Conducted by the school's Center for Tax Law and Employee Benefits, both curriculums stress transactional approaches and deal with actual problems encountered in those practices. Call (312) 987-2380 for details.
The Chicago Lighthouse, an advocate for the visually impaired, will present the 2005 Beacon of Light Award posthumously to Cara Dunne-Yates during its annual Open Doors Dinner on Thursday, April 21, at the Mid-America Club, Chicago.
A 5:30 p.m. benefit reception and silent auction will precede the 7 p.m. dinner and program. Call Naomi Tselepis at (312) 997-3679
Ms. Dunne-Yates, a blind Massachusetts attorney who learned to ski in paralympic events from her stepfather, Evanston attorney Richard Zabelski, died Oct. 20 of cancer (ISBA Bar News, November 2004). She will be honored for lifetime achievements as an advocate, athlete and scholar.
Bruce W. Foudree of Lord, Bissell & Brook chairs the Chicago Lighthouse board, and Philip H. Corboy Jr. is vice chair. Cook County Judge Nicholas T. Pomaro and Paul W. Rink of the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission serve on the board.
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Keith Duck, Bob Nevsimal, Jennifer Petty and Timothy and Deborah Joos will be honored by Kane County Friends of Child Advocacy during a benefit reception from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, April 24, at Isabella's Estiatorio in Geneva.
The Child Abuse Prevention Month event supports the Kane County Child Advocacy Center, founded in 1994 to investigate and prosecute cases of sexual and physical abuse in a child-sensitive manner.
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Lambda Legal will hold a Bon Foster Civil Rights Celebration from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, April 28, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Call Bob Pries at (312) 663-4413.
The benefit program, reception and buffet supper will celebrate a "spirit of renewal" in the fight for civil rights of lesbian and gay members of the community.
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Justice Richard J. Goldstone of the Constitutional Court of South Africa will be keynote speaker for the sixth annual Midwest Light of Human Rights Awards luncheon Wednesday, May 25, in the Imperial Ballroom of the Fairmont Hotel, Chicago.
The Heartland Alliance is sponsor of the benefit for the Midwest Immigrant and Human Rights Center and the Marjorie Kovler Center for the Treatment of Survivors of Torture. Call Christina Gonzales, (312) 660-1313.
Training scheduled
The Center for Disability and Elder Law (CDEL) will conduct a training program on guardianship law and procedure at 12 noon Friday, April 22, at Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, Chicago. Thomas Bucaro of Bucaro & Associates is the presenter.
A light lunch will be served. There is no charge to attend, but space is limited. Call Jann Dragovich-Stulberg at (312) 908-6087.
CDEL has received a $60,000 grant from Baker & McKenzie, extending its $20,000 annual award through 2008. The funds help coordinate pro bono legal services to the low-income elderly and disabled in Chicago.
Bar projects succeed
The annual Legal Follies benefit staged March 12 by a cast of 40 Winnebago County lawyers and legal professionals raised $40,000 for Prairie State Legal Services. About 1,900 attended the hilarious show in Rockford's Coronado Theatre.
The Decatur Bar Association recently raised $1,376 for the Salvation Army at a cookout. Bar members also contributed $2,025 to the Decatur office of Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation.
Other projects supported by the Decatur Bar include a benefit for the American Red Cross, basketball team sponsorships for Coaches Against Cancer, and a Bowl for Kids' Sake to support the Big Brother Big Sister organization.
People who serve
New officers of the Women's Bar Foundation are President Rosemary Krimbel, Vice Presidents Jacqueline S. Lustig and Mary Frances Hegarty, Vice President-Treasurers Dixie Lee Peterson and Bernadette M. Barron, and Secretary Bernadette Freeman. Joanne R. Driscoll is immediate past president.
Jennifer Bottacari, a visiting third-year student at The John Marshall Law School, is the first Harold I. Levine Center for Housing Fellow at the Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation. She will receive her law degree next month from the Fordham University School of Law.
Global Holidays has added two trips to Beijing, China, in November to its schedule of ISBA-sponsored travel opportunities.
The tour dates are Nov. 2 to 9 and Nov. 3 to 10, both with Chicago and St. Louis departures. The price of $1,499 per person, double occupancy, does not include government taxes and visa fees of $220.
Features are roundtrip air fare on Northwest or United Airlines, ground transfers, six nights of first class accommodations in the Capital Hotel, six American breakfasts and two lunches, two full-day sightseeing tours, and hospitality desk on location.
Optional excursions include an overnight in Xi'an; the Summer Palace and Beijing Zoo; Lama Temple, Chairman Mao's Mausoleum and Beihai Park; Temple pf Heaven and Confucius Temple.
For complete details on the China trip and other travel opportunities, call Global Holidays at (800) 842-9023. Summaries follow of current listings.
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 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 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.
San Remo, Italian Riviera, and Montecatini, Tuscany, including Monaco, Nice, Florence and Pisa (9 days and 7 nights, $1,699 plus $119 government taxes, security charges and fees) - Departures Sept. 10, Sept. 17, Sept. 24, Oct. 15.
Kilkenny and Killarney, Ireland (9 days, 7 nights, $1,699 plus $109 government taxes, security charges and fees) - Departures Sept. 16 from Chicago, Oct. 7 from St. Louis.
Villars, Switzerland, and Titisee in the Black Forest of Germany (9 days, 7 nights, $1,599 plus $129 government taxes, security charges and fees) - Departures Sept. 23, Oct. 7, Oct. 8.
Q:I'm not sure about using of following whether. For example, which is correct: "The issue of whether ..." or "The issue is whether ...."
A:This question deserves the lawyerly answer, "it depends." The use of of or is depends on what follows whether. In a statement like, "The issue of whether there is a cause of action must first be decided," the word of is appropriate. In that context, of has approximately the same meaning as about. Of is sometimes omitted in that context, but it seems to clarify the idea.
However, in the statement "The issue is whether ... ," the verb is signals that what follows is an explanation of the issue. The letter-writer also asked about including both is and of before whether (as in, "The issue is of whether ..."). That usage is not appropriate.
Q:Please comment about the use of plural nouns after the phrase there's. I hear speakers whom I expected to speak grammatical English use there's when the word referred to is plural. For example, last evening I heard a television reporter say, "There's many problems more important for the city government to handle than this one."
Is this now correct?
A:The reader who asked for a comment added that she prefers the "old" way of using there is and there are according to whether the following noun is singular or plural, so the reporter should have said, "There are many problems ...."
Other readers have also criticized the current change in language, in which the singular form 's is arbitrarily attached to the expletive there. That change to the singular noun occurs only (thus far) in the contraction there's, not yet in the phrase there is. That is, people say, "There's many reasons," but not "There is many reasons." Traditionally the expletive there was followed by 's/is when the noun it referred to was singular and there are when the noun it referred to was plural.
The grammatical expletive there contains no meaning; it is merely a device to put a substitute subject into a position in the sentence in which the English language expects a subject to appear, when the "real" subject follows later in the sentence. For example, you might say, "There's a problem with that suggestion," in which the subject noun problem appears later in the sentence; or you might, say instead, "A problem with that suggestion is ....." But, traditionally, when the "real" subject is in the plural, the plural verb follows there (there are): so you would say, "There are problems with that suggestion."
But recently, there's been a groundswell of change, a leveling of usage that has resulted in the reduction of grammatical forms. There's has become an all-purpose phrase, not influenced by the plurality of the following noun. The speaker therefore need not consider whether the noun that there refers to is singular or plural. Some typical there's constructions follow; currently, only the first sentence of each pair is considered correct:
* There's a question about what should be done.
* There's a lot of questions about what should be done.
* There are many good candidates for this office
* There's many good candidates for this office
* There are several possibilities to consider.
* There's several possibilities to consider.
Readers have noticed and commented on the leveling process. For example, they have criticized the almost-total substitute of like in constructions in which as or as if is the only correct form. Dictionaries generally still label like appropriate only in informal usage, but will probably soon list it as standard, and as/asif will completely disappear. But it's hard to marshal arguments against using there's with both singular and plural nouns. One cannot make the argument that there's is unclear; using is instead of are does not confuse anyone.
The best test I have seen for acceptability in usage was promulgated back in 1776 by George Campbell in his two-volume Philosophy of Rhetoric. To be "authoritative" (acceptable), wrote Campbell, "language should be present, national, and reputable." "Present" meant "current" "national," wide; and "reputable," neither slang nor jargon.
Unhappily for purists, there's seems to be meeting all three tests. Will there is follow and replace there are? My guess is that both will disappear in favor of the contraction there's. Except for those readers who are interested in semantics, the subject may be a bore, but it interests a small group of English speakers. Consider Alexander Pope's famous comment about those readers who praised his poem, "Paradise Lost": "Fit audience, though few."
Gertrude Block is Lecturer Emerita at the University of Florida College of Law. Her book ,"Legal Writing Advice: Questions and Answers" (William S. Hein & Co., Inc.) was published in December 2004. Ms. Block is also author of "Effective Legal Writing", 5th Edition (Foundation Press), with an accompanying instructor's manual. She is 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.
New jury selection guide answers common questions
By Rodney Nordstrom
An exciting new two-volume set titled "Blue's Guide to Jury Selection" (West, 2004) will help trial attorneys understand and improve jury selection techniques. The authors, Lisa Blue and Robert B. Hirschhorn, are experienced trial consultants and attorneys.
This work is a revised edition of "Bennett's Guide To Jury Selection and Trial Dynamics," a two-volume set published in 1993 by Hirschhorn and Cathy Bennett.
Like "Bennett's Guide," the newer "Blue's Guide" is a thorough cookbook for selecting juries. The aim of the authors is to shed light on meaningful voir dire. The 400-page text has a separate, supplemental book serving as an appendix.
Blue, who has both a Ph.D. and a J.D., is with the Texas law firm of Baron & Budd. She has handled a number of toxic tort and personal injury cases and is certified by the American Board of Forensic Psychology and the American Board of Professional Psychology.
Hirschhorn, a jury consultant with Cathy Bennett & Associates, is a nationally known and respected trial consultant who has worked on many high-profile civil and criminal cases.
The authors justify their book by answering 20 important and commonly asked questions. For example: Does stereotyping jurors work? How do I keep good jurors on the panel? How long should my voir dire last? When should I hire a trial consultant?
Blue and Hirschhorn believe, like most seasoned litigators, that trials are won or lost during voir dire. The correlation between jury selection and winning trials has been debated for many decades.
Most attorneys and trial consultants agree that successful jury selection remains a fundamental and necessary ingredient of winning a case. The lawyer is encouraged to think of voir dire as the most important job interview he or she has ever conducted.
The main volume of "Blue's Guide" is divided into two distinct parts. Part one discusses what to do before stepping into the courtroom.