In the sentence the reader cited, the word nor should be changed to or. The word nor is often the second half of the parallel construction neither ... nor. The word or is often the second half of the parallel construction either ... or.
But the first half of either construction need not be stated; it is often just implied. You might say, "It is not black or white." Alternatively, you could say, "It is not black, nor is it white." After nor the subject (it) and the verb (is) are transposed. Because the latter construction seems so similar to the one the reader cited, writers sometimes delete the words is and it, but that deletion is not currently acceptable.
FROM THE MAILBAG:
David W. Ransin, P.C., writes that the Language Tips column in the March issue reminded him of a favorite quotation from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland:
"Take some more tea," the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.
"I've had nothing yet," Alice replied in an offended tone, "so I can't take more."
"You mean you can't take LESS," said the Hatter: "It's very easy to take MORE than nothing."
Thanks to Mr. Ransin for sending the great quotation, which is one of my favorites too.
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.
George Leighton is lauded for distinguished service
By Stephen Anderson
As a youngster in New Bedford, Mass., George Neves Leitao harvested strawberries and weeded cranberry bogs on Cape Cod to help his immigrant parents eke out a meager lifestyle.
Before their son was born in October 1912, Antonio Neves Leitao and his wife, Anita, had arrived in New England from the Cape Verde Islands, a Portuguese territorial archipelago off the west coast of Africa.
The boy was able to finish sixth grade, but he spent the following year toiling on an oil tanker that sailed from Massachusetts to Aruba in the Dutch West Indies. Though his public education ended prematurely and he didn't go to high school, George Leitao never stopped reading and learning.
Better known in his adult years as George N. Leighton, he has enjoyed a remarkable career as a lawyer and judge. He will add to his eminent vitae at a luncheon on June 23, when he receives a Distinguished Public Service Award from the Union League Club of Chicago.
In his 20s during the Depression, Leighton worked days and attended WPA classes at night. In 1936, he won a Cape Verdean Memorial Scholarship Fund essay contest in New Bedford. Along with the $200 prize was the promise of college tuition. He applied to Howard University but was at first rejected.
Then he was informed that he could attend Howard as an unclassified student to prove he could succeed at the college level without a high school diploma. He graduated magna cum laude in 1940 and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.
Leighton went on to graduate in 1946 from Harvard Law School, after Army service in the Pacific as a captain, and to become one of the most revered civil rights lawyers in the United States and a state and federal judge of impeccable integrity.
Elected to the Cook County Circuit Court in 1964, Leighton served until his appointment to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District in 1976. His selection by President Gerald Ford to succeed Senior Judge Abraham Lincoln Marovitz was a surprise.
Leighton told a reporter that he thought he had three strikes against him: He was 63 years old, he was a Democrat, and there already was a black judge on the federal bench in Chicago.
His appointment on the recommendation of Sen. Charles H. Percy was coincidental with the nomination of John Paul Stevens. Leighton served until 1987, a year after he took senior status, and was succeeded by Charles P. Kocoras, now chief judge of the District Court. He has been of counsel to Earl L. Neal & Associates since then.
Despite a 12-year educational gap between sixth grade and college, Leighton has no shortage of academic credentials. In addition to degrees from Howard and Harvard, he received an honorary doctor of laws degree from The John Marshall Law School, where he has taught for several years.
Other institutions that have honored him similarly are Loyola University, Elmhurst College, Southeastern Massachusetts University and the New England University School of Law.
Leighton was inducted in 2001 as a Laureate of the ISBA Academy of Illinois Lawyers. He has received the Earl Burrus Dickerson Award from the Chicago Bar Association and the Thurgood Marshall Award from the American Bar Association.
Among previous recipients of the public service award he will received from the Union League Club are Judge Marovitz, Justice Walter V. Schafer, Gov. Richard B. Ogilvie, and attorneys Robert W. Bergstrom and E. Stanley Edlund.
Decalogue Society to install Michael Hyman, bestow honors
Chicago attorney Michael B. Hyman will be installed Monday, June 28, as president of the Decalogue Society of Lawyers during its annual dinner in the Spertus Institute.
Lifetime Achievement Awards will be presented at the event to Judge Ilana D. Rovner of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Prof. Leonard J. Schrager of The John Marshall Law School, retired Illinois Supreme Court justice Seymour F. Simon of Piper Rudnick, and Jerold S. Solovy of Jenner & Block.
Fifty-year members Favil D. Berns and Abner J. Mikva will also be honored, along with 30 others who have been Decalogue Society members for 25 years each.
A partner in Much, Shelist, Freed, Denenberg, Ament & Rubenstein, Hyman is a member of the ISBA Assembly and a past chair of the Bench and Bar Section Council, the Antitrust Law Section Council and the Committee on Professionalism.
A graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law and Medill School of Journalism, he serves on the ISBA Committee on Cable Television Programming and is editor-in-chief of the CBA Record, the monthly magazine of the Chicago Bar Association.
Other incoming officers are Shellie Karno, first vice president; Helen B. Bloch, second vice president; Susan Horn, recording secretary; Martin P. Moltz, financial secretary, and Joel S. Polisky, treasurer. Lonnie Ben Ogus is the retiring president.
For more information or to make dinner reservations, call executive director Carol A. Straus at (312) 263-6493. Dietary laws will be observed.
Judge receives Law Day award
Presiding Judge Dennis K. Cashman of the 8th Circuit's Adams County Court in Quincy received his second Liberty Bell Award from the Adams County Bar Association during a Law Day luncheon April 30. ISBA President-elect Ole Bly Pace III was keynote speaker.
Cashman, who will retire next month, was recognized for innovations such as a DUI court, a domestic violence court and a program to alert high school students to the dangers of drugs and alcohol. He had been honored in 1994 for efforts to renovate the county courthouse.
* * *
Gary R. Peterson of the Office of State Appellate Defender in Springfield received the James B. Haddad Award on May 7 during a public defender conference in Chicago. An assistant appellate defender for 27 years, he was cited for significant improvements to the justice system.
* * *
Chicago attorney James J. Morici Jr., a past president of the Justinian Society, received a Cardinal Bernardin Humanitarian of the Year Award on June 12 from the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans. He has been the organization's president for the past year.
Russell W. Hartigan of Chicago, a member of the ISBA Board of Governors, received a Spirit of Community Service Award on April 17 from the Community Extension Project in LaGrange. His unwavering commitment and outstanding work in the community has made a positive impact in the lives of many, the CEP said.
* * *
Cook County Associate Judge Jesse G. Reyes and Judge Manuel Barbosa of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Rockford were honored March 18 by the Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois for contributions to the Hispanic legal community.
* * *
Attorneys P. Michael Schuette of Breese and Bernard G. Heiligenstein of Carlyle were inducted May 1 into the Mater Dei Hall of Honor during a ceremony in the school chapel.
* * *
Cathy G. O'Kelly, co-chair of the Investment Services Group at Vedder, Price, Kaufman & Kammholz, Chicago, has received the 2004 Chicago Corporate Woman of Achievement Award from the National Association of Women Business Owners.
Representatives of two ISBA-affiliated travel agencies Global Holidays and Carrousel Travel will be available during the ISBA Annual Meeting at The Abbey on Lake Geneva
They will provide information about upcoming trips, including the following. Prices are per person, double occupancy.
London in July
A trip to London, with two hotel choices and several optional excursions, is planned July 23 to 31 by Global Holidays. Both Chicago and St. Louis departures are available, and several optional tours will be offered.
Prices per are: for accommodations at the Holiday Inn Kensington Forum, $1,349 from Chicago or $1,449 from St. Louis; for accommodations at the Millennium Gloucester. $1,399 from Chicago or $1,499 from St. Louis. Government taxes, security charges and fees are an additional $129 per person.
Prices include round-trip fares on American Trans Air's new Boeing 757-300, seven nights, daily buffet breakfast, airport transfers, luggage handling, professional guides and hotel information desks.
Italy in October
President-elect Ole Bly Pace III will make Italy the country for his fall travel program, coordinated by Global Holidays. Pricing for the trip from Oct. 15 to 23 is $1,599 from Chicago and $1,699 from St. Louis, plus government taxes, security charges and fees.
After the flight to Rome, ISBA travelers will stay four nights in Chianciano in the Tuscany hills and three nights in Fiuggi on the slopes of Mount Erici. Several optional trips will be offered.
Prices include a welcome reception, daily buffet breakfasts, scenic transfer via Orvieto, experienced guide and farewell dinner.
New Zealand in March
New Zealand is the destination of President-elect Ole Bly Pace III for a travel program next March. Carrousel Travel is coordinating the itinerary. Participants will arrange their own transportation, using air travel credits or other reward programs.
The land package price of $2,990 includes 11 nights in fine hotels, daily breakfast, four lunches, five dinners, private coach tours with experienced guides and services of a travel escort.
The schedule calls for departures March 5, crossing the International Dateline the next day, and arriving in Auckland early March 7 for tours to the War Memorial Museum, Antarctic Experience and Underwater World before dinner.
March 8, a leisure day, ends with hosted dinners in local homes. On March 9, the group will go to Waitomo for a tour of Glow Worm Caves and lunch, and continue to Rotorua. March 10 highlights are an Agrodome Farm Stage Show and tours of Rainbow Springs and Whakarewarewa Thermal Reserve. Dinner includes a Maori Hangi and concert.
On March 11, travelers will fly to Christchurch. The coach trip to the city includes a tour of the International Antarctic Centre, a ride on the Hagglund Adventure Course, and lunch at Mona Vale Homestead.
March 12 is leisure day with options such as a TranzAlpine train journey to Arthur's Pass. An evening option is a city-loop tram ride and reception, with dinner at Annie's Wine Bar in the Arts Centre.
March 13 is a leisure day, with dinner at the Sign of the Takahe Restaurant in Port Hills. On March 14, the group will head for Mt. Cook National Park for lunch at the Hermitage Hotel Restaurant before arriving in Queenstown.
March 15 is a leisure day. March 16 will include a trip through Te Anau to Milford Sound for a nature cruise and picnic lunch. A farewell dinner is planned March 17 at Gantley's Restaurant.
Departures will be scheduled March 18 from Queensland to Auckland and to the United States as arranged by participants.
Defense Counsel to herald 40th aboard cruiser
The Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel will celebrate its 40th anniversary on Friday, June 25, with a dinner dance aboard the Odyssey from Navy Pier, Chicago.
Boarding will begin at 7 p.m., with the cruise ship embarking at 8 p.m. Call executive director Shirley Stevens at (800) 232-0169 for information and reservations.
Stephen J. Heine of Heyl, Royster, Voelker & Allen, Peoria, will succeed Jennifer Jerit Johnson of Tressler, Soderstrom, Maloney & Priess, Chicago, as IADTC president during the celebration.
The association was founded as the Illinois Defense Counsel in 1964, and its first Defense Tactics Seminar in November of that year was attended by more than 700 lawyers, according to the 35-year history compiled by past president Willis R. Tribler in 1999.
The first president, Royce Glenn Rowe of McKenna, Storer, Rowe, White & Farrug, Chicago served in 1965-66. He was followed by James Baylor in 1966-67, and the first downstate president, Jack E. Horsley of Mattoon, held office in 1967-68.
Asian American Bar
Neera Walsh of Chicago has been installed as president of the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Chicago Area. She is on maternity leave from the Cook County state's attorney's office, where she has been supervisor of the Community Prosecutions Bureau.