That committee was succeeded in 2003 by the Special Committee on Professionalism, for which the ISBA coordinated a series of town hall forums throughout the state.
The overall initiative included establishment of a new Oath of Professionalism that Thomas and other Supreme Court justices have administered to incoming classes of law students.
In his speech, Thomas also emphasized continuing legal education as "an essential element of our profession" and a duty to the public "to ensure that we never rest on our laurels."
He said only an arrogant lawyer believes that a law degree is enough preparation for a law practice, adding "It is the humble lawyer who understands that a J.D. is only the beginning."
As keynote speaker for the Peoria County Bar Association's Lincoln Memorial Banquet in February, Thomas repeated his December 2002 concern that a client should not be perceived as only a means to an attorney's end in terms of compensation.
"This is exactly backwards," he said. "The attorney, and even the judge, is means to the client's end... The client is always where the focus must be."
A 1981 graduate of the Loyola University School of Law, Thomas attended classes at night and between seasons while he was a record-setting placekicker for the Chicago Bears. He retired from professional football in 1986.
He practiced law in Kane and DuPage Counties and was a partner in Guerard, Kalina, Musial, Ulrich & Varchetto in Wheaton when he was elected in 1988 to the 18th Circuit Court. He was elected to the Appellate Court in 1994.
After his election to the Supreme Court, Thomas was named Lawyer of the Year in 2001 by the DuPage County Bar Association. In 2003, the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame honored him as Man of the Year.
20 join Cook County bench
Twenty new associate judges of the Cook County Circuit Court were installed June 1 in Chicago, 19 months after they filed applications.
Among them are two members of the ISBA Bench and Bar Section Council - James N. Karahalios and Mary R. Minella, who also serves on the Tort Law Section Council - Cheryl D. Cesario of the Committee on Cable Television Programming, and Patricia Mendoza of the Committee on Women and the Law.
Others are Larry G. Axelrood, Robert J. Clifford, Israel A. Desierto, Maureen P. Feerick, Renee G. Goldfarb, David E. Haracz, Donald R. Havis, Thomas J. Hennelly, Alfred L. Levinson, Carolyn G. Quinn, Joseph M. Sconza, Robert E. Senechalle Jr., Darryl B. Simko, Douglas J. Simpson, E. James Tolmaire III and James A. Zafiratos.
Federal nominations
Illinois Solicitor General Gary S. Feinerman and assistant U.S. attorney Virginia M. Kendall have been recommended as candidates for openings on U.S. District Court for the Northern District. One may be nominated to succeed Judge Suzanne B. Conlon, who opted last year for senior status.
Feinerman is a former partner in Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, Chicago. Kendall is deputy chief of the Northern District Criminal Division and an adjunct professor at the Loyola University School of Law.
Law office management roundtables spark interaction
By Paul J. Sullivan
Reading this column is certainly a good way to get ideas on how to run your law office properly, but sitting at a round table, having a discussion with other lawyers who have similar problems and needs as yourself, is even better.
Once again this year during the ISBA Annual Meeting at the Abbey Resort, the Committee on Law Office Management and Economics will host a breakfast symposium.
This session will be held at 7:30 a.m. Friday, June 17, and if past years are any indication, it will be time well spent for those who attend.
Over the years, this program has gone through many stages of development. Initially, it was set up with speakers at a front table. They gave short talks on their levels of expertise and then opened the program for questions from the audience.
Although this format prompted quite a bit of discussion among certain attendees, the committee always felt there was a better way to get more people involved in the discussions and cover a wider variety of topics.
As a regular participant, both in the law office economics breakfasts and as a participant at Association of Legal Administrator roundtables, I found that the roundtable formats were more beneficial to the participants.
They gave participants the chance to interact with each other in a less intimidating environment, and allowed for more topics to be discussed in the same amount of time.
A few years ago, the former Law Office Management and Economics (Standing Committe on) Council sponsored two roundtable discussion programs - one in Peoria in the fall and one in Rockford that following Spring. Both sessions were extremely well attended and received good reviews.
The format consisted of four tables capable of seating about 12 people each. A facilitator directed the discussion at each table.
One discussed technology, another reviewed general business management, a third covered practice management issues, and the fourth explored relationships between lawyers, staffs and clients.
Each attendee had the opportunity to spend about 45 minutes at each table. The facilitators were prepared to discuss topics common their tables, but often it seemed the interaction between those in attendance was driving much of the discussion.
Following the great success of those round table programs, the decision was made to incorporate this format into the Law Office Economics Breakfast symposiums held at the ISBA Annual Meetings.
Although the symposium lasts only 90 minutes, it still permits attendees to participate in at least two of the four tables.
Again this year, one of the discussions will be led by John Olmstead, a law office management consultant who has participated several times in past years. His topic this year is "Marketing Your Law Firm on a Shoestring Budget."
Although yours truly will be unable to participate this year, I will be replaced by Cecelia Vanderlip. She is a law firm administrator with Nowlan & Mouat of Janesville, Wis., and a member of LOMAP, the Law Office Management Assistance Program of the Wisconsin Bar Association.
This is a program composed of a variety of lawyers and other professionals who offer assistance to Wisconsin lawyers. Vanderlip will lead a discussion on general law office management topics.
A discussion on technology will be led by Nerino Petro, a Winnebago County attorney who is a member of the ISBA Committee on Law Office Technology.
Dennis Favaro of Palatine, who concentrates in employment law, will lead a table discussion on employment topics that include discipline and termination issues.
If you are attending the Annual Meeting, you can sign up for the breakfast symposium at the registration desk. If you haven't registered, you may do so at the web address,https://secure.isba.org/2005 annual meeting. The cost is $20.
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Paul Sullivan, a member of the ISBA Committee on Law Office Management and Economics, is office administrator for the Peoria firm of Quinn, Johnston, Henderson & Pretorius. Questions and comments may be sent to him at sullivan@qjhp.com.
Q:Is there a rule regarding the choice of because of instead of due to?
A:Los Angeles attorney Benjamin Shatz's reference was to the old rule that due to can be used only as a predicate adjective (following the verb to be). According to Strunk & White, in The Elements of Style (1935), due to was correct in: "This invention is due to Edison," in which due to follows the verb to be) and "losses due to preventable fires," in which due to directly modifies the noun fires. But due to was incorrect in: "He lost the game due to carelessness." Only "He lost the game because of carelessness" would be correct..
That rule is no longer in force although it is occasionally quoted, perhaps due to Strunk & White's still admired "little book." In E.B.Whiteís revision of The Elements of Style, in 1935, the due to rule was disavowed, but repeated in order to retain the flavor of Strunk's original work. In the introductory Note, White wrote:
* Professor Strunk was a positive man. His book contained rules of grammar phrased as direct orders. In the main I have not attempted to soften his commands, or modify his pronouncements, or delete the special objects of his scorn.
But the due to rule has been mostly ignored ever since it was stated. In language, wide usage always prevails, and eventually persuades lexicographers. So The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000) says, "[Since] due to is widely used and understood there seems little reason to avoid using it as a preposition." And Websterís Third New International Dictionary (Unabridged, 1993) lists due to as a preposition in a sentence like, "[T]he number and influence of investors are increasing, due to several causes."
Q:In the January column you answered a question about the meaning of "creative ambiguity." How about the terms political euphemism and enlightened obfuscation?
A: All three phrases describe language designed to sway public opinion. An example is the phrase personal accounts instead of private accounts. Republican strategist Frank Luntz said that private accounts sounded elitist: "If advocates call these accounts private, legislation to allow them will fail. If they are called personal, it will succeed." (Quoted by Marcia Mercer, Scripps Howard News Service, February 8, 2005..)
Political euphemism also plays an important role in environmental matters. Republicans prefer the term global climate variation to global warming, which they say makes the problem seem more urgent than it actually is. Democrats argue that the term global climate variation is so nebulous as to strip the danger of any reality. ("Chemical & Engineering News," Editor's Page, January 24, 2005.)
While political euphemisms soften language to make it appealing, enlightened obfuscation obscures language to make it confusing. The phrase appears in Joseph Ellis' book, The Founding Fathers, describing President James Madisonís speech during the debate about slavery in the House of Representatives. Madison considered slavery immoral; however, he also considered any immediate effort to end it, "premature, politically impractical, and counter-productive." So his speech to the Representatives, which began as a denunciation of slavery, through "convoluted syntax, multiple negatives, [and] indefinite antecedents," ended by creating confusion about what he really believed. Here is an excerpt from his speech:
* If this folly did not reproach the public councils, it ought to excite no regret in the patrons of Humanity & freedom. Nothing could hasten more the progress of these reflections & sentiments which are secretly undermining the institution which this mistaken zeal is laboring to secure against. the most distant approach of danger.
This is the kind of language for which H.L. Mencken had denounced Thorstein Veblen: the use of "incomparably tangled and unintelligible words" stating hollow nothings in high, astounding terms," so that they sound portentous. Mencken quoted the first paragraph of Chapter XIII of The Theory of the Leisure Class, to make his point:
* In an increasing proportion as time goes on, the anthropomorphic cult, with its code of devout observances, suffers a progressive disintegration through the stress of economic exigencies and the decay of the system of status. As this disintegration proceeds, there come to be associated and blended with the devout attitude certain other motives and impulses that are not always of an anthropomorphic origin, nor traceable to the habit of personal subservience. (Prejudices: First Series, 1919, 59-83).
So all three terms indicate language designed to influence rather than to inform the audience. Recall Lewis Carroll in "Through the Looking Glass":
* "But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knockdown argument,'"Alice objected.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master that's all."
FROM THE MAILBAG:
Commenting on the March column about the subjunctive mode, Chicago reader Jeffrey Blumenthal wrote, "Years ago I learned this rule by paying attention to Tevye's lament in "Fiddler on the Roof": 'If I were a rich man.' Of course, he isn't a rich man and never will be; hence the subjunctive mode."
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.
A panel discussion on the 2004-05 term of the U.S. Supreme Court will be conducted by the Chicago Lawyer chapter of the American Constitution Society at 12 noon Friday, July 1, at Jenner & Block, with partner Barry Sullivan as moderator. Call Amy Gardner at (312) 407-0888.
Arab American Bar
Chicago attorney Edward M. Shisem is president of the Arab American Bar Association. Call him at (312) 362-0123 for information about meetings and events.