The Mikvas are being honored by the Humanities Council for their lifelong commitment to civic education and public understanding of the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.
The gala in the Grand and State Ballrooms will begin with a 5:45 p.m. reception. The dinner and award presentation will start at 6:30 p.m.
The 2005 Humanities Lecture, "Free Speech in Wartime," will be given at 5 p.m. in the Red Lacquer Room by University of Chicago Law Prof. Geoffrey R. Stone, author of "Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime, from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism."
The Illinois Humanities Council was founded in 1973 as the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. It has sponsored a recent series of public programs on "Brown v. Board of Education at 50."
For more information, call (312) 422-5580 or access www.prairie.org.
LAP's expansion downstate creates need for volunteers
The Lawyers' Assistance Program has called on downstate attorneys to volunteer for service to impaired legal professionals, and has scheduled two spring training sessions.
The establishment of a Southern Illinois office, headed by associate director Joseph R. Bartylak of Alton, has resulted in an increase in requests for help to lawyers and judges who have alcohol or drug dependencies, or mental health afflictions.
To meet the need by qualifying more lawyers for peer counseling and interventions, LAP will conduct training sessions from 12 noon to 5 p.m. Thursday, April 28, in the Hotel Pere Marquette, Peoria, and Thursday, May 19, at the Southern Illinois University School of Law.
The free trainings will be led by Carl Anderson, program director for Rush Behavioral Health. For more information, call Bartylak at (618) 462-4397, or LAP executive director Janet Piper Voss at (312) 726-6607.
Founded 25 years ago by the Illinois State Bar Association and Chicago Bar Association, LAP embarked last year on an aggressive outreach project to inform the professional and public about its services, and to promote opportunities for volunteerism.
The goal of assuring that "accessible help is available to lawyers, judges and law students, irrespective of where they live and work in the state," has created a need for more volunteer assistance in the 3rd, 4th and 5th Judicial Districts, Bartylak said.
"Formerly trained volunteers will be asked to rededicate them selves to helping impaired lawyers, and new volunteers will be recruited in areas without trained intervenors," he added.
LAP recently moved its Chicago office into larger space in suite 1820 at 20 S. Clark St., Chicago. The downstate office is located in suite 305 at 200 W. Third St., Alton. Assistance is available via the telephone hotline, (800) LAP-1233, or by e-mail to gethelp@IllinoisLAP.org.
The organization will commemorate its 25th anniversary during a dinner Friday, Oct. 28, in Chicago.
Fellows slate Springfield event
The Fellows of the Illinois Bar Foundation have invited Springfield-area attorneys to a free reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 15, in the Pasfield House, just west of the State Capitol.
The informative reception will precede a meeting of the foundation board on Saturday, April 15, in the Illinois Bar Center. Other events on the foundation calendar include:
Wednesday, July 13 - Pillars of the Bar benefit golf outing, co-sponsored by the Peoria County Bar Foundation, at Weaver Ridge Golf Club.
Tuesday, Sept. 13 - Reception at 5 p.m. in the U.S. District Courthouse, Springfield, to enhance fund raising for a memorial to Judge Samuel H. Treat in Oak Ridge Cemetery.
Friday, Oct. 14 - Annual black-tie Gala benefit dinner dance, 6:30 p.m. at Four Seasons Hotel, Chicago, with award presentation to William R. Quinlan.
For more information, contact executive director Susan M. Lewers at (312) 726-6072, ext. 233, or smlewers@isba.org.
Special activities
The DuPage County Bar Lawyers Lending a Hand work project this month will be sharing dessert and playing bingo with residents of the Naperville Senior Home on Thursday, March 24. Call Eddie Wollenberg at (630) 668-2415.
A fund-raising reception to help defray medical expenses of Waukegan attorney Michael E. Simmons will take place from 6 to 11 p.m. Saturday, March 26, at the Four Winds Golf Course, Mundelein. Simmons, a former member of the ISBA Board of Governors, is senior assistant Lake County public defender.
Five bar associations will present 2005 Vanguard Awards on Thursday, April 14, to individuals who have made the law and the legal profession more accessible. These organizations and their honorees will be recognized during a luncheon at the Standard Club:
Asian American Bar, Benjamin E. Lumicao Jr. of Allstate Insurance; Chicago Bar, Victor P. Henderson of Holland & Knight; Cook County Bar, retired appellate justice R. Eugene Pincham; Hispanic Lawyers of Illinois, Jesse H. Ruiz of Gardner, Carton & Douglas; Lesbian and Gay Bar, Judge Sebastian T. Patti.
Kane County Friends of Child Advocacy will honor those who help better the lives of abused children during a Child Abuse Prevention Month reception Sunday, April 24. Call (630) 466-1478 for details.
Murders raise security concerns
The murders on Feb. 28 of two members of the family of Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow of U.S. District Court have evoked calls of growing concern for the security of members of the judiciary during their day-to-day personal lives.
Returning to her Chicago home that evening, Judge Lefkow discovered the bodies of her husband, attorney Michael F. Lefkow, and her mother, Donna Grace Humphrey, in the basement. Each had been shot in the head.
Although judges are well-protected in their chambers and courtrooms, they are vulnerable as they travel to and from work and while they carry out typical household responsibilities and social endeavors.
Extra protection is available, if specific threats are considered valid, but indefinite, round-the-clock security for judges is costly and impractical.
Judge Lefkow, for instance, had special protection for a brief period at the time of the arrest of white supremacist Matthew Hale in early 2003, but she discontinued it after about two weeks.
Federal and city law enforcement officials now believe that the murders were committed by a man who committed suicide March 8 in Wisconsin. Judge Lefkow had dismissed his civil rights suit against lawyers and doctors last September. Meanwhile, other federal judges have identified a need for greater awareness of the global increase in terrorism as a challenge to the role of the judiciary in a civilized society.
Most threats "don't amount to anything," said Marvin E. Aspen, former chief judge of the Northern District, "but occasionally there is a threat that is a very viable one. Those have to be identified."
Judge Wayne R. Andersen added that the Lefkow tragedy "has got to serve as the basis for a substantial increase in security for judges and their families."
In Peoria, Chief Judge Michael P. McCuskey of the Central District has asked friends not to call him "judge" in public. Outside the safety of the courthouse, the problem is "to guard against the nuts or people with no conscience," he said.
"If the judiciary is threatened, and in any way the rule of law is compromised, we're nothing but a third-world country," McCuskey pointed out.
Judicial appointments
Chicago attorneys Jeffrey Cole and Maria Valdez have been appointed to eight-year terms as magistrate judges of U.S. District Court for the Northern District and will be installed this spring.
Cole, a partner in Cole & Staes with 35 years in practice, fills a new position that brings the number of magistrate judges to 11. Valdez, regional counsel of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, replaces Edward A. Bobrick, who retired last year.
William C. Norton of Conn, Clendenin & Norton, Marissa, was sworn in March 7 as a judge of the 20th Circuit, filling the vacancy caused by the appointment of Judge James K. Donovan to the Appellate Court. A 1978 graduate of the Southern Illinois University School of Law, Norton was an assistant Perry County state's attorney for two years.
Retired 18th Circuit judge John J. Nelligan is serving a second six-month term as a recalled judge in the 16th Circuit. His previous appointment expired March 11, and he now will serve until Sept. 11.
Former Crawford County state's attorney Mark L. Shaner of Robinson, a 1981 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, has been named an associate judge of the 2nd Circuit.
Schuyler County State's Attorney Scott J. Butler of Rushville, a 1981 graduate of the Southern Illinois University School of Law, has become an 8th Circuit associate judge.
Barbara N. Petrungaro of New Lenox, former deputy chief of the Will County state's attorney's Civil Division, was installed last month as an associate judge of the 12th Circuit. She is a 1991 graduate of the Valparaiso University School of Law.
Michael R. Albert of Rock Falls, a 1976 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, is a new associate judge in the 14th Circuit.
Other court news
Associate Judge James R. Edwards of the 16th Circuit, who has been on leave for medical reasons, retired at the end of February.
Judge Thomas Mueller has been appointed presiding judge of the 16th Circuit Drug Court. He succeeds Judge James Doyle, who was reassigned to administrative duties pending the hearing of a Judicial Inquiry Board complaint by the Illinois Courts Commission.
Cook County Judges Paul A. Karkula, Carolyn Quinn and Jesse G. Reyes have been transferred from the 1st Municipal District to the Chancery Division, where a new combined Mortgage Foreclosure-Mechanics Lien Section has been established.
Cook County Judges Timothy P. Murphy and Jeanne Cleveland Bernstein, who were elected in November, have been transferred to the Domestic Relations Division from the 1st Municipal District.
Cook County Judge Stanley Sacks has returned to the Criminal Division after four months in Domestic Relations. Associate Judge Jorge Luis Alonso was moved from the 1st Municipal District to the 2nd Municipal District.
Judge Ann E. Callis of the 3rd Circuit was scheduled to conduct the first jury trial in the new Madison County Criminal Justice Center, which opened Feb. 28. The new court facility in Edwardsville was acquired in 1999 from Florist Mutual Insurance.
Popular iPod can be useful to lawyer away from office
By David B. Yavitz
Don't buy Apple Computer's iPod because it is the coolest and most popular portable music player on the planet.
True, Apple has sold more than 10 million iPods since inception, 4.5 million alone having been sold in the holiday quarter. True, the market share of iPods rose from 31 percent of the MP3 market in January 2004 to 65 percent of the market in January 2005.
True, there are now more than 400 accessories for iPods, and iPods are being introduced into automobiles to replace CD players and cassettes. BMW, Mercedes Benz, Nissan, Volvo, Scion, Alfa Romeo and Ferrari are offering adapters in their automobiles so an iPod can play through a car stereo system, controlled by steering-wheel buttons and dashboard displays.
True, Motorola this year will introduce an iTunes client to play music on its cellular telephones. True, iTunes is the most popular music service on the planet, selling songs in over 15 countries for 99 cents each, with sales of 1.25 million songs each day.
True, iPods work on both Macs and PCs and may be connected to a computer by either a FireWire (IEEE 1394) USB or USB 2.0 cable, and the free client software, iTunes, comes in Macintosh and Windows versions.
While all of these facts are true, don't buy an iPod for the above reasons. Buy an iPod because you can use one in your law practice and save up to 40 percent, depending on your tax bracket, since the iPod can be considered an ordinary and necessary business expense and, therefore, tax deductible.
You ask: How can the coolest portable music player in the world be considered an ordinary and necessary business expense in my law office? Let me tell you.
Today, many attorneys have a computer at work and another at home. When computers were first introduced, there were few networks and you shared documents using sneaker-net by saving a file to a floppy disc and walking it over to your secretary's computer.
Even with today's high-speed networks, sneaker-net still has its place. Even though I can network from my office to my home using TCP/IP through programs such as Netopia's Timbuktu Pro, I still fall back on sneaker-net.
This is especially true if I need to transfer large amounts of data and I don't want to waste the time for a network download. The problem is that floppy discs are too small for today's files.
You ask: What does this have to do with iPods? Now we get to the point of this story. The iPods are hard drives and as such are able to hold files and data and can replace floppies for sneaker-net.
And what beautiful and spacious storage devices they are. At the high end is the new iPod Photo, which comes with a color display and can hold up to 15,000 songs or as many as 25,000 photos, with up to 15 hours of battery life.
But, since we are interested in portable storage space, please save room for your data files. I have what I believe is a moderately sized music collection, consisting of about 200 CDs, which equals more than 1,800 songs. My photo library has more than 4,000 digital photographs.
I was able to have my entire music collection and my entire digital photo library on my 60 gig iPod Photo and still have 45 gigabytes of free hard drive space. This allows me to copy all of the client data from my server and take it home with me.
The iPod Photo comes in two sizes: a 60 gig unit costing $449 and a 30 gig iPod selling for $349. After the two iPod Photos, Apple sells a 20 gig non-photo model iPod for $299.
If you store 2,500 songs on the 20 gig iPod, you still have 10 gigabytes of free space for your law files. Or you could purchase an iPod Mini if you decide on which of the five colors you prefer. The iPod Mini costs $199 and holds up to 1,000 songs on a 4 gig hard drive or $249 for a 6 gig 1,500 song Mini.
While the iPod is not a substitute for long-term data storage or back-up, it provides a great vehicle to move data while at the same time offering a superb music player.