The institute will hold its 23rd annual Affirmative Action Briefing on Thursday and Friday, Oct. 27-28, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago. It will follow a program on Affirmative Action Basics on Wednesday, Oct. 26.
James M. Davis and Paul Walker-Bright have joined the Chicago office of Anderson, Kill & Olick as shareholders in insurance coverage dispute litigation. Davis will serve as president pf the firm's Illinois practice. Evan T. Knott also has joined the firm. All three were with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.
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Jason K. Woolery and Michael T. Harvath have joined Burroughs, Hepler, Broom, MacDonald, Hebrank & True, Edwardsville, as associates in toxic tort defense litigation.
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Robert V. Lewis and Eileen Strang have become members of the Trusts and Estates Department at Chapman and Cutler, Chicago. Both were with Schuyler, Roche & Zwirner, where Lewis was a shareholder.
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New associates at Freeborn & Peters, Chicago, are Melissa Benzon, Hillary Kranz and Jacob Koering in litigation; Thomas Fawkes and Joji Takada in bankruptcy, reorganization and creditors' rights; Raymond Pruchnicki in real estate, and Stephanie Towner in intellectual property. Max Gu has joined the firm as a China legal specialist.
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Hinshaw & Culbertson has added five associates in four of its Illinois offices. Joining the firm in Belleville are Robert D. Bass, formerly with the Law Offices of Joseph Younes and Engelberg & Hillison, in defense litigation, and A. Randall Knopf, from Seibel & Eckenrode, in professional liability litigation.
Others are: Chicago office - Eliott M. Hedin, from Brown, Hay & Stephens, in medical malpractice defense; Lisle office - Peter M. King, from with Ottosen, Trevarthen, Britz, Kelly & Cooper, in commercial litigation and labor and employment matters; Peoria office - Tamara A. Paul-Reeff of New York, in labor and employment and medical malpractice litigation.
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Stanley F. Wruble III and Gregory Kane have joined Krasnow Saunders Cornblath, Chicago. Wruble, formerly with McGuire Woods and Fisher & Phillips, focuses on labor and employment matters. Kane was in the corporate and tax departments at McDermott, Will & Emery.
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Assistant U.S. attorney John C. Kocoras has been named a managing director and regional counsel in the Chicago office of Kroll Inc., a New York-based risk consulting affiliate of Marsh & McLennan. He will handle a wide range of investigative cases in the business and legal communities.
A former litigation associate at Winston & Strawn, Kocoras was an investigative counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1990s.
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Maria L. Whiteman, an associate at Messer & Stilp, Chicago, has been named chair of the Debt and Collections Division. She also practices in complex commercial, environmental and real estate litigation.
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James P. Brown has joined the Social Security disability law firm of Jeffrey A. Rabin & Associates in DesPlaines after five years with the Coordinated Advice and Referral Program for Legal Services (CARPLS), where he was director of legal services.
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Schiff Hardin, Chicago, held a reception July 27 to welcome retired Cook County associate judge Patricia Brown Holmes as a partner. Also honored were Angela Whiteside-Smith and Nathalina A. Hudson of the firm, new officers of the Black Women Lawyers Association.
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Kevin Ross Johnson, formerly with the Chicago Legal Clinic, has joined the Law Office of Gary L. Schlesinger, Libertyville, in family law, adoptions, guardianships and juvenile proceedings.
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Felix Manuel Gonzalez has joined the commercial and residential real estate practice at Tristan Ports, Chicago. Formerly with an Oak Brook firm, he serves on the board of the Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois.
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G. Trent Marquis and Patricia Krewer Wilger have joined the Rock Island firm of VanDerGinst Law P.C. Marquis was a partner in Klockau, Marquis & Skorepa.
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Winston & Strawn has added five lateral partners in the corporate practice in its Chicago office. Wesley G. Nissen, lead partner in the Capital Markets Practice Group, is also general counsel of the Foundation for Managed Derivatives Research.
The other new partners are Milton K. Buckingham, Basil V. Godellas, Marla J. Kreindler, and Michael M. Philipp, former legal counsel for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
DLA Piper expands in Russia
DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, an international law firm with headquarters in Chicago, has just become the second largest practice in Russia. It now has 2,900 lawyers in 53 offices in 20 countries, including 1,400 in the United States.
Effective July 1, the firm acquired Ernst & Young's law practices in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The lateral transaction enhances the firm's Moscow and St. Petersburg offices and opens new locations in Tbilisi, Georgia, and Kyiv, Ukraine.
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John L. Nisivaco, formerly a partner in Lavin & Nisivaco, has opened the Nisivaco Law Offices in Suite 2900, 30 N. LaSalle St., Chicago 60602; telephone (312) 499-4545; nisivaco@nisolaw.com.
The practice includes representation of individuals and families in personal injury and wrongful death cases resulting from motor vehicle collisions, premises liability, medical malpractice, construction accidents, and railroad and aviation tragedies.
Vice chair of the ISBA Tort Law Section Council, Nisivaco also has served on the Young Lawyers Division Council, the Committee on Judicial Evaluations and the Illinois Lawyers' Political Action Committee (LAWPAC).
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Cindy M. Johnson and David A. Newby have formed the partnership of Johnson & Newby LLC in suite 820, 39 S. LaSalle St., Chicago 60603; telephone (312) 345-1306. Beth Anne Alcanter and Rebecca Shanaman are also in the firm.
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Chapman and Cutler, Chicago, has hired Nancy A. Villano as director of marketing. A past president of the Chicago chapter of the Legal Marketing Association, she has past experience in marketing with Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood, Ungaretti & Harris, and Hopkins & Sutter.
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The Law Offices of Steven A. Sigmond have been relocated to suite 2570, 150 N. Wacker Dr., Chicago 60606. The new telephone number is (312) 419-8188.
Henry Pitts, ISBA president, probed court bribery charges
Henry LaRue Pitts, a past president of the Illinois State Bar Association, was co-chair of a special commission that investigated misconduct by two Illinois Supreme Court justices. He died July 7 at age 94 in the Eastern New Mexico Medical Canter at Roswell from a ruptured aneurysm.
A former resident of McLean and Wheaton, Mr. Pitts graduated in 1939 from the University of Michigan Law School and joined the Chicago firm of Knapp, Allen & Cushing. He was a Navy officer during World War II in both the Mediterranean and Pacific Theaters.
Mr. Pitts eventually became senior partner in Hackbert, Rooks, Pitts, Fullagar & Poust, later Rooks, Pitts & Poust, and now Dykema Gossett Rooks Pitts.
ISBA president in 1969-70, his term was preceded by service on the commission that weighed allegations of bribery against Chief Justice Roy J. Solfisburg Jr. and Justice Ray I. Klingbiel. Both jurists subsequently resigned.
In 1981, Mr. Pitts represented the ISBA as lead counsel in a lawsuit against the City of Chicago for implementing a tax on legal, accounting and banking service fees. It was ruled unconstitutional a year later.
A past president of the Union League Club of Chicago, Mr. Pitts was a proponent of a contentious bylaws change in 1987 to admit women members. The ISBA had voted in 1983 to prohibit meetings in clubs that engaged in sexual or racial discrimination.
"He was at once courtly and approachable, a gentleman of impeccable manners and a regular guy," said Joseph L. Morris, president of the Lincoln Legal Foundation, of which Mr. Pitts was founding chair.
"There were few things that he could not abide," Morris added, "but one of them was bigotry. He played major roles, quietly but steadfastly, in many institutions, including the bar, opening them up to women and members of religious, racial and ethnic minorities."
Active in the ISBA since 1955, Mr. Pitts chaired the Probate and Trust Law Section Council from 1956 to 1958. He served on the Board of Governors from 1960 to 1971, and the Special Committee on the Quinlan & Tyson Case from 1964 to 1967. He chaired the Committee on Administration and the Special Committee on Fair Trial-Free Press.
Among his other ISBA committee memberships between 1965 and 1978 were Group Legal Services, Constitutional Amendment, Code of Professional Responsibility, Judicial Salary Commission, Judicial Inquiry Board, Uniform Circuit Court Rules and Professional Publicity.
Mr. Pitts was a past vice president of the Chicago Crime Commission, past president of the Adams Memorial Library Board in Wheaton, and former commander of the American Legion post.
Richard Allen, legal journalist
A Chicago attorney and journalist for several legal publications during the past 58 years, Richard B. Allen of Wilmette died July 23 at age 86 of liver disease in Mather Pavilion, Evanston.
Mr. Allen retired early this year as legal editor of the Defense Counsel Journal, a publication of the International Association of Defense Counsel. He also has ceased writing his "For the Record" column in the Chicago Bar Association magazine, CBA Record.
Admitted to the Illinois bar in 1947 after service as an Army lieutenant colonel, and before graduating from the University of Illinois College of Law, Mr. Allen was ISBA general counsel and investigator of disciplinary complaints from 1957 to 1963. He was honored in 1997 as a Senior Counsellor.
He joined the American Bar Association staff in 1963 as an assistant editor of the ABA Journal, and he was editor-in-chief from 1966 until 1986, when he retired. A year later, he was managing editor of the IADC publication.
Mr. Allen was a founder of the ABA Senior Lawyers Division, editor of its newsletter, and a member of the House of Delegates and the Commission on Law and Aging. He is a Life Patron Fellow of the ABA Foundation.
An editor's note in the June/July issue of the CBA Record thanked Mr. Allen for his devotion and invaluable insights from 1987 until health issues led to his recent retirement from writing.
E. William Bedrava, bar leader
Edward William "Bill" Bedrava, a past president of the West Suburban Bar Association, died July 19 at age 64 at Brighton Gardens, Burr Ridge. He was a 1966 graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law and class president.
A member of the ISBA Family Law Section Council from 1988 to 1991, Mr. Bedrava chaired the WSBA Matrimonial Committee twice. He was president in 1988 and a member of the Suburban Bar Liaison Committee with the chief judge of the Domestic Relations Division from 1988 to 1991.
He closed his law firm, Bedrava, Lyman & Epps, early this year and became of counsel to Longwell Associates.
A talented jazz trumpet player, Mr. Bedrava frequently performed in local jam sessions and organized occasional jazz concerts.
Daniel Aprati
Chicago attorney Daniel Joseph Aprati, a partner in Aprati & Zachary, died July 16 at age 44. He was a 1985 graduate of The John Marshall Law School. Survivors include a brother, Tinley Park attorney Joseph R. Aprati.
Robert Balch
Former Illinois attorney Robert William Balch, who once lived in Willowbrook, died July 6 at age 59 at the Tucson Heart Hospital in Arizona. A certified public accountant, he was a 1980 graduate of The John Marshall Law School.
Gabriel Barrett
Orland Park attorney Gabriel J. Barrett, formerly of Oak Lawn, died Aug. 1 at age 78. A veteran of Navy service, he was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1952.
Robert Becker
Belleville attorney Robert E. Becker Sr. died July 20 at age 64 in Memorial Hospital. a 1965 graduate of the St. Louis University Law School, he was a partner in Becker, Paulson & Hoerner.
Mr. Becker was a past president of the St. Clair County and East St. Louis Bar Associations. He served on the board of the Illinois Equal Justice Foundation, and was vice president of the Illinois Institute for Local Government Law and a member of the Illinois Municipal League Home Rule Committee.
City attorney for Fairview Heights and East St. Louis, Mr. Becker was legal counsel for Southwestern Illinois College, school districts in East St. Louis and Cahokia, Bi-State Airport, the Illinois County Insurance Trust and four labor unions.
He was an assistant Illinois attorney general with the Illinois Departments of Transportation and Conservation for more thn 20 years, and a former assistant St. Clair County state's attorney.
Lawrence Carroll
Retired Cook County associate judge Lawrence William Carroll Jr. died July 13 at age 82 of Parkinson's disease and prostate cancer. A 1952 graduate of the Loyola University School of Law, he had served with the Tuskegee Airmen in the Army Air Corps during World War II.
Mr. Carroll was office counsel at Chicago Title Insurance Co. before his 1984 appointment to the bench. He retired in 1999. He received the Richard Westbrook Award in 1979 from the Cook County Bar Association.
Arthur Ceckowski
Retired Gurnee attorney Arthur F. Ceckowski, formerly of Deerfield, died July 19 at age 69. A 1980 graduate of The John Marshall Law School, he was a former partner in Ceckowski & Venturi.
Survivors include a daughter-in-law, 19th Circuit Associate Judge Valerie Boettle Ceckowski.
K. Raymond Clark
Retired Chicago attorney Kenneth Raymond Clark died July 20 at age 96 in Northwestern Memorial Hospital of a ruptured aneurysm. Admitted to the Illinois bar in 1935, he received an LL.B. degree in 1933 from Columbia University and a master of laws degree in 1935 from the University of Michigan.