Federal bench is filled in Chicago
The March 10 investiture of Chicago attorney Mark R. Filip as a judge of U.S. District Court for the Northern District filled the last vacancy and brought the court to full strength.
A partner in Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, the law firm he joined in 1999, Filip was recommended by Sen. Peter Fitzgerald in January 2003, nominated by President George W. Bush last April, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Feb. 4.
A 1992 graduate of Harvard Law School, Filip began as a law clerk in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. From 1995 to 1999, he was an assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago.
Senior status for McDade
Chief Judge Joe Billy McDade of U.S. District Court for the Central District in Peoria announced last month that he will take senior status in December, opening a vacancy on the bench.
A federal judge since 1991, after nine years on the 10th Circuit Court, McDade reportedly will continue to maintain a minimum case load as a senior judge.
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Dean Peter C. Alexander of the Southern Illinois University School of Law has been appointed the chair of a committee that will make recommendations for nomination of a magistrate judge of U.S. District Court for the Southern District.
Alexander's 11-member committee will review all applications and select five candidates by the end of May. District Court judges will name one of them to fill the position.
Settlement lawyer named
Chicago attorney Jillisa Brittan has been appointed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit as the third settlement conference attorney. A 1991 graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, she was a partner in McDermott, Will & Emery.
Brittan joined Joel N. Shapiro and Rocco J. Spagna as a full-time appellate mediator to assist litigants and counsel in resolving cases without the need for a court decision.
Joseph Casciato is elevated
Joseph N. Casciato, an associate judge of Cook County Circuit Court since 1982, was appointed to the circuit court last month. He is a 1974 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law.
Judge Casciato replaces Loretta C. Douglas, who retired in December after six years as an associate judge and 14 years as a circuit judge. She is a former member of the ISBA Board of Governors and a past president of the Women's Bar Association of Illinois.
Goshgarian plans to retire
Judge John R. Goshgarian of Waukegan, who was chief judge of the 19th Circuit in 1992-93, will retire this summer. A 1971 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, he became an associate judge in 1983 and was elected to the circuit in 1986.
Miquelon joins law faculty
Miriam Miquelon, who resigned last July as U.S. attorney for the Southern District, will join the faculty of the Southern New England School of Law this summer. She will teach criminal law and procedure.
The law school is not accredited by the American Bar Association, but its graduates may apply for admission in states that do not require ABA accreditation.
Q: Most grocery store signs say "15 items or less" at the beginning of the express lane. Isn't "15 items or fewer correct?"
A:Yes, and the reason is that the word item is a count noun, so it requires the modifier fewer. If it were a non-count noun like, say, water, it would be modifiable by the word less. The difference between count and non-count nouns can be seen in the following pairs: much happiness, but many joys; much help, but many helpers; little difficulty but few problems.
Another characteristic of non-count nouns is that their singular form does not need to be preceded by an article. You have to say a/the desk, a/the book, and a/the formula, for example, because they are count nouns. You can, however, say happiness is possible, without preceding happiness with either the or a. This is true of all non-count nouns (sometimes called mass nouns) like information, rice, feedback and contentment. Another characteristic of non-count nouns is that they have no plurals: One does not speak of "one information and two informations." And non-count nouns are not divisible into units. You can speak of half of an apple, but not half of a sadness.
In Old English (before the Norman Invasion) there were many more non-count nouns than there are today, many non-count nouns having become count nouns. And the trend continues. People who frequently use a non-count noun tend to move it into the count category. Hence, for mental health professionals, depression (traditionally a non-count noun) is now used as a count noun, and the same people have changed the traditionally non-count noun behavior into a count noun, when they speak of behaviors.
To make matters even more confusing, some nouns can be either count or non-count, depending on the context. Difficulty, cited above as a non-count in the expression, little difficulty can also be a count noun in the context, a difficulty with that argument is .... Interest is another; there are the interests of a child, but interest in a subject. In the context, Consideration should be given ..., consideration is a non-count noun; but in the context, There are many considerations ..., it is a count noun.
That explains why the distinction between much/many and little/few has been lost, along with the movement of non-count nouns into the count category. But distinctions in language make for clarity and exactness, so persons like the reader who sent the question are well advised to retain that distinction in their own usage.
Q: In your December "Language Tips" you wrote the sentence, "Persons who are arrested by police are entitled to be advised of their rights." It seems to me that the plural of person is people. You substituted the plural people in order to avoid the grammatical error of, "A person who is arrested by police is entitled to be advised of their rights." Isn't the use of the grammatically incorrect persons simply an attempt to be politically correct at the expense of good writing?
A:Attorney Pat Fitzgerald has asked two questions here, and I'll address the question about the incorrectness of the plural persons first. The plural of person is persons. The noun people is a mass noun like fish and moose; its plural is identical with its singular in most contexts, except when it becomes a count noun in an expression like "the peoples of the world."
When you are talking about individual persons, you generally choose the plural persons, for dictionaries define person as "a living human being." But when you are talking about groups of individual human beings, you generally choose people, defined by dictionaries as "a body of persons." The Usage Panel of The American Heritage Dictionary (AHD), a group of distinguished writers and educators, distinguishes the two nouns in the way I have done, above. But in actual usage, the two words are often used interchangeably, as the Panel then notes. However, in the sense of a political electorate, only people is acceptable.
As far as Mr. Fitzgerald's second question about the maneuvering of language to create political correctness, I certainly agree that it often occurs, but that doesn't seem to be the reason for this use of persons instead of people. It would also be correct, however, to use people in this context if you are thinking of individuals as a group.
My thanks for this interesting question, of first impression.
FROM THE MAILBAG:
Thanks also to Attorney Charles McClellan, who writes that I should have added to my January column the comment that when a specific plaintiff or defendant is referred to in a document, the word should be capitalized (Plaintiff/ Defendant). That usage, he notes, is specified by his Webster's Dictionary. My 1998 edition of Webster's does not include that specification, nor do legal dictionaries, like West's Legal Thesaurus/Dictionary.
But there is no doubt that capitalizing Plaintiff and Defendant, when that person is the specific individual previously named in a document, would be helpful. In such a case, no article would be added: "Plaintiff argues ....,"not "The Plaintiff argues ...." Unfortunately none of the writing manuals I checked (e.g., Writing for Law Practice, by Fajans, Falk, and Shapo) mention that point. Nor does Words and Phrases, in its case synopses.
Thanks to Mr. McClellan's comment, I have added to my forthcoming (2004) book the suggestion that capitalizing Plaintiff/ Defendant and using these titles without an article (Plaintiff argues ....) to refer to the particular plaintiff or defendant in the case at hand would contribute to clarity.
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.
ABA slates Woman in Law Leadership Academy in Chicago
The American Bar Association Commission on Women will conduct its inaugural Women in Law Leadership Academy on Friday and Saturday, April 15-16 at the Wyndham Hotel in Chicago. The ISBA Committee on Women and the Law is a co-sponsor.
The objective of the academy is to empower young or recently admitted women lawyers by providing a skill set that enables them to direct careers more effectively. Speakers include lawyers who have overcome obstacles facing women in the profession.
The program will begin at 12 noon Friday with a luncheon and keynote speech by Christine Lagarde, chair of Baker & McKenzie. Panel discussions and track breakouts will follow.
Participants include Stephanie Scharf of Jenner & Block, president of the National Association of Women Lawyers; Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, federal Judges Ann C. Williams and Amy J. St. Eve, and Zaldwaynaka "Z" Scott, president of the Black Women Lawyers Association of Greater Chicago.
Similar discussions will take place Saturday morning, followed by luncheon and closing remarks by Diane Yu of New York University, chair of the ABA commission. Call (312) 988-5715 or visit www. abanet .org/women for registration and program details.
John Marshall Law
The program, "Intellectual Property Challenges and Perspectives: Brazil and Latin America," will be presented from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 23, by the John Marshall Law School Center for Intellectual Property Law.
Luncheon at the Standard Club and keynote speech by David F. Weinstock of Abbott Laboratories will be followed by discussions at the law school. Call (312) 987-1420.
John Marshall's Center for Tax Law and Employee Benefits and the Law Review will conduct a Symposium on the Future of Employee Benefits Laws from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday, April 2.
The JMLS Fair Housing and Legal Support Center will hold a workshop, "Housing Our Senior Population: The Impact of Fair Housing Laws," on Friday and Saturday, April 16-17.
Peoria County Bar
The Peoria County Bar Association is conducting a series of free brown-bag luncheon seminars on Wednesdays this month in the association office. Remaining programs are: March 24, Residential Real Estate Closings; March 31, Defending a DUI Case. Call (309) 674-6049.
DuPage County Bar
Judge William J. Bauer of the U.S. Court of Appeals and Appellate Justices Susan Hutchinson and Thomas Callum will discuss interlocutory appeals during a DuPage County Bar Association luncheon seminar Wednesday, March 24, in the bar center classroom. Call (630) 653-7779.
On Thursday, March 25, the DCBA will present a luncheon seminar on "The New Face of Death: Defending an Illinois Death Penalty Case Under Reform Legislation." Speakers include Stephen L. Richards, Allan R. Sincox and Maureen Kevin of the Office of State Appellate Defender.
A local government law seminar, "Land Use Mess: Clear as Mud," will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 21, Discussions include public hearings and the Klaaren decision, teardowns and condemnation.
Decalogue Society
The next Decalogue Society legal education program will be on Observations of a New Judge, with Cook County Domestic Relations Division Judge Barbara M. Meyer. The programs take place at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 31, at 39 S. LaSalle, Chicago. Call (312) 263-6493 for a schedule.
ISBA Assembly member Eugene F. Friedman of Chicago, who serves on the Intellectual Property Section Council, will speak April 21 on Intellectual Property for the Non-specialist.
Wessels & Pautsch
The St. Charles labor and employment law firm of Wessels & Pautsch will hold a seminar on "Union Avoidance" from 9 a.m. to 12 noon Thursday, April 1, at the Holiday Inn, Elgin. Call Doris Baxter, (630) 377-1554.
Attorneys' Title
"Navigating a Real Estate Transaction," a seminar for new attorneys and law students, will be presented from 8:45 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 3, at the Chicago-Kent College of Law by Attorneys' Title Guaranty Fund. Call Christine Sparks, (312) 752-1148.
Law Bulletin Series
Law Bulletin Publishing Co. will hold a Legal Career Day program from 3 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 13, at the Chicago Athletic Association. Co-sponsors include the law firm of Corboy & Demetrio.
Discussions on today's job market and alternative legal careers will be conducted, and exhibit booths will provide information about several law firms, public law offices and law-related organizations. Call Courtney Jensen, (312) 644-2846.