Ole Bly Pace is ISBA's next president
Ole Bly Pace III of Sterling will become president of the Illinois State Bar Association during the 128th Annual Meeting this month at The Abbey on Lake Geneva. Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride will administer the oath of office during a dinner Saturday, June 19.
Pace will succeed Terrence J. Lavin of Chicago. Other incoming officers are President-elect Robert K. Downs of Oak Park, Second Vice President Irene F. Bahr of Wheaton, and Third Vice President Joseph G. Bisceglia of Chicago.
A partner in Ward, Murray, Pace & Johnson, Ole Pace was elected ISBA third vice president in 2001, culminating a long record of leadership in state bar initiatives.
As a new lawyer, he began his participation in ISBA activities by serving on the Committee on Public Relations from 1971 to 1977, and he was its chair in 1975-76.
Pace was appointed to the Civil Practice and Procedure Section Council in 1976 and served as its chair in 1982-83. He was appointed to the Tort Law Section Council in 1985 and was its chair in 1992-93.
Before his election as third vice president, Pace had served for six years on the Board of Governors, had chaired the Task Force on Unauthorized Practice of Law, had presided as chancellor of the Academy of Illinois Lawyers, and sat as treasurer of the Illinois Lawyers Political Action Committee (LAWPAC).
He received a Board of Governors Award for coordinating several Allerton House Conferences, and he is a Charter Fellow of the Illinois Bar Foundation.
A 1966 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, Pace is a past president of the Whiteside County Bar Association, the Sterling Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Sinnissippi Mental Health Center.
Annual Meeting events
The opening event of the ISBA Annual Meeting will be the 40th anniversary celebration of Attorneys' Title Guaranty Fund on Thursday evening, June 17, when its founders and current officials will be honored.
On Friday, June 18, a breakfast symposium will be conducted by the Law Office Management and Economics (Standing Committe on) , and the annual awards luncheon will be conducted. Law Ed Series seminars on Friday are "How Do They Do That? Practical Advice for the Family Law Practitioner" and "Hot Topics for the General Practitioner." The day will end with a reception on the Abbey lawn.
The 201-member ISBA Assembly will hold its semi-annual meeting at 9 a.m. Saturday, June 19, after the ninth annual networking breakfast. Saturday seminars are "Balancing Your Professional and Personal Life" and "Overview of Illinois Taxes for the General Practitioner."
There will be a day camp for children on Friday and children's activities that evening. A continental breakfast for spouses, guests and children will be available Saturday morning.
Special recruitment offer ends June 30
There's still time to bring in a new member at 50 percent off the regular dues rate and reap rewards for yourself - an ISBA tote bag, coffee mug or deluxe polo shirt.
The Get-a-Member (or Two) campaign, one of President Terrence J. Lavin's membership initiatives, has brought in better than 150 new members to date, and it continues through June 30.
The campaign, along with the personal efforts of many members of the ISBA Board of Governors, has helped ISBA increase its numbers by more than two percent during the past year.
Governors sent hundreds of recruitment letters, made personal phone calls to dozens of lapsed members, and handed out membership information to their non-member peers.
Another major aspect of the membership effort included mailing an issue of the Illinois Bar Journal with a special recruitment cover-wrap, or a recruitment brochure, to some 30,000 non-member attorneys throughout the state.
Like most voluntary associations, ISBA has experienced slower growth over the past several years, making membership an ongoing priority for leaders and staff alike. A new Get-a-Member campaign is scheduled to begin later this summer, with even more valuable rewards for recruiters.
Recruitment information is available to all members through the Get-a-Member (or Two) icon and news item at www.isba.org, or call Ann Boucher at (800) 252-8908.
Court Rules Committee slates hearing on ISBA practice transfer proposal
By Stephen Anderson
The Illinois Supreme Court Rules Committee will conduct a special hearing on Friday, Sept. 10, to consider an Illinois State Bar Association proposal for a rule to govern the transfer of a law practice.
Proposal 04-10 would create a new Rule 1.17 of the Rules of Professional Conduct that would permit a retiring lawyer, the guardian of a disabled lawyer, or the estate of a deceased lawyer to transfer or sell a practice under certain conditions.
Rejected by the rules committee, however, is an ISBA proposal to create a rule regarding the unauthorized practice of law. Testimony was taken during a January 2002 hearing, and the ISBA Task Force on UPL subsequently addressed concerns expressed by committee members.
Among them are the means of financing a UPL commission, separation of powers, and determining to what court such actions would be brought and what types of relief would be available.
The rules committee will review several other ISBA proposals during its annual public hearing Monday, Jan. 24. Summaries follow of the proposals, which are derivatives of recommendations made by participants in the 2002 Future of the Courts Conference.
Proposal 04-02 - Creates new Rule 274 on Multiple Final Orders and Post-Judgment Motions (amending portions of Rules 303 and 304) to clarify the status of successive final judgments and related post-judgment motions, and tolling of appeal time.
Proposal 04-03 - Amends Rules 315 and 368 to provide for en banc rehearings by the Appellate Court, including Rule 23 orders.
Proposal 04-04 - Amends Rule 329 to require a circuit clerk to prepare a bound and certified supplemental record for filing in the Appellate Court upon order issued pursuant to motion.
Proposal 04-05 - Amends Rule 361 on Motions in Reviewing Court to add sections on emergency motions and bail motions, and on dispositive motions.
Proposal 04-06 - Amends Rule 367(e) to limit petitions for rehearing after the Appellate Court has acted upon, rather than granted, a petition and entered judgment.
Proposal 04-14 - Amends Rule 317 to allow appeals from the Appellate Court to the Supreme Court as a matter of right when a federal or state statute has been held invalid.
Bisceglia elected, along with Locallo, O'Reilly, Schleifer
Joseph G. Bisceglia (see photo on page 1) of Jenner & Block, Chicago, will be installed this month as third vice president of the Illinois State Bar Association, placing him in line for the presidency in 2007.
He is the third partner in Jenner & Block to be elected to head the association, following Albert E. Jenner Jr. in 1949-50 and Floyd E. Thompson in 1933-34, when the firm was named Poppenhusen, Johnston, Thompson & Cole.
A member of the ISBA Board of Governors, Bisceglia was victorious in an election campaign that took him and two other board members, John G. O'Brien and Russell W. Hartigan, throughout the state for several months before the ballots were counted May 10.
Bisceglia tallied 3,200 votes - 47 percent of the total 6,797 cast - to 2,157 for O'Brien and 1,440 for Hartigan. The election creates a vacancy on the board, which will be filled during the July 16 meeting in Chicago.
In a six-way race for three elective Cook County seats on the Board of Governors, the winners were John G. Locallo (1,672 votes), Andrea M. Schleifer (1,290) and Kevin E, O'Reilly (1,145).
The other candidates were Mauro Glorioso (1,051 votes), Letitia Spunar-Sheats (924), and John K. Norris (864).
Three incumbent members of the Board of Governors were elected without opposition. They are H. Case Ellis of Crystal Lake in Area II, John E. Thies of Urbana in Area V, and David C. Nelson of Belleville, a downstate under-age-37 seat.
Special groups plan meetings at The Abbey
In addition to organizational business meetings of most section councils and committees that will be conducted during the ISBA Annual meeting at The Abbey on Lake Geneva, two new entities will meet on Thursday, June 17.
The Special Committee on Parental Responsibilities Act will convene at 4 p.m. in the Geneva IV Room to review proposals for a comprehensive revision of the Illinois Custody Act that was discussed in January with the ISBA Board of Governors (ISBA Bar News, February, page 3).
Co-chairs of the special committee are Laura M. Urbik Kern of Elmhurst, who chairs the Family Law Section Council and serves on the Assembly, and Richard W. Zuckerman of Peoria, a member of the Board of Governors.
(Note: Urbik Kern will speak on "Proposed Custody Legislation: Kids Come First" at 9 a.m. Friday, June 18, during the Family Law Section seminar in Ballroom III at The Abbey.)
The Future of the Profession Conference Planning Committee will meet at 12 noon June 17 in the Geneva V Room to discuss scheduling and programming for presentations in the fall.
The planning committee chair is George F. Mahoney III of Joliet, vice chair of the Committee on Judicial Evaluation Outside Cook County and member of the Committee on Legislation.
The boards of directors of two affiliated organizations also will meet June 17 at The Abbey in the Nantucket South Room. They are: the ISBA Mutual Insurance Co. at 8:30 a.m., and the Illinois Bar Foundation at 2 p.m.
Governors to hold meeting July 16
Incoming ISBA President Ole Bly Pace III of Sterling will convene the first meeting of the new Board of Governors at 9 a.m. Friday, July 16, in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Chicago.
Governors will elect a secretary and a treasurer, and will fill the board vacancy caused by the election of Joseph G. Bisceglia as third vice president.
The 30th annual board alumni dinner will follow the meeting, with tributes to retiring president Terrence J. Lavin of Chicago.
Fall board meetings are scheduled on Fridays, Oct. 8, at Eagle Ridge Inn, Galena, and Nov. 12 at the Four Seasons Hotel, Chicago.
Dates of the ISBA Midyear Meeting at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel are Dec. 9 to 11.
Foundation Gala set for Oct. 1
Save the date Friday, Oct. 1 for the annual Illinois Bar Foundation Gala at the Four Seasons Hotel, Chicago. In addition to live and silent auctions and a gourmet dinner, the foundation will present its Distinguished Award for Excellence.
The recipient is Chicago attorney Joseph A. Power Jr., a partner in Power, Rogers & Smith. He was honored similarly last year with the ISBA Medal of Merit for his exemplary accomplishments during a career of service to the profession and public.
For more information on the annual benefit, opportunities for making financial contributions, or providing items for the auctions, call executive director Susan M. Lewers at (312) 726-6072.
The Gala is chaired by Bar Foundation board members Enrico J. Mirabelli and Christine M. Ory.
Lavin's Irish character a product of unselfish nobility and courage
Chicago attorney Martin A. Dolan, chair of the ISBA Tort Law Section Council, is the author of this tribute to retiring President Terrence J. Lavin.
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"Long, long ago, beyond the misty space of twice a thousand years, in Erin old there dwelt a mighty race, taller than Roman spears."
Ethnic pride plays a prominent role among lawyers. The Irish are no exception. Nineteenth-century Irish writer Thomas D'Arcy McGee's above description of the ancient Irish is as much about their interior character as it is their physical stature.
Character for the Irish has always been the product of the heart's unselfish nobility and expansive virtue. It is the measure of a man. Those who meet the measure of real courage are those, it seems, whose generosity and goodness make them, first, deeply human and giving.
In both his personal and professional life, Terry Lavin has demonstrated the extravagant sense of personal giving that is endemic within the Irish.
His willingness to be a professional mentor has expanded opportunities and possibilities for many young attorneys. The legal profession is enhanced by his generosity and strengthened by his leadership.
His competence in the practice of the law, in general, and his experience as a trial lawyer, in particular, has helped to galvanize those new to the legal practice, and those beginning their specialization as a trial lawyer.
His personal experience and goodwill is both the product of his refined professional success and his keen interest in the development of his colleagues.
Here in Illinois, the esprit de corps of the legal profession has been enriched by Terry Lavin's willingness to assume the presidency of the Illinois State Bar Association for the past year.
He leaves this office having deepened the profession's awareness of the critical need for professional mentoring. It has earned him the gratitude of colleagues across the state, especially those who recognize the intrinsic value of mentoring those new to the profession.
Terry Lavin consistently demonstrates a deep reverence and respect for the legal profession through his willingness to help those in the early stages of their careers.
His openness to young attorneys, and his ability to transmit to them a deep love for the details and practicalities of the profession, allow young attorneys the chance to engage not only a veteran trial attorney who is highly successful. Even more important, they connect to a seasoned professional whose ethics and values express the highest respect for the practice of the law and others in the legal profession.
Through his commitment to mentoring, Terry Lavin has helped to deepen the decorum of the legal practice here in Chicago, as well as the professional competence of those engaged in trial work. The measure of his generosity is observable not only in the quality of legal expertise and courtroom performance, but also in the increased civility and judgment among those he has come to influence.
Terry Lavin has always provided me with friendship and critique, two essential elements of the mentoring process. It has equipped me with the confidence and tact every attorney longs for and every attorney deserves.
I have witnessed his professional and remarkable legal abilities since my days as a young law clerk. He has been a teacher, a life-model and friend, as well as a shirttail Irish relative.
But I acknowledge with profound gratitude his uncompromising influence and caring on my development as a legal professional and businessman. In the details critical to our profession he has been extravagant. In the example so indispensable to our legal character he has been lavish and unstinting.