"The number of cases potentially affected is staggering. There are approximately 64,000 federal criminal defendants sentenced under the guidelines each year."
Acting U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, urging the U.S. Supreme Court to convene in September to consider whether federal sentencing guidelines are constitutional in light of its Blakely ruling in June
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"The one that gets squeezed on both ends is the patient. I don't find much redeeming virtue in any of the amendments because they are all punitive."
Prof. Jay Wolfson, attorney and director of the University of South Florida's Center for Patient Safety Research, on Florida November ballot proposals to cap damages and pull the licenses of doctors who lose 3 med-mal cases
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"America's most beloved and admired president, Abraham Lincoln, was involved in more than 5,100 cases during his 25-year legal career, while Rutherford Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, and other lawyer-presidents gained fame handling sensational murder trials and other high-profile cases."
From a news release announcing publication of "America's Lawyer-Presidents" by Northwestern University and the ABA Museum of Law, detailing the 25 lawyers among the 43 U.S. presidents
Editor
Giving becomes taking
Pretend you're a contestant on "Jeopardy," the quiz show where host Alex Trebek asks the answers and you must provide the questions. The category is "Dollars and Sense."
Alex continues: "Every practicing Illinois lawyer pays $7 a year into this." And you answer, correctly, "WHAT is the Lawyers' Assistance Program Fund?"
A better question these days, but not one for which the answer will win a prize, might be: "WHERE is the Lawyers' Assistance Program Fund?" What happens to that $7 surcharge that generates more than $400,000 annually toward the LAP mission?
It's all accounted for, somewhere in the state treasury, but only on paper. More than $800,000 has been collected by the ARDC, from more than 58,000 lawyers, during the two years since George Ryan signed House Bill 4078 and created Public Act 92-747.
But the newly constituted LAP board, prudently frugal as any startup entity should be, had used only $323,893 through June 30 of this year. Then the state's fiscal year ended and the vault doors were shut with a resounding clang.
To its credit, LAP should have almost $500,000 of your money on account, but not a penny could be touched during July and early August. The proposed LAP budget for fiscal 2005 is $382,000, so a half-year draft of $191,000 was expected in early July.
LAP's 2005 budget had been approved by the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts and submitted to the legislature, but it was slashed from the court's appropriation during the state's financial bickering.
Fear not, they said as the impasse dragged on. That money really exists. Some day, LAP would receive its twice-a-year check, but not this day. And this day, the rent is due and the payroll must be met. Bills must be paid or suffer the pain of penalty fees in the next cycle.
LAP entered the month of July with a dwindling reserve from other sources that, with careful stewardship, might keep the doors open and the telephones ringing until mid-August. At this writing (August 6), insolvency is ominously near, yet the AOIC could not predict when the LAP money might spew forth.
The state budget compromise was adopted July 23, and the governor hopped a plane bound for Boston to hang out in the Kerry-Edwards-Obama limelight. He didn't get back to the chore of signing the budget bill until July 30. More time passed.
Why not show us the money?
Let's take a deep breath and recap. After some years of study and entreaties from bar leaders, the Supreme Court ordered each registered practicing attorney to pay an additional $7 per year that is earmarked for the LAP Fund.
Although these are not public funds for public purposes, the money goes into the state treasury by virtue of the enabling act. It is distributed in lumps to LAP by the AOIC in accord with approved budgets. The residual funds are to be held for eventual use when LAP programs require heftier expenditures.
But now we know that the system can fail. The legislature, whimsically or wantonly, can deny LAP the funding that was promised by the Supreme Court and presumably fulfilled through your annual remittance to the ARDC.
If the state government can hold the Lawyers' Assistance Program Fund hostage, one may wonder whether the state can't just as well raid the Lawyers' Assistance Program Fund to make up for fiscal shortfalls.
This calamity of misfeasance and misery could not have been anticipated by the bar associations and the Supreme Court at the time when legislation appeared to be the vehicle for rescuing the Lawyers' Assistance Program from the impotence of its penury.
Perhaps this will have been a one-time, non-recurrent debacle that does not merit a quick fix. Still, it would seem prudent to take a fresh look at the LAP Fund legislation and see if it needs some remedial tweaking.
Money is at stake in "Jeopardy," but that's just a televised game. The double jeopardy of what would be at stake for LAP to go without your $7 again next year is a serious gamble.
The chips were on the line
In his most glorious dreams of public service, federal Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan could not have imagined that his first newsworthy case would involve the question of whether one potato chip, as advertised, really tastes better than another.
The Jays people were upset with the claim by the Lay's people that results of a dubious taste test proved "Chicago Prefers the Taste of Lay's Over Jays." The judge ordered Lay's to tear down its billboards and cancel its radio jingles, and a settlement was soon reached.
One might have thought a more appropriate test of the federal mettle could have been trademark infringement. The difference between sound-alike Lay and Jay is only one letter sort of like the difference between decision and derision.
Judicial Council inducts officers on August 26
Cook County Judge Cheyrl D. Ingram will preside at the annual Summer Soiree of the Illinois Judicial Council, at which she will be succeeded as chair of the organization by Judge Rodney Hughes Brooks.
The reception will take place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 16, at Maggiano's Banquets in Chicago. For reservations, call (312) 433-6916.
Other incoming IJC officers are Sybil C. Thomas, chair-elect; Michael Brown, secretary; Marsha D, Hayes, secretary, and Michael J. Dickman, treasurer.
12th Circuit to expand
Legislation has been passed to add two judges to the 12th Judicial Circuit in Will County. The circuit has had 24 jurists - eight circuit judges, two resident circuit judges and 14 associate judges for almost two years.
The circuit once had 26 judges, but four left the bench and the court was not authorized to fill their vacancies. Two vacancies were filled in January by the Supreme Court, and Senate Bill 2287 provides for the addition of two more.
19th Circuit to split
McHenry County Presiding Judge Ward S. Arnold has published the announcement that beginning Dec. 4, 2006, the county will become the new 22nd Judicial Circuit, and the 19th Circuit will then consist of only Lake County.
According to Public Act 93-541 (Senate Bill 75), McHenry County will be divided into three subcircuits, following the boundaries of pairs of the six current county board districts.
According to Judge Arnold's announcement, the new 22nd Circuit would be entitled to two more at-large circuit judges and eight associate judges. The new 19th Circuit would get three more at-large circuit judges.
Changes on the bench
Sangamon County Presiding Judge Robert J. Eggers of Springfield became interim chief judge of the 7th Circuit on July 8. He will begin a two-year term as chief judge on Dec. 1.
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Champaign attorney Brian Larry McPheeters has been appointed an associate judge of the 6th Circuit. He succeeds Heidi N. Ladd, who won a primary election for the circuit court in March and was appointed to the vacancy of John DeLaMar in May because she would be unopposed in November.
Rock Island attorney Raymond J. Conklin was appointed an associate judge of the 14th Circuit to succeed Michael P. Brinn, who retired.
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Applications for a vacancy in the 8th Circuit will be accepted until Aug. 23 by the Illinois Supreme Court. The opening was caused by the retirement of Judge Dennis K. Cashman. Application forms may be obtained from the Danville office of Justice Rita B. Garman.
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Judge Paul Murphy of Williamson County in the 1st Circuit retired from the bench at the end of July to spend more time with his family and to do some traveling and creative writing.
A 1972 graduate of the Boston College Law School, Murphy practiced in Herrin until he was appointed to the circuit court in 1989 after Robert Howerton was elevated to the Appellate Court. Murphy was elected to the circuit court in 1990.
Pope scholarship endowed
An endowed scholarship fund has been created at the National Judicial College in the name of Chicago attorney Michael A. Pope of McDermott, Will & Emery. The fund will provide opportunities for Cook County judges to attend courses at the Reno, Nev., college.
Pope has served on the college board for almost 10 years and is a former chair. He has raised the profile of the institution nationally and has generated financial donations.
Judge conducts seminar
Cook County Judge Dorothy Kirie Kinnaird, presiding judge of the Chancery Division, will conduct a seminar for pro bono attorneys of the Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation at 12:15 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 28, in suite 900 at 100 N. LaSalle St., Chicago.
Judge Kinnaird will offer "Practical Tips for Practice in the Chancery Division," including details of such recent innovations as an advice desk and bench books.
CASA meetings planned
Organizations of court-appointed special advocates throughout the state will participate in an Illinois CASA Conference Thursday and Friday, Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 at the Hawthorn Suites in Champaign. Call (217) 384-0284 for details.
New ABA President Grey lauds Peoria Bar diversity
A new committee of the Peoria County Bar Association is reaching out to minority lawyers in an effort to foster diversity in the membership of the organization. Its work has attracted the attention of leadership of the American Bar Association.
Robert J. Grey Jr. of Richmond, Va., who was installed this month as ABA president, will be guest speaker for a Peoria County Bar diversity luncheon Monday, Sept. 20, at the Hotel Pere Marquette in downtown Peoria.
Chaired by ISBA past president Timothy L. Bertschy of Heyl, Royster, Voelker & Allen and assistant city corporation counsel Sonni C. Williams, the Committee on Diversity has embarked on a series of initiatives that include contacting law schools and conducting job fairs.
"We have made great strides as a nation, as a community and as a bar association, but there is much to be done to achieve the lofty goals of equal protection and equal opportunity," retiring President Robert H. Jennetten wrote in the association's monthly newsletter.
For more information, call Bertschy at (309) 676-0400 or the bar association office at (309) 674-6049.
Special events slated
Downers Grove attorney James F. McCluskey, a member of the ISBA Assembly, and Thomas A. Else of Oak Brook will compete in the 140.6-mile Ironman Wisconsin Triathlon on Sunday, Sept. 12, to raise funds for the DuPage Legal Aid Foundation.
They will swim 2.4 miles, bicycle 112 miles and run 26.2 miles. Pledges of support for legal aid may be made by calling (630) 653-6212.
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The annual reception and award ceremony of the Chicago-based Lawyers' Committee for Better Housing is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 14. The keynote speaker will be David Wilhelm. For details, call (312) 347-7600.
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The Finance and Legal Community will hold its 14th annual luncheon benefit for the Greater Chicago Food Depository on Friday, Sept. 17, at the Fairmont Hotel, Chicago. Scott Turow will be keynote speaker. Call Mark A. Flessner at (312) 876-3136 for more information.
CARPLS Uncorked, a benefit reception for the Coordinated Advice and Referral Program for Legal Services will take place from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 29, at the Randolph Wine Cellars in Chicago. Call (312) 738-9494.