Such a man may be Grayson E. Gile, state's attorney of Pulaski County, who recently received a Bronze Star and Combat Infantry Badge while on active duty with the combined Army Special Forces task force in Afghanistan.
A lieutenant colonel who was deployed in January, two months after re-election as county prosecutor, Gile lost 11 comrades during combat in early July.
He admits to being humbled and honored by the commendations, "but by the same token can't differentiate myself from others serving," he told a reporter for the Southern Illinoisan.
Gile is one of seven registered attorneys in 200-square-mile Pulaski County, the third smallest in the state, and one of only two in Mound City, the county seat. The other is 1st Circuit Judge William J. Thurston.
A 1998 graduate of the Southern Illinois University School of Law, Gile was an assistant Williamson County state's attorney in Marion before two years of practice in Goreville. He became state's attorney in Pulaski County in 2002.
In a touch of irony, active military duty separated Gile from the legal duty of prosecuting the killer of an Army sergeant who had served in Iraq. The incident occurred last October outside a nightclub.
In Giles' absence, the trial was handled by a team of assistant Illinois attorneys general. A jury found the defendant guilty of first-degree murder in April.
Although he does not know when he will return from Afghanistan, where elections will be conducted in September, Gile is pleased with the progress he sees.
"We are definitely engaged in a very strong conflict," he told the reporter, "but what you see in the eyes of these people is a look of hope... I will continue serving here as long as they need me."
During World War II, an Army dogface scrawled on a latrine wall that "Soldiers who wish to be a hero are practically zero." While an exemplar like Gile may not have wished to be a hero, his gallantry under fire impelled him to heroism.
ISBA offers personnel dues break, legal aid
The Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission last year reported that 213 Illinois attorneys were serving on active military duty and not required to pay registration fees.
The Illinois State Bar Association roster currently includes 42 members who have requested dues waivers for up to four years during time spent in military service. Waiver forms may be obtained from the membership department in Springfield.
Several hundred ISBA members have volunteered to provide pro bono or low-fee representation for military personnel and their families in legal matters related to active duty.
When members of the guard and reserve contact the ISBA for assistance, they are paired with lawyers whose practice areas and geographic location are appropriate.
More information about volunteering to assist, or requesting assistance, access the Web site, www.isba.org/volunteer.htm.
Interested lawyers are invited to attend the first fall session of Fred Lane's popular Trial Technique Institute at no charge. Coffee and soft drinks are provided.
The weekly classes will begin at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 13, in the ISBA Chicago Regional Office. The complete nine-month course consists of 54 hours of learning and practicing the finer points of trial practice.
For registration details, call (312) 726-8775. The fees are $875 for ISBA members and $925 for non-members.
Each 90-minute class presentation is videotaped so participants can review them to observe improvements in voice and manner. Those who miss a class may arrange to watch the tape of it in the ISBA office.
Co-directors of the Trial Technique Institute are ISBA past president Fred Lane, the founder who donated the curriculum to the state bar association, and Scott D. Lane, a member of the Tort Law Section Council.
Guest faculty members for occasional sessions include trial attorneys Philip H. Corboy, Robert Clifford, Kevin T. Martin, Joseph A. Power, Pamela L. Gellen and Andrew Kopon Jr., and Appellate Justice Michael J. Gallagher.
Piper Rudnick helps underwrite Foundation Gala
The Chicago office of DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary will help underwrite the Illinois Bar Foundation's black-tie benefit gala, scheduled Friday, Oct. 14, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago.
In addition to donating $25,000 to the foundation, the firm is providing assistance from its marketing staff in preparing printed materials for the event.
Among levels of tax-deductible financial support for the gala are Partner at $10,000, Benefactor at $5,000, and Patron at $3,000. Those contributors will receive tables of 10, listings in promotional materials, and other amenities.
Wednesday, Aug. 31, is the deadline for individuals and firms to sign up as Partners, Benefactors or Patrons. Circle of Friends forms may be obtained by contacting the Bar Foundation office at (312) 726-6072.
Payments may be made by check to the Illinois Bar Foundation no later than Friday, Sept. 30, or by telephone or facsimile with credit card information. Charitable contributions in excess of the fair market value of $150 per ticket for dinner and entertainment are tax deductible.
Gala co-chairs are Martin J. Healy Jr., Lee I. Miller and IBF board member and past president Warren Lupel. James Carroll and ISBA past president Cheryl I. Niro are co-chairs of the Circle of Friends Committee.
Other chairs are: Naomi Schuster, a member of the ISBA Board of Governors and chair of the Fellows, and Victor Henderson, program book; Rudolf Schade and John Nisivaco, auction; Antonio Romanucci and Stephan Blandin, raffle; IBF secretary Paula Holderman, VIPs.
Chicago attorney William R. Quinlan, a Laureate of the ISBA Academy of Illinois Lawyers and retired appellate justice, will receive the foundation's Distinguished Award for Excellence in recognition of his career efforts to improve the integrity of the judicial system.
Hot family law topics to open fall CLE slate
A pair of ISBA seminars on "Hot Topics in Family Law" will lead off the fall Law Ed Series on Friday, Sept. 9, at the Collinsville Holiday Inn, and Thursday, Sept. 15, at the Chicago Athletic Association.
Roza B. Gossage of Belleville, a Family Law Section Council member, is moderator for the Collinsville presentation, and council secretary Gregory A. Scott of Scott & Scott, Springfield, in Chicago. The schedule follows.
9 a.m. - The New Bankruptcy Act and How It Affects the Family Law Practitioner, with section council member Paul A. Osborn of Ward, Murray, Pace & Johnson, Sterling, in Chicago. The Collinsville speaker will be announced.
10:30 a.m. - Legislative Update, with section council member Adrienne W. Albrecht of Sacks, Albrecht & Gubbins, Kankakee.
11 a.m. - How to Get Paid Practicing Family Law and Lower Your Receivables: What Can We Ethically Do? Speakers will be announced.
12 noon - Luncheon period.
1 p.m. - Effective Cross Examination of a Custody Evaluator and Use of Psychological Testing by the Evaluator, with section council member Rory T. Weiler of Weiler & Noble, Geneva.
2 p.m. - Case Law Update, with Julie K. Katz of Keehner, Cannady & Katz, Belleville, in Collinsville, and Enrico J. Mirabelli of Nadler, Pritikin & Mirabelli, Chicago in Chicago.
3 p.m. - Relevant Custody Evidence and Use of Custody Evaluators in the Determination of Custody Matters, a judicial panel discussion with speakers to be announced.
Don't miss debut of Practice Skills series
It's not too late to register for the ISBA seminar series, "Practice Skills for New Lawyers," which gets under way with a criminal law practice program at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 17, in the ISBA Chicago Regional Office.
There are 10 more seminars that will be conducted by experienced practitioners to help beginning attorneys get started effectively in various practice areas.
Speakers for the opening session are ISBA Assembly member Robert A. Loeb of Chicago, an associate member of the Criminal Justice Section Council, and assistant Cook County public defender Timijanel B. Odom of Markham.
Registration for any or all of the 11-program series is $195 for ISBA members and $295 for non-members. Legal service agency attorneys may attend at no cost. Call the CLE registrar at (800) 252-8908 to register. The schedule of subsequent sessions follows.
Aug. 24 - Real Estate Law, with John G. O'Brien of Arlington Heights, a member of the ISBA Board of Governors; Assembly member Steven B. Bashaw of McBride, Baker & Coles, Oak Brook, Assembly member Myles L. Jacobs of Brummund & Jacobs, Joliet; Samuel H. Levine of Arnstein & Lehr, Chicago, and Stuart H. Wolf, of Arlington Heights.
Levine is past chair of the Real Estate Law Section Council, and Jacobs is a section council member. Wolf is chair of the Business Advice and Financial Planning Section Council.
Aug. 31 - Representing the Small Business, with Linscott R. Hanson of DiMonte & Lizak, Park Ridge, and George E. Marifian of Mathis, Marifian, Richter & Grandy, Belleville, a member of the Committee on Professional Conduct.
Sept. 7 - Domestic Relations, with Assembly member Christopher S. Haaff of Gitlin, Haaff & Kasper, Woodstock, and Celia G. Gamrath of Schiller, DuCanto & Fleck, Chicago, past chair of the Committee on Women and the Law and a member of the ISBA Board of Governors.
Sept. 14 - Setting Up a Law Practice that Works, and Running a Law Practice Without Running into Trouble, with Mary F. Andreoni of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, Chicago, a member of the Committee on Professional Conduct, and Warren Lupel of Katz, Randall, Weinberg & Richmond, Chicago, member of the Committee on the ARDC.
Sept. 21 - Traffic and DUI Law, with Larry A. Davis of DesPlaines, newsletter editor of the Traffic Laws and Courts Section Council.
Sept. 28 - Bankruptcy Law, with Sumner A. Bourne of Rafool & Bourne, Peoria, associate newsletter editor of the Commercial, Banking and Bankruptcy Law Section Council, and Eugene Crane of Dannen, Crane, Heyman & Simon, Chicago.
There will be no programs on Oct. 5 or Oct. 12.
Oct. 19 - Personal Injury, with Tort Law Section Council member Karen McNulty Enright of Winters, Enright, Salzetta & O'Brien, Chicago, and John L. Nisivaco of Nisivaco Law Offices, Chicago, vice chair and newsletter editor of the Tort Law Section Council.
Oct. 26 - Estate Planning and Administration, with John "Dirk" Gutzke of Rolewick & Gutzke, Wheaton; Richard P. Miller of Chicago, member of the Trusts and Estates Section Council, and Carol A. Nolan of Wheaton.
Nov. 2 - Workers' Compensation and Social Security Disability, with David A. Bryant of Daley, DeBofsky & Bryant, Chicago, and David B. Menchetti of Cullen, Haskins, Nicholson & Menchetti, Chicago, member of the Workers' Compensation Law Section Council.
Nov. 9 - Managing a Law Office, with Christopher C. Kendall of Chicago, member of the Committee on Legal Education, Admission and Competence.
Criminal law, sentencing are seminar issues
The ISBA Law Ed Series seminar, "Hot Topics in Sentencing and Criminal Law," will be presented Friday, Oct. 21, at the Hawthorn Suites in Bloomington, and Friday, Nov. 4, in the UBS Tower Conference Center, Chicago.
Sponsors are the Criminal Justice Section Council and the Committee on Corrections and Sentencing. Program coordinators are committee chair James R. "Chip" Coldren, president of the John Howard Association, Chicago, and Champaign County Public Defender Randall B. Rosenbaum, Urbana, a member of the section council.
Coldren and 8th Circuit Judge Mark A. Schuering, a committee member, will open the program at 9:30 a.m. with a welcome and overview. The schedule follows.
9:45 a.m. - Sentencing in Illinois: History, Organization, Citations to Sentencing Law, and Sentencing Worksheet, with Judge Schuering.
10:15 a.m. - Overview of Sentencing Research and Evidence-Based Practices, with Coldren and Schuering.
11 a.m. - Special Topics in Sentencing: Apprendi, Substance Abusers, Sex Offenders, and Mentally Ill Offenders.
Speakers are committee vice chair Kelly J. Bryson and Verlin R. Meinz of the Office of State Appellate Defender, Ottawa, and Donya L. Adkerson, director of Alternative Counseling Inc., Glen Carbon.
12:30 p.m. - Luncheon period.
1:30 p.m. - Special Topics in Criminal Justice: Current Trends in Search and Seizure, Crawford v. Washington, and Hearsay Exceptions.
Speakers are Donald L. Hays, senior staff counsel for the State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor, Springfield, in the Bloomington program, and ISBA Assembly member Stephen M. Komie of Chicago, in Chicago.
3:15 p.m. - Special Topics in Criminal Justice: Record Expungement, with Jennifer S. Walsh of the Office of State Appellate Defender, Springfield.
Gary Johnson leaves practice to govern Historical Society
By Stephen Anderson
Gary T. Johnson of Jones Day, Chicago, has been appointed president of the venerable Chicago Historical Society, a 149-year-old community asset that is faced with a substantial operating deficit and declining attendance.
Effective Aug. 22, Johnson will leave the law practice to set his business acumen and fund-raising talent to the task of balancing the CHS budget and completing a nine-month, $22 million renovation project in time for the 150th anniversary of the city's first museum.
A past president of the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago and former co-chair of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Johnson received an ISBA Presidential Commendation for his work during 2000 in drafting an ethics policy statement of the American Bar Association.
Along with ISBA past presidents Cheryl I. Niro and Richard L. Thies, he helped form a coalition of state bar members of the ABA House of Delegates to crush a proposal to permit lawyers and non-lawyers to share fees in multidisciplinary practices (ISBA Bar News, August 2000).
A subsequent resolution, sponsored by the state bar associations and adopted by a three-to-one margin, did away with inclusion in the model rules of permission for law firms to merge practices with entities of other professions.
Johnson had emphasized that rule proposals would have to be studied carefully to determine whether they would "further the public interest without sacrificing or compromising lawyer independence and the legal profession's tradition of loyalty to clients."
A member of the ISBA Special Committee on Ancillary Services, he serves on ABA sections on business law, international law and dispute resolution, and the American Law Institute Project on Principles of the Law of Non-profit Organizations.
He chaired the Committee on Judicial Conduct and Ethics of the Special Illinois Supreme Court Commission on the Administration of Justice and was president of the Chicago Council of Lawyers.
A member of Phi Beta Kappa and former Rhodes Scholar, Johnson graduated in 1977 from Harvard Law School and is a solicitor and member of the Law Society of England and Wales. He has a master's degree in modern history from Oxford University.
On the society agenda
The Chicago Historical Society will conduct a guided historic Springfield tour on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 21-22, that includes the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, the State Capitol and Dana House.
Call (312) 642-4600 for membership information and reservations to this and other upcoming programs, such as: