Participants may purchase air transportation on their own or through Carrousel. Call (800) 800-6508 for more information, or visit an ISBA office to obtain a brochure.
More tours scheduled
Brochures on many other ISBA-sponsored travel programs during 2005 may be obtained in ISBA offices. Call Global Holidays at (800) 842-9023 for more information about the following.
Prices per person are based on double occupancy, with round-trip airfare, but do not include taxes and fees. Departures may be available from both Chicago and St. Louis.
China: Shanghai, Beijing, Xi'an, Yangtze River cruise (13 days and 11 nights, $2,799 to $3,199 plus $199 government taxes, security charges and fees) - Departures March 30, April 14, April 28, May 26, June 2, June 9, June 16.
Imperial Vienna, Austria (9 days and 7 nights, $1,599 plus $119 government taxes, security charges and fees) - Departures April 1, April 2, April 8, April 9, April 15, April 16, April 22, April 23. Optional excursions include the Vienna Woods, the Danube Valley, Prague and Budapest.
Greek Isles Cruise aboard the Costa Victoria, departing from Venice and including ports of call in Katakolon, Santorini, Mykonos and Rhodes, with final stop at Dubrovnik, Croatia (12 days and 10 nights, $2,995 to $3,395 plus estimated $149 in taxes and fees) - Departures May 6, May 13, May 20.
Ireland's Kilkenny City and Killarney (9 days and 7 nights, $1,599) - Departures Sept. 2, Sept. 9, Sept. 16, Sept. 23, Sept. 30, Oct. 7.
A North Central Region Trial Academy for defense lawyers will be conducted Friday and Saturday, Jan. 28-29, at the Oak Brook Hills Hotel. An informal gathering for early arrivals will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 27.
The Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel (IDC) will coordinate the program, along with The Defense Trial Counsel of Indiana, the Minnesota Defense Lawyers Association and The Civil Trial Counsel of Wisconsin. Call (800) 232-0169 for registration details.
Friday sessions from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. will be followed by dinner and general review among faculty and participants. Concluding sessions will be conducted from 8:15 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
Faculty members include J. Dennis Marek of Kankakee, a member of the ISBA Civil Practice and Procedure Section Council. Keith E. Fruehling of Urbana, a member of the ISBA Board of Governors, is co-chair of the academy committee.
The annual IDC Spring Defense Tactics Seminar will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, March 11, at the University Club of Chicago. A reception will follow.
Volunteer Legal Services
The Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation has scheduled two one-hour seminars for pro bono volunteers at 12:15 p.m. in suite 900, 100 N. LaSalle St., on the following dates:
Jan. 18 - SSI and SSD, with Deborah Spector of Spector & Lenz; Feb. 22 - Preparing 2004 Income Taxes with attorney and accountant Lawrence R. Krupp.
Winnebago County Bar
The Winnebago County Bar Association will conduct a bankruptcy seminar from 12 noon to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 19, at Forest Hills Country Club, Rockford. Call (815) 964-4992 for details.
Illinois CLE Institute
The Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education will conduct two seminars on "Successfully Analyzing, Negotiating and Trying Your Child Custody Cases." ISBA Family Law Section Council member Gregory A. Scott and past chair David H. Levy are the moderators.
Panelists include Joy M. Feinberg, a member of the ISBA Special Committee on New Parental Responsibilities Act; Don C. Hammer of the Family Law Section Council and Alternative Dispute Resolution Section Council; Howard W. Feldman of the ISBA Board of Governors, and Judge Edward R. Jordan, an ISBA Assembly member who served on the Family Law Section Council.
The dates and locations are Wednesday, Jan. 19, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Springfield, and Thursday, Feb. 3, at the UBS Tower Conference Center, Chicago. Call (800) 252-8062 to register.
The IICLE will conduct its eighth annual Employment Law Update and Workshop on Thursday, Feb. 10, at the UBS Tower Conference Center, Chicago.
Panelists include Michael R. Lied, newsletter editor of the ISBA Labor and Employment Law Section Council; U.S. Magistrate Judge John A. Gorman, member of the Federal Civil Practice Section Council, and Betty Y. Jang of the Committee on Minority and Women Participation.
DuPage County Bar
Chief Judge Robert K. Kilander of the 18th Circuit will deliver his annual State of the Courthouse Address at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 22, during a brunch midway in the DuPage County Bar Association Mega Meeting seminar presentations.
The presentations at the Hilton Hotel, Lisle, include a full day of educational programs - four in the morning and three in the afternoon. Concurrent seminars from 8 to 10 a.m. are: Civil Law and Practice, Family Law and Practice, and Labor and Employment Law and Practice.
At 10:30 a.m., a Professional Responsibility session will be conducted by Mary Andreoni of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission. From 1 to 3:30 p.m., concurrent sessions are: Criminal Law and Practice, Estate Planning and Probate Law, and Real Estate Law and Practice.
A Law Office Expo of products and services will take place from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Call (630) 653-7779 for information about registering to attend specific sessions or the entire day.
The DuPage County Bar will conduct a business law and practice seminar, "Choosing the Right Corporate Entity to Achieve Your Goals," from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 17, at trhe bar center classroom in Wheaton.
Peoria County Bar
The Peoria County Bar Association continuing legal education series from 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon Saturdays at Packard Plaza resumes Jan. 22 with a seminar on municipal law chaired by Michael R. Lied of the ISBA Labor and Employment Law Section Council.
Other seminar dates and topics are: Jan. 29, Family Law, chaired by Michael A. Hall of the ISBA Committee on the ARDC and Special Committee on Implementing the Mentoring Program; Feb. 12, Law Office Automation, and Feb. 19, General Practice Potpourri. For more information, call (309) 674-6049.
Loyola School of Law
Prof. Ronald A. Brand of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law Center for International Legal Education will deliver the Wing-Tat Lee Lecture, "The European Union's New Role in International Private Litigation," at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan 26, at the Loyola University School of Law.
Cook County Bar
Chief Judge Charles P. Kocoras of U.S. District Court for the Northern District will speak at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 27, during the third annual Cook County Bar Association Lecture Series on Ethics and Professionalism. His presentation will take place in the sixth floor conference room at 188 W. Randolph. Call (312) 386-0213.
Andrea L. Zopp, senior vice president and general counsel of Sears, Roebuck, will speak Thursday, Feb. 17.
John Marshall Law
The Fair Housing Legal Support Center of The John Marshall Law School will conduct its 13th annual Fair Housing Litigation Skills Training Program from Thursday, Feb. 3, through Saturday, Feb. 5. Call Elaine Morey at (312) 427-2737, ext. 492.
Illinois Trial Lawyers
The Illinois Trial Lawyers Association will present the seminar, "What Did I Miss?" from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 5, in the Springfield headquarters. Speakers will help participants recognize potential causes of action for clients. Call (800) 252-8501.
Speakers include Timothy W. Kelly of the ISBA Tort Law Section Council and Peter L. Rotskoff of the Committee on Corrections and Sentencing and Committee on Legal Education, Admission and Competence.
The ITLA Tort Trends Seminar will take place Monday, Feb. 21, at the DoubleTree Guest Suites, Chicago.
DePaul University
DePaul University will conduct a 40-hour Family and Divorce Mediation Certificate program from Feb. 8 to 15 at its Chicago Loop campus. Call (312) 362-6300.
Valparaiso University
A Sports Law Conference will be presented by the Valparaiso University School of Law from Feb. 9 to 11 at the Palmer House Hilton, Chicago. Call (219) 465-7851 for details. Bob Costas of NBC Sports will give the keynote luncheon speech, "Winning at All Costs: Today's Addiction," on Feb. 10.
Kane County Bar
The Kane County Bar Association Estate and Probate Committee will present a seminar from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 15, at the County Judicial Center in St. Charles. Call (630) 762-1915.
Q:In a book called Words Into Type, I found the following rule: "Do not use a comma before or after the conjunction that in locutions like the following:
[Wrong] "The author believes that, with average high school classes it will take three recitations ...."
[Right] "The author believes that with average high school classes it will take three recitations ...."
A:The second choice is correct; the first is ungrammatical. In the first sentence, if you put a comma after "that," you need one after "classes," because two commas are necessary to enclose a parenthetical clause. But there is no need for a parenthetical clause; the sentence is clear without commas.
Modern journalists tend to eliminate commas when possible. Read an Emerson essay, for example, and you will notice at once how many more commas nineteenth-century writers used . Part of the reason is that modern writing tends to avoid long circuitous sentences, so commas are not necessary for clarity. Perhaps an enterprising song-writer could write a song called, "Where have all the commas gone?"
A similar question could be asked: Where have all the problems gone? Unfortunately they still exist, but they are no longer called problems. They have become issues, which used to mean "something that, when decided, would solve a problem." The idea is that if you don't call something a problem, it will no longer be one. So TV and radio commentators have begun to refer to problems as issues. In an interview after withdrawing his nomination as Chief of Homeland Security, Bernard Kerik said, "The problematic issue arose as [I] was completing documents required for Senate confirmation." The noun issue has become pejorated by using it as a euphemism for the noun problem.
There are numerous examples of the use of euphemism to make unpleasant ideas palatable. The president of the New York Zoological Society was well aware of the pejoration of the word zoo, which now often describes a gathering of unruly persons. ("It's a real zoo out there!") So he has abandoned the tainted noun zoo and has given the New York Central Park and the Bronx Zoo new names. They are now called, "Wildlife Conservation Parks."
An emeritus professor of chemistry urged fellow chemists, in a letter to the Chemical and Engineering Journal, to "abandon the word chemical to the dark forces," and replace it with a euphemism, the word compound. His reason was that chemical is widely used to mean something harmful and unnatural, as for example, in the phrases chemical weapons, dangerous chemicals, and chemicals in foods.
The problem with euphemisms is that they can result in pejoration. Remember when you bragged that your child was an "exceptional" student? Due to euphemism, the word exceptional came to be applied to children who were unusually slow, not unusually bright, and the word has pejorated. The previously neutral word challenged has become a euphemism for disabled, which had itself been a euphemism.
The word toilet, describing a public facility, was considered too plain-spoken, so it was replaced in Great Britain by water closet. Soon that phrase was considered too explicit, so it was replaced by the initials W.C. (The French called it lieu de l'anglaise the place of the Englishwoman.") But even W.C. was too direct, and Ladies and Gentlemen (avoiding any reference to bodily function) as well as bathroom (where you cannot not take a bath) and powder room are now favored.
Remember when attitude was a neutral noun meaning "manner"? My 1985 American Heritage Dictionary (Second edition) defines it that way, and gives as an illustration, "[She] stood in a graceful attitude." But attitude has become infected by the context in which it appears, and Webster's Third now provides as one illustration, "a threatening attitude." Today's euphemism, tomorrow's pejoration.
Q:Is the following statement grammatical? "A majority of lawyers spend a significant portion of the day writing and editing"? I was told that the verb should have been spends to agree with the singular subject majority.
A:It is true that grammatically, majority is a singular form, and almost always verbs agree in number with their noun-subjects. And without the word of in the sentence the reader sent, the verb would have been singular. The English authority on correct usage, R.W. Burchfield, in Fowler's Modern English Usage, Third edition, 1966, gives as an illustration of the use of the singular verb, "The amendment was passed by a small majority; the majority was sufficient to enable the Conservatives to form a government."
But the word of changes things. Burchfield gives, as an illustration of majority of plus a plural noun: "The great majority of school buildings are decayed and dilapidated." The use of the plural verb is always preferable in this context despite the fact that the subject (majority) is singular. This discrepancy is accounted for by the principle of "attraction." The semantic plural overrules the grammatical singular.