Peter L. Rotskoff of Springfield, who chairs the Special Committee on Implementing the Mentoring Program, says the mentoring initiative is "a stepping stone to addressing the problems of new lawyers" (note that it is also available for not-new lawyers who may need assistance with unfamiliar legal matters).
For me, this stepping stone was real stones more precisely, gravel. The next time I saw my Most Honorable Mentor (ISBA past president Leonard Amari), we were not in suits. We were in sweaty running clothes heading down a gravel path in Lincoln Park with the ISBA Sunday Runners (who run on Saturdays - go figure!).
Here I have met and become friends with some most wonderful people. I even ran six miles a few weeks back with ISBA President Bob Downs (the Sunday Runners refer to him as Chairman Downsy).
All I had to do to get access to a mountain of help and advice from seasoned professionals was to take the chance and send an e-mail. The MentorCenter is a wonderful resource for any attorney starting out or beginning a new area of the law or a new venture.
Don't be afraid to make contact. Access www.isba.org/mentorcenter/.
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Roberta Conwell's real estate law practice is located in Orland Park. She can be reached at (708) 349-0161 or rconwell1@comcast.net.
Traffic courts issues, update slated Sept. 16
The fall ISBA Law Ed Series includes a Traffic Law Issues and Update seminar from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 16, at the Collinsville Holiday Inn.
Program coordinator is J. Randall Cox of Feldman, Wasser, Draper & Benson, Springfield, a member of the Committee on Continuing Legal Education. The schedule of follows.
9 a.m. - Introduction and overview, with Randall Cox.
9:05 a.m. -Secretary of State Hearings and Other Collateral Consequences of DUI and Serious Traffic Offenses, with Marc C. Loro, legal advisor to the Secretary of State's Administrative Hearings Department, member of the ISBA Administrative Law Section Council and past chair of the Committee on Government Lawyers.
9:50 a.m. - Traffic Potpourri: Non-alcohol Moving Violations, Minor Issues (graduated driver's license primer and fake IDs), and Expungement, with 20th Circuit Associate Judge Andrew J. Gleeson of Belleville.
10:45 a.m. - Commercial Driver's License Issues: Moving Violations, Citations, and Overweight Tickets, with Kelly C. Sullivan of Fairview Heights.
11:30 a.m. - Search and Seizure Issues at Traffic Stops, with Donald J. Ramsell of Ramsell & Armamentos, Wheaton, past chair of the Traffic Laws and Courts Section Council.
12:15 p.m. - Luncheon period.
1:15 p.m. - DUI, Statutory Summary Suspension, and Zero Tolerance Nuts and Bolts, with ISBA Assembly member J. Brick Van Der Snick of Geneva, a member of the Traffic Laws and Courts Section Council, and Kelly Sullivan.
2 p.m. - Trial and Hearing Practice Tools and Techniques: Pretrial Motions, Requests to Admit, Bills of Particulars, Directed Verdicts, and Jury Issues, with Richard T. Roustio of Daley, Sheafor & Roustio, Belleville, and Donald Ramsell..
3 p.m. - Standardized Field Sobriety Testing, Breath Testing and Blood Testing, with Ronald E. Henson of Beron Consulting of Illinois, Peoria, and Brick Van Der Snick.
Legislative update materials will be provided by Larry A. Davis of DesPlaines, newsletter editor of the Traffic Laws and Courts Section.
IJA president seeks financial equality
By Stephen Anderson
As the 34th president of the Illinois Judges Association, James M. Wexstten of Mt. Vernon wants to see that trial courts throughout the state, from wealthy northern suburbs to cash-strapped southern counties, receive equitable funding.
"Equal access to justice shouldn't depend on where you live in Illinois," he told a Springfield newspaper reporter last month. The state pays judicial salaries, but "facilities and operations are funded by county governments, and there's nothing equal about any of it," he said.
Wexstten also hopes the IJA will be able to secure funding for more summer interns in Illinois circuits through the American Bar Association's Judicial Intern Opportunity Program for minority and disadvantaged law students.
A member of the IJA board since 1992, Wexstten previously chaired the Judicial Selection and Retention Committee and served on the Legislative Liaison Committee.
A 1976 graduate of the Southern Illinois University School of Law and a judge of the 2nd Circuit since 1988, he was chief judge from 1991 to 1993 and from 2000 to 2003. He is a member of the ISBA Committee on Judicial Advisory Polls.
A past president of the Jefferson County Bar Association, Wexstten founded the steering committee that established the Southern Thirty Adolescent Center, a shelter for abused and neglected children. He is a past president of Prevent Child Abuse Illinois.
He received a Citizen Award in 1993 from the Illinois Probation and Court Services Association and was named Child Advocate of the Year in 2004 by the Multidisciplinary Conference on Child Abuse.
Other new officers of the judges association include Vice Presidents Jesse G. Reyes of Chicago, Mark A. Schuering of Quincy, a member of the ISBA Committee on Corrections and Sentencing, and James R. Epstein of Skokie.
Ronald D. Spears of Taylorville, chair of the ISBA Committee on Military Affairs, is IJA secretary. Jane L. Stuart of Chicago, the treasurer, serves on the Committee on Women and the Law and just concluded her tenure on the ISBA Assembly.
Supreme Court Justice Lloyd A. Karmeier of the 5th District has joined the IJA board of directors and also serves on the executive committee.
For more information, access the Web site, www.ija.org.
LAP celebrates 25th year at annual dinner Oct. 28
The Lawyers' Assistance Program will celebrate 25 years of service to the legal profession during its annual dinner on Friday, Oct. 28, in the Empire Room of the Palmer House Hilton, Chicago. Supreme Court Justice Thomas R. Fitzgerald will be keynote speaker.
In her report to the ISBA Assembly in June, executive director Janet Piper Voss noted that LAP continues to expand its programs of assistance.
Its threefold mission is: To protect the interests of clients from harm caused by impaired attorneys; To assist impaired judges, attorneys, law students and their families in recovery; To educate the legal profession as to the causes of and remedies for attorney impairment.
Earlier this year, LAP began conducting weekly 12-step meetings for legal professionals in its new offices in suite 1820 at 20 S. Clark St., Chicago. Other new projects will include a video, new brochures, and educational programs in the fall and winter.
In June, attorney and clinician Jeff Forret joined the staff as program coordinator. For the past three years, he has been on the staff of Hazelden, where he received a master's degree in counseling.
The number of calls LAP receives has increased steadily, Voss reported, and is at a pace of 67 percent higher than in last year. Alcohol addiction is cited in 54 percent of cases; others are drug dependency, psychological problems, gambling and compulsive behavior.
"As LAP operates with financial independence and strives for a greater presence throughout Illinois, (we) express our gratitude to ISBA for the critical support, financial and non-financial, that has sustained our organization for 25 years," Voss said in her report.
Overseeing the program is a board of 14 members appointed by the Supreme Court. The president is Appellate Justice Warren D. Wolfson of Chicago. Other officers are Gerald Walters of Alton, vice president; Valee Salone of Chicago, treasurer, and Magistrate Judge John Gorman of Peoria, secretary.
Board members include the past president, Timothy L. Bertschy, also a past president of the ISBA; Michael Caldwell, Philip H. Corboy, James Faught, Richard Gillingham, Michael Howlett, Matthew Hutmacher, Sheila Murphy, James Radcliffe III and Larry Rogers Jr.
In addition to Voss and Forret, the staff includes associate director Joseph Bartylak of Alton and administrative assistant Bridget McLaughlin. Call (312) 726-6607 for more information.
The ISBA Board of Governors will meet Saturday, Sept. 24 at the House on the Rock Resort, Spring Green, Wis., and on Friday, Nov. 4, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in St. Louis (Clayton).
The ISBA Midyear Meeting, including the annual Illinois Supreme Court dinner and convening of the ISBA Assembly, will take place Thursday through Saturday, Dec. 8 to 10, at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel.
Board meetings in 2006 are scheduled Friday, Jan. 27, in the Westin River North Hotel, Chicago; Friday, March 24, at Stoney Creek Inn, Quincy, and Friday, May 19, at Starved Rock Lodge, Utica.
Downs: Poverty is barrier to equal justice for needy
By Stephen Anderson
"The organized bar's involvement in poverty law issues has been sporadic at best," said ISBA President Bob Downs as he presented Illinois Bar Foundation grants to a pair of organizations that assist the disadvantaged.
"It's not because of a lack of concern, but a matter of leadership priorities," Downs said, adding that he plans to address the issue of poverty as a barrier to justice and fair and equal treatment under the law for all.
His remarks accompanied Bar Foundation grants of $5,000 to the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law in Chicago, and $3,500 to Sarah's Inn, a domestic violence advocacy center and shelter based in Oak Park.
The Shriver Center grant is designated for improvement of its "Let's Get It Right!" initiative to assist clients in poverty by synthesizing legal advocacy, communication, research, scholarship, substantive and skills training, leadership development and strategic planning.
"We believe that laws and policies can provide the opportunities that help low-income people move themselves from poverty to prosperity," said executive director Rita A. McLennon.
"Working collaboratively with state systems, administrators, service providers and other advocates, the Shriver Center is optimistic that overcoming poverty is essential to serving individuals and the communities in which they live," she said.
Downs praised the center's manuals for legal aid attorneys, such as Clearinghouse Reviews, which he referred to as "the case resource bible of poverty and public interest law."
Sarah's Inn is "a hands-on organization that delivers services, principally to women, in matters relating to domestic violence," Downs said. It maintains secretly located emergency shelters and a transitional living program as "ports in the storm."
The Bar Foundation grant supports operation of a Court Advocates Program of volunteers and paid staff who help obtain orders of protection for violence victims. Their offenders often counter the charges with promises not to repeat violent attacks.
"Those of us who are involved in this field know that the promise is almost always broken," Downs noted. "The Court Advocate Program is far and away one of the most important advances made in dealing with issues of domestic violence."
To contact either grantee to obtain more information or to offer assistance, call Rita McLennon of the Shriver Center at (312) 263-33830, ext. 224, and Sharmili Majmudar, women's director of Sarah's Inn, at (708) 386-3305, ext. 226.
Cook County mediation series begins with breaking impasse
"Breaking the Impasse: Moving from Stalemate to Settlement in Mediation" is the title of a free continuing education program that will be presented at 12 noon Thursday, Sept. 8, in courtroom 2005 of the Richard J. Daley Center, Chicago.
Panelists are U.S. Magistrate Judge Morton Denlow, Stuart M. Widman of Miller, Shakman & Hamilton, and Prof. Thomas F. Gibbons of Northwestern University.
Designed for judges, lawyers and mediators who are interested in court-annexed mediation skills and procedures, the series of Cook County Circuit Court Law Division seminars is co-sponsored by the ISBA Alternative Dispute Resolution Section Council.
Judge Allen S. Goldberg, a section council member, supervises the court's mediation program, and section council vice chair Michael S. Jordan, a retired judge, is also involved in the series.
For more information or to register for attendance, call Mrs. Ferenzi at (312) 603-6078 or Kim Atz at (312) 793-0125. Participants should bring their own lunches. The schedule of future presentations includes the following.
Thursday, Oct. 13 - Resolving the Complex Case; retired judges Stephen A. Schiller and Richard E. Neville. This workshop will cover guidelines on getting the right parties to the table, use of pre-hearing conferences, content of case management orders, use of experts, authority issues, and management of multi-party and intra-party negotiations.
Thursday, Nov. 10 - Creative Problem Solving for Advocates and Mediators; Clinical Associate Prof. Lynn P. Cohn of Northwestern University School of Law, Assistant Clinical Prof. Pamela A. Kentra of Chicago-Kent College of Law, and Susan Yates, executive director of the Center for Analysis of Dispute Resolution Systems.
Thursday, Jan. 12 - Effective Mediation of Employment Disputes; U.S. Magistrate Judge Edward A. Bobrick and Debra Howdy. In this workshop, employment specialists will share experiences and insights on selecting the best mediator, the role of counsel, client preparation, and development of non-monetary trade-offs.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has been nominated by the Chicago Headline Club for a Eugene S. Pulliam First Amendment Award that would be awarded in October by the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation.
The Headline Club, a chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, cited Madigan's creation of the office of public access counselor to support the duty of news reporters "to shine a light on the darkened back rooms of Illinois government," the nomination letter stated.
"In an era when reporters across the country are battling law enforcement officials to retain the rights they had previously been granted, Lisa Madigan has been a champion of public access to information."
Chicago attorney Margaret G. Tebo, senior writer for the ABA Journal, was elected president of the Headline Club on May 25. She teaches a course on media ethics and law at Columbia College.
Attorneys on the board of directors are Bonnie C. McGrath, a past president of the Decalogue Society, and Michelle Stevens, a member of the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board.
Other directors include Abdon M. Pallasch, legal affairs reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, and freelance journalist Art Menke, who is employed by Jenner & Block.
Downstate prosecutor a hero in Afghanistan
By Stephen Anderson
There probably is no such thing as an unlikely hero. Countless stories have told of ordinary people who performed extraordinary feats when faced with uncommon crises.
Rural New Hampshire poet and publisher Sam Walter Foss, author of "The House by the Side of the Road," penned in another verse the thought that "in the average man is curled the hero stuff that rules the world."