Of the 60,000 registered attorneys who have law practices in this state (out of more than 80,000 on the master roll), if 66 percent perform "some level of free pro bono," that amounts to 40,000 lawyers. And if each one averages 39 hours of pro bono annually, that's one and a half million non-billable hours!
Coincidentally, this is close to the total number of civil legal problems that our low- and no-income residents encounter each year (1.3 million in 2003). In only one out of six such matters is any kind of legal assistance available.
Carrying the extrapolation even further, each of the projected 40,000 Illinois lawyers who handle one-sixth of even 1.3 million indigent legal matters in a year devotes about six hours per case. That's a plausible result.
But it only illustrates the tip-of-the-iceberg phenomenon that each participating lawyer would have to devote 234 hours each year, not just 39, to meet the entire unfulfilled need.
Or that if all 60,000 practicing attorneys carried an equivalent share of the load, each would have to give up 150 hours a year to pro bono - roughly the equivalent of that three-week vacation.
So the Supreme Court's impending pro bono reporting rule, if implemented, could produce two startlingly antithetical revelations:
1. Illinois attorneys provide a million and a half hours each year of pro bono assistance to those who need it but can't afford it. C'est merveilleux!
2. Those who need legal assistance, but can't afford it, require nine million hours of pro bono annually. Sacre bleu!!
If the problem is that there are too many poor people and not enough lawyers a seemingly insuperable quandary will the inexorable solution be that most simple legal matters may have to be handled, with or without sanction, by non-lawyers?
The overwhelming menaces to the future of the legal profession - redundancy and irrelevance - are not likely to wither as long as poverty is the sprawling taproot of evils that burden both civil and criminal justice.
Bob Downs says he believes that lawyers share "a vision that the world could be a better place through their efforts or at least try to leave it a little bit better off than they found it."
You could start by accurately answering the pro bono questions, if and when they become part of the annual registration process. At least then we'll know more about what we don't know now, and whether that knowledge will help or hurt us.
Family Law Section chair lists goals
The work of the ISBA's 37 section councils and 40-plus committees and other entities is the backbone of the most successful voluntary bar association in the country. One of the more productive is the Family Law Section Council. Here are excerpts from a report made by the chair to the Board of Governors on July 22.
By David N. Schaffer, chair
Family Law Section Council
The Family Law Section Council has a fantastic mix of old and new members, experience-wise, and we have undertaken some notable firsts.
Michael W. Raridon, the Child Law Section Council's liaison to ours, has been granted full reimbursement status for attending our meetings. Both section councils should benefit greatly from this.
With the blessing of President Bob Downs, I have extended an invitation to William S. Wigoda, chair of the CBA Family Law Committee, to become a member of the section council or to appoint someone his committee.
I have appointed liaisons to the following bar associations: Chicago and Will, DuPage, McHenry, Winnebago, St. Clair, Peoria and Sangamon Counties. My goal is a greater sensitivity to the needs of the collar and downstate family law bar. We will hear what they are doing, and they will hear what we are doing.
I have begun logistical coordination of the Council with the two family law related task forces on Income Shares and Reproductive Technology
Here are some of goals for the current year.
1. Get the parental allocation statute passed. Last month, I was invited to lunch with Bill Wigoda to discuss common interests of his CBA committee. We left the meeting charged with excitement about a new alliance. The topics discussed included a joint seminar and passage of the parental allocation bill.
2. Put out a newsletter every month. I am privileged to serve on the Illinois Bar Journal Editorial Board, so I know firsthand the value and importance of newsletters to section members. With the guidance of our editor, Ross S. Levey, everyone on the council is expected to contribute.
3. Examinee the quagmire of rules, laws and regulations that fall in the genre of HIPAA and the Illinois Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Confidentiality Act. There needs to be some mechanism for mandatory review of mental health records in a contested custody setting, so I am establishing a new subcommittee to examine this issue.
4. Monitor and demystify federal legislation that affects family law. All too often, we hear that this or that rule has been shoved down the states' throats with a federal mandate, such as percentage guidelines for child support. Perhaps we can actually have some say or provide some guidance to those federal jurists who are attempting to craft such laws.
To assist the subcommittee I have formed, the section council is fortunate to have, as a member, John C. Allen from the Illinois Department of Public Aid, a disproportionate recipient of federal mandates.
5. Continue to have stellar CLE programs, including another out-of-state program in the spring. About five years ago, section council member Roza Gossage suggested we do a seminar in Las Vegas, and all but a few laughed. Now those same people are booking flights and rooms to attend. Roza is co-chair of our CLE subcommittee.
Permit me a moment to wax nostalgic. As chair of the Family Law Section Council, I feel that I am rounding the bend to complete a circle started in 1996, when I was blessed to be appointed to the section council by the late and beloved Ralph Gabric.
Bob Downs was council chair that year, and Mary McClain Grant was staff liaison. Nine years later, I am chair of the section council and Bob is ISBA president! And Mary is back as our staff liaison.
Bar work local, state, national or international has always been one of my favorite professional activities. There is nothing like being in a room full of people who share a passion. I always leave learning something new.
The sum is definitely greater than the parts - an intellectual symbiosis, if you will. The work family lawyers do makes ripples in society that last well past the entry of a judgment. We affect families and lives for years to come.
My main goal as chair is to perpetuate the energy that comes from committee work, and to channel it for the betterment of the profession, and ultimately society, through sharing and exchange of as many different viewpoints, ideas and experiences as possible.
Chicago attorney Robert L. Gamrath III, a partner in Quarles & Brady, has been named one of "40 Illinois Attorneys Under 40 to Watch" by Law Bulletin Publishing Co.
A member of the ISBA Assembly and past chair of the Young Lawyers Division Council, he is the subject of an article in the commemorative publication that has been distributed with the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin and Chicago Lawyer.
As YLD chair and a member for several years, Gamrath has spearheaded development of countless charitable events, educational programs and outreach initiatives throughout the state.
Among them is the ongoing effort of the YLD to raise funds for the Illinois Bar Foundation Children's Assistance Fund to equip and furnish supervised courthouse waiting rooms for children of witnesses and parties in legal matters.
The division held a benefit Inaugural Golf Classic on July 26 to raise money for the Children's Assistance Fund. The YLD holiday party Friday, Dec. 2, at Joe's Sports Bar in Chicago also will benefit the fund.
Another of Gamrath's pet projects is getting a group of young lawyers together to spend a morning at the Greater Chicago Food Depository sorting and packaging donated products for distribution to needy families.
Rob Gamrath is married to Celia Guzaldo Gamrath, a longtime member of the YLD Council who was elected to the ISBA Board of Governors last spring. A partner in Schiller, DuCanto & Fleck, she was honored previously by Law Bulletin as an Attorney Under 40 to Watch.
Equal Justice Foundation seeks comment on criteria
Legal assistance providers that hope to receive Illinois Equal Justice Foundation grants in the next year, and other interested professionals, may review and comment on guidelines that will be posted on two Web sites.
From Aug. 22 through Sept. 16, the IEJF grant criteria draft will be accessible at www.illinoislegalaid.org and www.equaljusticeillinois.org/ foundation. The deadline for grant applications is Oct. 14, and awards will be made in January.
Written comments should be mailed to IEJF executive director Leslie Corbett at Suite 2018, 111 N. Wabash, Chicago 60604, or sent by e-mail to lcorbett@iejf.org.
The foundation's state appropriation for legal aid programs that serve low-income individuals and families was increased from $472,900 this year to $2 million next year and will be administered by the Attorney General's Office (ISBA Bar News, July, page 8).
Benefits are planned
The annual Women's Bar Foundation scholarship luncheon will beheld Friday, Sept. 16, at the Chicago Hilton and Towers. Nina Totenberg of National Public Radio will be the keynote speaker.
Individual ticket prices range from $75 to $500, and tables are available. For reservations, send an e-mail to womensbarfoundation@yahoo.com.
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Former Illinois attorney general Jim Ryan will be roasted during a benefit reception for the DuPage County Bar Foundation on Friday, Sept. 23, at the Lisle/Naperville Hilton. Speakers include Judges John W. Darrah of U.S. District Court and Stephen J. Culliton of the 18th Circuit.
For reservations, at $100 per person, call (630) 653-7779 or register online at www.dcba.org/cle.htm.
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The Lawyers Committee for Better Housing will conduct its 25th anniversary reception and awards ceremony from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, at Jenner & Block, Chicago. For details, access www.lcbh.org.
Legal aid news briefs
The board of directors of Prairie State Legal Services will conduct its quarterly meeting at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10, at Starved Rock Lodge, Utica. The meeting will be open to the public. Call executive director Joseph A. Dailing at (815) 965-2134.
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Geneva attorney Susan W. Rogaliner is now president of the Kane County Bar Foundation. A foundation board member since its inception and chair of its annual gala, she is a past president of the Kane County Bar Association.
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Danielle Parisi is a new staff attorney at First Defense Legal Aid in Chicago. Call (773) 826-6550 for information.
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The offices of Illinois Legal Aid Online have moved to 17 N. State St., Chicago 60602. For information, call (312) 977-9047 or e-mail info@illinoislegalaid.org.
ACLU to honor exemplars at Bill of Rights dinner
Diane C. Geraghty of the Loyola University School of Law, a Laureate of the ISBA Academy of Illinois Lawyers, will receive the Edwin A. Rothschild Award from the Roger Baldwin Foundation of ACLU during a Bill of Rights Celebration dinner Saturday, Oct. 1, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Chicago.
Hiram Paley and J. D. Wheeler will receive Roger Baldwin Awards, and Geoffrey R. Stone of the University of Chicago Law School, the Harry Kalven Freedom of Expression Award.
John R. Hammell Awards will be presented to Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, Sen. Carol Ronen and Rep. Larry McKeon. Jerry Newton will receive the Annetta Dieckmann Award. For more information, call Marcia Liss, (312) 201-9740, ext. 303.
Jill Berkeley honored
Chicago attorney Jill B. Berkeley, a partner in Schiff Hardin and head of its Insurance Coverage Group, received the Andrew C. Hecker Memorial Award on Aug. 6 from the American Bar Association Section of Tort Trial and Insurance Practice.
Chair and member of several TIPS committees, Berkeley is a past chair of the ISBA Insurance Law Section Council and former chancellor of the Board of Regents of the ISBA Academy of Illinois Lawyers.
Philip H. Corboy of Corboy & Demetrio, Chicago, a Laureate of the ISBA Academy, received a Pursuit of Justice Award on Aug. 5 at a reception for the TIPS Task Force on Plaintiffs Involvement.
More award recipients
Retired Supreme Court justice Seymour Simon of DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary received the Altgeld Award for Free Speech on July 30 during the Bughouse Square Debates at the Newberry Library in Chicago.
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Olga Rojas of Minsky, McCormick & Hallagan, Chicago, has received the Joseph Minsky Beacon of Light Award from the Chicago chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association for her work on advocacy campaigns for better immigration legislation.
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The American Academy of Pediatricians has honored five Chicago attorneys with Child Health Advocate Awards for participation in a class action on behalf of Illinois children who were denied Medicaid benefits.
They are Frederick B. Cohen and David J. Chizewer of Goldberg, Kohn, Bell, Black, Rosenbloom & Moritz; John M. Bouman of the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, and Stephanie F. Altman and Thomas D. Yates of Health and Disability Advocates.
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Former Chicago attorney Jeffrey Kindler, vice chair and general counsel for Pfizer Inc., recently received an Exemplar Award from the National Legal Aid and Defender Association.
The former general counsel of the McDonald's Corp. joined Pfizer in January 2002 and was the first to establish a corporate law office with a full-time pro bono attorney.