Thursday, March 9 - Co-mediation of Medical Negligence Cases; attorneys Geoffrey L. Gifford and Richard Donohue.
At this session, Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans will present a Service to the Community Award to Jerome Lerner from the Center for Analysis of Dispute Resolution Systems for outstanding contributions to the field of alternative dispute resolution.
Careers of former governors reviewed at Lincoln Museum
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation will present two programs this fall related to the careers of former Illinois governors James R. Thompson and Adlai E. Stevenson. Call (217) 558-8906 for complete details.
The first presentation, "Evenings to Remember: Governor Jim Thompson," will take place at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 3, in the Union Theater of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum.
Richard Norton Smith, director of the museum, will interview Thompson and reminisce about his tenure as the state's chief executive from 1977 to 1991. Admission is free, but seating is limited. Reservations will be available to members for a limited time.
"Adlai Stevenson of Illinois" will be presented all day Saturday, Nov. 5, as the first in a series of museum programs about the lives and times of state governors.
Newton Minow, Adlai E. Stevenson III and other friends and colleagues will join scholars in a review of the late governor's career and gubernatorial tenure from 1949 until he lost an election for U.S. president in 1952.
The program will include a panel discussion, "Springfield Remembers Adlai." Seating is limited. The $25 registration fee includes luncheon in the presidential library.
Also on the foundation schedule is the inaugural program in a new Jim Edgar Lecture Series at 8 p.m. Monday, Oct. 24, in the Sangamon Auditorium at the University of Illinois-Springfield.
Author and historian David McCullough of Massachusetts, recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes and two National Book Awards, will be the guest lecturer.
General admission tickets at $10 each will be available to library foundation members through Sept. 11, after which they will go on sale to the public at the auditorium box office.
Cat memorialized as blameless for sparking blackout
Remember the day in September 2003 when the Cook County Criminal Division Courthouse at 26th and California was closed because of a power failure? The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin reported that the incident was "blamed on a cat" that had come into contact with a source of electricity.
Always one to take the side of any of God's creatures who may be criticized unjustly, Appellate Justice Warren D. Wolfson pleaded on behalf of the feline in a poem that has been published in the summer 2005 edition of "Rattle: Poetry for the 21st Century."
Wolfson refers perceptively to criminal justice system participants who may not have had their rightful days in court as a result of the blackout. Here is his observance of that scenario.
MISPLACED BLAME
Let's not blame the cat.
He, if he was a he,
had a right to find
a warm, safe place
to rest until dark.
The cat did not know
the white power was dropped
at the detective's feet,
or placed for finding
on the car's cold bright leather seat.
The cat did not see
what the worried witness saw -
the hooded man running
after firing the bullet
that ended an unfulfilled life.
The cat did not commit
the stickups or burglaries
or aggravated sexual assaults
or any of the other ways
men and women find to offend.
The courts closed for a day.
No trial, no prison term,
no decision to kill a killer -
a restful 24 hours.
Then it all started again.
A series of deadlines has been set by the ISBA Committee on Continuing Legal Education for submitting proposals on future Law Ed Series seminars that may be conducted during 2006.
For seminars from January through March, the deadline is Wednesday, Oct. 12; from April through May, a Jan. 11 deadline, and for the Annual Meeting in June, a March 15 deadline. Program proposal forms have been distributed to chairs and staff liaisons of section councils and committees.
Seminar components on alternative dispute resolution and professional ethics are recommended, along with geographic, ethnic and gender diversity of speakers.
Attorney elected head of NCCUSL
Chicago attorney Howard J. Swibel has been elected to a two-year term as president of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL).
Swibel was appointed to the conference in 1976 by Illinois Senate President Cecil Partee, and has been reappointed successively by five subsequent Senate presidents. He has been a life member since 1996.
As a commissioner, Swibel has chaired the executive committee and the committee that revised the Uniform Limited Partnership Act. He has served for many years as a trustee of the Uniform Law Foundation.
During Swibel's tenure as president, the conference will continue working on revisions of the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act and the Uniform Management of Institutional Funds Act. Rules for discovery of electronic documents and guidelines for use of genetic information also will be considered.
Swibel, a partner in Arnstein & Lehr, is the first Illinois attorney to head the conference since former ISBA president Albert E. Jenner Jr. was president from 1969 to 1971.
Music has held more charm for Edward Benyas than law
By Stephen Anderson
A decade ago, Chicago attorney Edward Miles Benyas (right) traded the dissonance of legal work for the harmony of classical music. This year, he has been music director of the Southern Illinois Symphony Orchestra and conductor of its summer festival.
A graduate of the University of Michigan Law School who was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1987, Benyas practiced with Ross & Hardies and Hafter & Radke before relocating to Carbondale in 1995. He is voluntarily inactive in law but acclaimed as a musician.
Named 2005 Conductor of the Year by the Illinois Council of Orchestras, Benyas has graduate degrees in orchestral conducting and oboe performance from Northwestern University.
In addition to his leadership of the Southern Illinois Symphony, which was honored as Community Volunteer Orchestra of the Year in Illinois, he is music director designate of the Chicago Chamber Orchestra.
Benyas has been music director of the Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra, the North Shore Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Fantastique and the Southern Illinois Youth Orchestra. He has conducted the Illinois Chamber Symphony, Northwestern's Chamber Orchestra and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.
He made his European conducting debut in 1992 with the Chicago Chamber Orchestra in Leipzig, and has been a guest conductor in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, California, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Virginia, Maine and Washington.
A gifted performer on both oboe and English horn, Benyas has played with the Chicago Symphony, the Lyric Opera, Grant Park Symphony and Ravinia Festival Orchestra. His 2002 appearance with violinist Rachel Barton as conductor and oboe soloist with the Chicago Chamber Orchestra was televised.
Benyas serves on the boards of the Illinois Council of Orchestras, the Southern Illinois Symphony Patrons, and the WSIU Friends.
'Eyes on Abuse' is benefit for aiding children
"Eyes on Abuse," an exhibit of artwork by children who have been exposed to violence in their homes, will be the focus of a program conducted next month by three student organizations at The John Marshall Law School.
The Domestic Abuse Awareness Month benefit reception, which will include remarks by guest speakers and an auction of gift certificates, will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19, in room 3 East.
The Illinois Bar Foundation has provided funding for the initiative, which is sponsored by the JMLS Children's Law Society, the Black Law Students Association and the Hispanic Law Students Association.
Laura Presto, president of the Children's Law Society, said the purpose is to raise awareness of an epidemic of household violence that more than 3.3 million children experience each year. Children account for 27 percent of domestic homicides in the U.S.
The reception will raise funds for the Battered Women's Network of Chicago, which is providing artwork that is part of the therapy received by children who have been threatened by domestic violence.
For more information about the program, call Presto at (847) 340-9299 or send an e-mail to 5presto@stu.jmls.edu. There is no charge to attend, but contributions are requested.
Lawyers win one for cancer, doctors lose $700 verdict
The legal community scored a victory over the medical profession in a recent 4th Circuit matter. The verdict was $700.
The venue was not a courtroom but the athletic field of Effingham High School, where a benefit slow-pitch softball game was played on July 16. Proceeds went toward the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life program.
"We gave our younger and, presumably, healthier friends in the medical profession a pretty sound thrashing," said Scott R. Ealy, president of the Effingham County Bar Association. "Everyone had fun; nobody got hurt. We plan to make this an annual event."
The final score was 12 to 2, with the lawyers scoring runs in five innings. Effingham County State's Attorney Edward C. Deters hit a home run in the fifth inning. The winning pitcher was Jasper County State's Attorney William R. Hoffeditz of Newton.
The event continued to attract donations to the Cancer Society after the game. Effingham attorney David W. Sutterfield was credited as the bar association's top individual fund raiser.
Bar President Ealy, a 1993 graduate of the Mississippi College School of Law, is an "independent thinking and free-spirited attorney," according to his Web site, www.e ffingham.net/attorney.
He concentrates in traffic and juvenile law, and is a volunteer judge of the Effingham County Youth Justice Court. Public defender from 1995 to 1998, he won every jury case he tried. He also has been a prosecutor in the secretary of state's Administrative Hearings Division.
A dedicated runner who logs more than 50 miles a week, Ealy participated in marathons in Nashville and St. Louis earlier this year. He plans to compete in the Lewis & Clark Marathon in St. Charles, Mo., on Sept. 18, and the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 9.
Scott Ealy continues a tradition in Effingham, where his late father, F. Ronald Ealy practiced for many years and also was bar association president. The elder Ealy chaired the ISBA Family Law and Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section Councils and served on the Assembly.
He also was president of the Lawyers' Assistance Program, a member of the Illinois Bar Foundation board and a Charter Fellow of the foundation.
Marv Levy, former head coach of the Buffalo Bills professional football team and a member of the Football Hall of Fame, will speak during a Chicago Bar Association Sports Law Committee reception from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22, at The Standard Club.
He also will sign copies of his inspirational book, "Where Else Would You Rather Be?" that are purchased for $20 each during the event. Light appetizers and soft drinks will be provided.
Levy had more than 30 years of coaching experience before he was hired by the Buffalo franchise in 1986. Previous pro football coaching staffs he served on were the Philadelphia Eagles, Los Angeles Rams, Washington Redskins, Montreal Alouettes, Kansas City Chiefs and Chicago Blitz.
In 1987, his first full season with the Bills, he notched a 7-8 record. The next year, the Bills were 12-4 and division champions. The team went on to play in four Super Bowls, and Levy finished his tenure with a 112-70 regular season record. He was named NFL Coach of the Year in 1988 and AFC Coach of the Year in 1988, 1993, and 1995.
Levy, who has a master's degree in English history from Harvard, is widely sought as a speaker on building character, developing persistence and pursuing one's dream to reach the top.
For reservations to the reception, contact Tamra Drees at (312) 554-2057 or tdrees@chicagobar.org. The cost is $35 for CBA members and $50 for non-members.
Golf outings wind down
As Yogi Berra said, "It ain't over 'til it's over." And so it goes with the schedule of summer bar association golf outings. Two more are scheduled on Mondays this month. The listings follow:
SEPTEMBER 19 (Monday) ADDISON - Women's Bar Association 10th annual "No Sweat, No Threat" golf outing at Oak Meadows Golf Club; 12 noon lunch and 1 p.m. shotgun start, followed by reception and dinner; (312) 341-8530.
SEPTEMBER 26 (Monday) DARIEN - West Suburban Bar Association golf outing at Carriage Greens Country Club; 1 p.m. shotgun start, 6 p.m. reception and prime rib dinner; (708) 366-1122.
Malpractice mediation plan cited in Congress
A successful medical malpractice mediation program developed by two Chicago attorneys is on track for recognition in a section of federal legislation.
Retired Cook County judge Jerome Lerner and Max Douglas Brown, vice president and general counsel of the Rush University Medical Center, devised the program 10 years ago and have trained several plaintiff and defense lawyers as mediators.
Lerner, who chaired alternative dispute resolution and mandatory arbitration committees of the Illinois Judicial Conference and Illinois Supreme Court, left the bench in late 1994 and joined Brown at Rush as a mediation consultant.
The innovative process they conceived to manage and resolve malpractice claims was honored in 2002 by the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution with an Outstanding Practical Achievement Award.
The Rush program got somebody's attention in Washington, D.C., so Lerner and Brown were invited by the U.S. House of Representatives Medical Malpractice Crisis Task Force to explain it during a hearing last Sept. 29.
Subsequently, Congressman Brian Baird introduced H.R. 2657, a proposal for comprehensive reform of medical malpractice, on May 26. It has been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Committee on the Judiciary.