4 March '04 Bar News

The third and final presentation of the ISBA Law Ed Series seminar on Technology and the Law in state and federal courts will be conducted Friday, March 26, in the U.S. District Courthouse, Urbana.

The General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Section is the chief sponsor, along with the Bench and Bar, Federal Civil Practice and Law Office Management and Economics (Standing Committe on) s, the Committee on Legal Technology and the Young Lawyers Division.

Other participating groups are the Federal Bar Association, the 7th Circuit Bar Association, and the Bar Association of the Central and Southern Federal Districts.

Assistant Cook County state's attorney Julie Ann Sebastian of Chicago, a member of the General Practice Section Council, is program coordinator.

Moderators are Gilda Hudson-Winfield of Chicago, a member of the Law Office Management and Economics (Standing Committe on) Council, and Cook County Judge Edna Turkington-Viktora, newsletter co-editor for the General Practice Section.

Registration will begin at 8:30 a.m.. Participants must bring ARDC registration cards and photo identification for admission to the courthouses.

The seminar will be opened at 8:50 a.m. by Adrienne W. Albrecht, chair of the Committee on Legal Technology, in Urbana. The schedule follows.

9 a.m. - Seeing Is Believing: Sources of State and Federal Law and Keys to Effective Research, with Adrienne Albrecht of Sacks, Albrecht & Gubbins, Kankakee.

10:15 a.m. - Beam Me up Scotty, a demonstration of setting up a computer system and creating a wireless office by Todd H. Flaming of Schopf & Weiss, Chicago, newsletter editor of the Committee on Legal Technology.

11 a.m. - A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words: Effective Use of Exhibits and Technology at Hearings, Town Hall Meetings and Trials, with ISBA Assembly member John L. Nisivaco of Lavin & Nisivaco, Chicago, newsletter editor for the Tort Law Section.

1 p.m. - I've Looked at Files from Both Sides Now, mastering the language of computer-stored information, saving and organizing data, and setting up client documents. The speaker is ISBA Assembly member Carl R. Draper of Feldman, Wasser, Draper & Benson, Springfield, chair of the Law Office Management and Economics (Standing Committe on) Council.

Security issues will be discussed by Nerino J. Petro Jr. of Loves Park, a member of the ISBA Assembly and the Committee on Legal Technology.

2 p.m. - Telecommunications in Action, with Judge Harold A. Baker of U.S. District Court for the Central District.

3:15 p.m. - Electronic Evidence Presentation Systems in the Central District, with Judge Michael P. McCuskey, past chair of the Federal Civil Practice Section Council.

Bankruptcy program covers divorce issues

An afternoon ISBA Law Ed Series seminar on taxation interrelationships between bankruptcies and marriage dissolutions will be presented by the Commercial, Banking and Bankruptcy Law Section on Friday, April 23, at the Radisson Hotel, Bloomington.

Program coordinators and moderators for "Divorce Issues in Bankruptcy and Bankruptcy Issues in Divorce" are section council members Joseph P. Chamley of Evans, Froehlich, Beth & Chamley, Champaign, and John Roska of the Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation, Champaign.

Section council chair Jeffrey D. Richardson of Tietz & Richardson, Decatur, will open the seminar at 1 p.m. with a welcome and introductions. The schedule follows.

1:05 p.m. Commercial Law and Banking Law Updates: Recent Cases and Statutory Changes, with section council secretary Timothy J. Howard of Howard & Howard, Peoria.

1:30 p.m. Bankruptcy Law Update, with Sumner A. Bourne of Rafool & Bourne, Peoria.

1:50 p.m. Tax Aspects of Bankruptcy, with Stuart Todd Hittinger, office of chief counsel of the Internal Revenue Service, Indianapolis; assistant U.S. attorney David H. Hoff of Urbana, and certified public accountant Roger Stone of Champaign.

3 p.m. Divorce Issues in Bankruptcy and Bankruptcy Issues in Divorce: Questions and Answers.

Speakers are Associate Judge Lisa Holder White of the 6th Circuit in Macon County, Decatur; Dean Peter C. Alexander of the Southern Illinois University School of Law, Carbondale, and Betsy Pendleton Wong of Champaign.

LAWPAC to honor Senator Cullerton

The ISBA Lawyers' Political Action Committee (LAWPAC) will honor State Sen. John J. Cullerton of Chicago during a reception from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 24, in the Sangamo Club, Springfield. Call the ISBA Legislation Department at (800) 252-8908 for information.

Sen. Cullerton will be recognized for exemplary legislative service during his 25 years as a legislator, including his efforts during the last session of the Illinois General Assembly to enact reforms of the state's capital punishment procedures.

The chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Cullerton also serves on the Rules Committee, the Financial Institutions Committee, and the Insurance and Pensions Committee. He is a graduate of the Loyola University School of Law.

Brown v. Board arguments to be reenacted

James Montgomery, Michael Coffield take lead roles

By Stephen Anderson

The dramatis personae for the scheduled reenactment by the Illinois Humanities Council of arguments in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka illuminate two ironies of the landmark 1954 school desegregation ruling.

First, while the decision is attributed to "the Warren Court," in fact Chief Justice Earl Warren was not yet a member of the U.S. Supreme Court when the five combined cases were argued in December 1952 and June 1953.

Those proceedings were heard by Chief Justice Frederick Moore Vinson, who died Sept. 8, 1953. Warren was nominated Sept. 30 to succeed Vinson, but was not confirmed until March 1, 1954. Warren is credited, however, with bringing the nine-member court together for the unanimous decision that he read May 14, 1954.

For the reenactment at 6 p.m. Monday, April 19, at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, opposing counsel will be portrayed by Chicago attorneys James Montgomery as Thurgood Marshall and Michael Coffield as John W. Davis.

Therein lies the second irony. As U.S. solicitor general in 1915, Davis had persuaded the Supreme Court in Guinn v. United States to strike down an Oklahoma law that prohibited blacks from voting. The NAACP supported him with its first amicus brief.

But in 1952, at age 80, Davis represented South Carolina in Briggs v. Elliott, one of the five Brown cases, arguing for continuation of school segregation. Davis had participated in more Supreme Court cases than any lawyer of his time, and this was his final appearance before the court.

The consolidated cases in addition to Brown and Briggs were Bolling v. Sharpe, Gebhart v. Belton, and Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, Va.

The Humanities Council court that will sit for the Marshall-Davis arguments by Montgomery and Coffield consists of Judges William J. Bauer and Ann Claire Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Judges Ruben Castillo and Joan B. Gottshall of U.S. District Court, and magistrate Judge Nan R. Nolan.

The full program, "Brown v. Board 50 Years Later: Conversations on Integration, Race and the Courts," includes a post-performance discussion by Thomas P. Sullivan and Jerold S. Solovy of Jenner & Block, led by Prof. Danielle Allen of the University of Chicago.

A reception will follow the presentations. For ticket information, call the Illinois Humanities Council at (312) 422-5580.

50 Years After Brown v. Board

Madison County Bar

The Madison County Bar Association plans to conduct a panel discussion Wednesday, March 24, related to the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision.

Associate Judge Barbara L. Crowder of the 3rd Circuit, a member of the ISBA Bench and Bar Section Council, will conduct the program from 7 to 9 p.m. at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville.

Co-sponsors include the Illinois Judges Association and the Illinois State Bar Association, which has underwritten the presentation with a $500 affiliated bar association grant.

The grant application was submitted by Granite City attorney Dennis J. Orsey, a past president of the Madison County Bar and member of the ISBA Board of Governors.

NIU College of Law

Equal educational opportunity and affirmative action in will be discussed during the 13th annual Law Review Symposium of the Northern Illinois University College of Law.

The symposium, "Emerging Issues in Equal Protection Jurisprudence," will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, March 25, at the NIU Holmes Student Center in DeKalb.

Panelists will draw on the 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education to analyze the impact of recent Supreme Court rulings in Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger on the use of race as a criterion for admissions in higher education.

The keynote address at 9:45 a.m. will be given by Dennis Shields, associate dean of the Duke University School of Law, who was a named defendant in the Grutter case.

Subsequent panel discussions will be "In Light of Grutter" at 10:30 a.m., and "Fifty Years After Brown" at 1:30 p.m. The luncheon speaker is Prof. Beverly Moran of the Vanderbilt University Law School.

The symposium faculty includes NIU Law Prof. Mark Cordes, Magistrate Judge P. Michael Mahoney of U.S. District Court in Rockford, and Ruth Moscovitch, general counsel for Chicago Public Schools.

Others are Law Prof. Jose Roberto Juarez Jr. of St. Mary's University, law clerk Christopher J. Schmidt of the Court of Common Pleas of Pennsylvania, NIU ombudsman Tim Griffin, and Robin Moreman, director of undergraduate studies.

A reception will follow in the Thurgood Marshall Gallery of the College of Law in Swen Parson Hall. Call (800) 345-9472 to register or obtain more information.

John Marshall Law

The John Marshall Law School has scheduled a series of free Wednesday noon programs next month that will recall significant incidents in evolution of the country's civil rights movement. They are:

April 7, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. "Reflections on Brown v. Board of Education: Civil Rights, Past, Present and Future," discussions on issues of sexual orientation, religion, children's rights and ethnic minorities.

April 14, 12:15 p.m. "Escobedo v. Illinois," a panel discussion on the landmark criminal procedure case. Speakers are Justice Warren D. Wolfson, who was Danny Escobedo's attorney; Barry Kroll, who represented Escobedo before the U.S. Supreme Court, and retired judge Benjamin Mackoff, who worked on the case as an assistant state's attorney.

April 21, 12:15 p.m. - The Civil Rights Movement, a panel discussion by participants in events that led to school desegregation and voting rights. Speakers are Professors Michael Seng, William Carroll, Craig Peterson and Diane Kaplan.

On Monday, April 26, in the John Marshall courtroom, the law school and Chicago Public Schools will conduct a program in which high school honor students will reenact closing arguments in Brown v. Board of Education. Judges Gerald Bender, Arnette Hubbard and Jesse Reyes will hear the mock trial presentations.

After this program, the public is invited to attend a 2 p.m. debate, "Is Affirmative Action Consistent with the Supreme Court's Decision in Brown?"

For more information, call (312) 987-1420 or access the law school Web site, www.jmls.edu.

U.I. College of Law

The University of Illinois College of Law will join the College of Education in sponsoring an academic conference Thursday through Saturday, April 1-3, on the impact of the Brown v. Board of Education decision on educational opportunity and conceptions of equality.

For more information, call the office of Law Dean Heidi M. Hurd at (217) 333-9857.

Conference highlights include a keynote speech by civil rights advocate Julian Bond, president of the NAACP, after an opening reception by the Black Law Student Association.

Scheduled speakers include U.S. Court of Appeals Judges Sonia Sotomayor of the 2nd Circuit and Boyce Martin of the 6th Circuit, and civil rights lawyers Julius Chambers and Laughlin McDonald.

Among others are Gerald Torres, president-elect of the Association of American Law Schools, and Joseph DeLaine Jr., the son of a key figure in a South Carolina case that was a companion to Brown.

Business entity formation basics are essential in general practice

An ISBA Law Ed Series seminar, "A General Practitioner's Guide to Forming an Illinois Business Entity," will explore the complex maze of determining whether a corporation, an s-corporation, a partnership or a limited liability company will best accomplish a client's goals.