the proposal form and guidelines by calling the CLE department in Springfield at (800) 252-8908.
Illinois corners 8 percent of million lawyers in U.S.
Various estimates afloat claim there were more than a million lawyers in the United States at the end of 2003. That seems to be a reasonable rate of growth since 1995, when the American Bar Foundation reported a nationwide lawyer population of 896,000.
The growth trend is likely to continue. The number of individuals taking the law school admission test last year was predicted at near the 1991 record of 152,242.
The master roll in Illinois numbers more than 79,000 - about 8 percent of the U.S. total - depending on responses to the annual fee collection by the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission.
That statewide total includes the 1,899 new attorneys who were admitted during five ceremonies conducted Nov. 6 by the Illinois Supreme Court 1,452 in Cook County and 447 in the other four districts.
ISBA officials who participated in the admission ceremonies are President Terrence J. Lavin in the 1st District, Chicago; President-elect Ole Bly Pace III in the 2nd District, Elgin; John E. Thies of the Board of Governors in the 3rd District, Peoria; board member Keith E. Fruehling in the 4th District, Springfield, and board member David C. Nelson in the 5th District, Collinsville.
District Courts admissions held
Thirty-one attorneys were admitted to practice in federal courts during ceremonies conducted Dec. 8 in East St. Louis and Dec. 18 in Urbana by the ISBA Federal Civil Practice Section Council and the Bar Association for the Central and Southern Districts of Illinois.
Judge Michael J. Reagan of the Southern District presided Dec. 8, when 22 lawyers were admitted. Judges William D. Stiehl and David R. Herndon, and Magistrate Judges Gerald B. Cohn and Clifford J. Proud attended.
Admitted were Melinda B. Barton, Jeffrey T. Bash, Amanda Bradley-Verett, David Ray Butz II, Tori Cox, James Eason, William Joseph Ebert III, Nicholas Garzia, Kyle T. Gray, Kristen Grisius, Deborah A. Hawkins, Lisa R. Kernan, Mary Jo Kuca, Shari L. Lett, Rachel M. Lewis, Christina E. Manuel, Heather A. Mize, Leanne A. Reetz, David B. Schneidewind, Sandra F. Sperino, Shira D. Truitt and Jeremy R. Walker.
Senior Judge Harold A. Baker administered the oath to nine lawyers Dec. 18, with District Judge Michael P. McCuskey, Magistrate Judge David G. Bernthal, and ISBA past president Richard L. Thies, who heads the bar association for the two federal districts.
Admitted were Thomas Benson, Carrie L. Borowski, Denise A. Knipp-Bates, Melinda M. Rowe, Kingshuk Roy, Stephen C. Smith, Roni S. VanAusdall, Minqin Wang and Dolores J. Whiters.
The governor's appointment of Chicago attorney Lori G. Levin as executive director of the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority has been confirmed by the Illinois Senate.
In her new capacity, Levin also chairs the Illinois Integrated Justice Information System Implementation Board and serves on the Sex Offender Management Board and the board of the Illinois Violence Prevention Authority.
ISBA Assembly member Mary L. Milano has been appointed the Criminal Justice Information Authority's associate director for federal and state grants, and she will serve on the planning committee of the Illinois Victim Assistance Academy.
Levin and Milano have been active members of the Illinois State Bar Association. Levin, a past chair of the ISBA Committee on Mental Health Law and former member of the Elder Law Section Council, serves on the Committee on Continuing Legal Education.
Milano is vice chair of the Committee on Law-related Education for the Public, secretary and newsletter co-editor of the International and Immigration Law Section Council, and a member of the Committee on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.
Levin is second vice president of the Women's Bar Association of Illinois and co-chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Women in Criminal Justice of the American Bar Association Section of Criminal Justice.
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Springfield attorney MaryLou Lowder Kent has been appointed to a six-year term on the Illinois Community College Board. She has served for 16 years on the board of Lincoln Land Community College and was its chair in 1991.
A member of the ISBA Real Estate Law Section Council, Kent is a former state bar association director of legislative affairs.
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Retired Cook County associate judge Marjan P. Staniec of Chicago has been appointed to the Chicago Advisory Council on Aging for two consecutive two-year terms ending June 30, 2007.
A member of the ISBA Assembly, Staniec also serves on the Elder Law Section Council and the Committee on Mental Health Law.
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Louis G. Apostol of Freeborn & Peters, Chicago, has been appointed a commissioner of the Illinois Court of Claims. The Cook County public administrator since 1991, he received a Community Service Award in May from the Association Forum of Chicago.
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Lauretta J. Higgins Wolfson of Chicago has been appointed general counsel of the Illinois Department of Human Services. She was an assistant Cook County state's attorney in the Civil Actions Bureau of the Litigation Section.
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Chicago attorneys Nancy L. Kaszak and Jeffrey D. Greenspan, both formerly with CorLands, have joined the staff of the nationwide not-for-profit Trust for Public Lands. Kaszak is director of business development in the Chicago office.
University accessions
Carlinville attorney Carl E. Kasten is chair of the Illinois State University Board of Trustees. He was a trustee and board secretary from 1996 until his election as chair in July. He is a partner in Phelps, Kasten, Ruyle, Burns & Sims.
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Reynaldo P. Glover, who is of counsel to Piper Rudnick, Chicago, and president of TLC Beatrice, is serving a three-year term as chair of the Fisk University Board of Trustees. He chaired the board of City Colleges of Chicago from 1988 to 1991.
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Springfield attorney Dennis A. Rendleman, former ISBA general counsel, is serving part-time as visiting director of the Pre-Law Center at the University of Illinois-Springfield. The center is a resource for students who are interested in legal careers.
Agricultural law seminar is set Jan. 30 in Bloomington
Representatives of the Internal Revenue Service and the Illinois attorney general are among faculty members for the ISBA Law Ed Series seminar, "Agricultural Law and Taxation 2004," on Friday, Jan. 30, at the Radisson Hotel, Bloomington.
Darrel F. Parish of Parish & Castleman, Decatur, chair of the Agricultural Law Section Council, will provide welcoming remarks during the registration period, which begins at 8:30 a.m. The schedule follows.
9:05 a.m. Illinois Estate Tax: Decoupling, Tax Returns, Forms and What's New for 2004, with assistant attorney general John R. Simpson of the General Revenue Litigation Bureau, Springfield.
9:45 a.m. Income Tax Update, with Richard Walden, a certified public accountant from Carlinville.
10:40 a.m. Federal Estate Tax Issues, with Michael G. Barton of Bellatti, Barton, Hamill & Cochran, Springfield.
11:30 a.m. Federal Estate Tax Return and Audits, with Deborah A. King of Springfield, staff attorney in the Internal Revenue Service Estate and Gift Tax Division.
11:50 a.m. Luncheon period.
1 p.m. Farm Lease Trends, Farm Valuation and Farm Land Exchanges, with Dale Aupperle of Forsyth, president of the Illinois Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers, Heartland Ag Group.
1:50 p.m. Resources for Lawyers from the University of Illinois Extension Service: Farm Doc Power Tour, with section council member Donald L. Uchtman, a professor in the College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, Urbana.
2:40 a.m. Illinois Grain Code and Agriculture Contract Act, with section council vice chair James R. Grebe of Hasselberg, Williams, Grebe & Snodgrass, Peoria.
State tax amnesty program goal aided by ISBA section
With support from ISBA members, particularly John K. Norris, chair of the State and Local Taxation Section Council, the recent Illinois Tax Amnesty Program produced $504 million in back taxes toward the state budget deficit.
The six-week amnesty period that ended Nov. 17 resulted in collection of more than double what state officials had estimated. Most of it came from businesses, but about 64,000 individual taxpayers paid $27 million in past due taxes as far back as 1983.
Of the $504 million collected, $175 million was considered "new money" that would not have been realized without the amnesty incentive of payment without interest or penalties.
Details of the amnesty initiative were detailed in the October issue of the ISBA Bar News. "We are advising ISBA members to alert clients quickly to what we think is a good program," Norris said after attending the public announcement by the Department of Revenue in September.
Additional information was published in the October issue of the State and Local Taxation Section newsletter.
Bar roundtables Jan. 29, Feb. 12
The schedule of ISBA roundtable discussions with officials of regional and ethnic bar associations will resume this month. They will take place:
Thursday, Jan. 29, from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Radisson Hotel, Bloomington, for Central Illinois county associations.
Thursday, Feb. 12, from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Holiday Inn, Collinsville, for Southern Illinois county associations.
Conducted by the ISBA Committee on Bar Services and Activities, the informal meetings consist of discussion of suggestions from the organized bar on such initiatives as the state bar's affiliated-bar association grant program and the need for future Bar Leadership Conferences.
For more information, call Janet M. Sosin, director of bar services and staff liaison to the committee, at (312) 726-8775.
Director of Legislative Affairs
The New Year starts with a number of public acts taking effect, some of which are as follows.
Uninsured motorists. PA 93-485 updates the Illinois Insurance Code. As amended, it does two things. (1) Under current law, all automobile policies issued in Illinois must provide uninsured-motorist coverage and the disputes about that coverage must be submitted to arbitration. Currently, awards under $20,000 per injured person and $40,000 per occurrence are binding, but awards more than $20,000 are not. This increases the binding arbitration levels from $20,000 to $50,000 per person and from $40,000 to $100,000 per occurrence.
(2) Increases the potential penalty from 25 to 60 percent of the loss amount at issue and from $25,000 to $60,000 under section 155 of the Insurance Code for unreasonable and vexatious insurer delay.
Dissolution-maintenance modification. PA 93-353 clarifies the criteria that the court should use when reviewing maintenance.
Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act. PA 93-108 replaces the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act. The Uniform Law Commissioners promulgated this Act to resolve differences between the current statute and federal statutes that Congress enacted after the UCCJA was promulgated. Also, the UCCJEA deals with enforcement issues and problems experienced with the current UCCJA.
Child support - sanctions against employers. PA 93-294 requires penalizing a payor who knowingly fails to timely pay the amount designated in an income withholding notice to the state disbursement unit (SDU) whether or not the payor withheld the amount. The penalty is $100 per day for each day the payment is late. Present law imposes this penalty only for failing to pay the SDU the amount withheld.
Child support - bail deposit. PA 93-371 authorizes the court to apply a bail bond posted in a criminal case to outstanding child support.
Summary Administration. PA 93-277 increases the ceiling for summary estate administration under section 9-8 of the Probate Code from $50,000 to $100,000.
Disabled adults. PA 93-435 authorizes a court to adjudge a person to be a disabled person and appoint a guardian of his or her person or estate only if it has been demonstrated by clear and convincing evidence that the person is a disabled person as defined in the Act and is unable to make responsible decisions concerning his or her personal or financial affairs.