given and graciously accepted. When it gets into Black's Law Dictionary, appropriately between Restitution and Restrain, look for this definition:
Restorative justice: When victims, wrongdoers and communities actively, voluntarily and equally work together to support and empower victims to retake control of their lives and seek closure; to install in wrongdoers the real human impact of their behavior, and to promote restitution to victims and communities.
Emphasis is on the troika approach an imperative triangulation that attempts to balance the best interests of victim, offender and community. Each is entitled to the respect to speak without interruption in the restorative process.
The offender must take responsibility for misconduct and must understand his or her accountability to the community. The offender might not apologize, and the victim might not forgive, but all the participants benefit immeasurably if both make those gestures.
As Cheryl Niro pointed out on her President's Page in the November Bar Journal, "The focus is never on whether the wrongdoer is a good or a bad person, but on whether the conduct is or is not acceptable."
One of the goals is to restore the offender as a community shareholder. Simply punishing a lawbreaker does not repair the harm or salve the torment.
Judge Steve Pacey says it's working in Ford County, and he'll provide details during the ISBA-IJA program Friday morning, Dec. 10, at the Sheraton Chicago. A mock restorative justice proceeding will be conducted, and Martha Mills will suggest ways and means for getting it started in your county.
No, it's not a perfect solution to an antisocial problem, but it does tend to seem a more nearly perfect remediation than zero tolerance.
LAP has Spirits tickets for Dec. 17 benefit show
The Lawyers' Assistance Program has obtained tickets for the Friday, Dec. 17, performance of the 76th annual CBA Christmas Spirits show and has planned a benefit dinner-theater event.
Dinner will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Hilton Hotel, with the curtain for "Virtual Legality" opening at 8 p.m. in the Merle Reskin Theatre across the street on Balbo Drive.
The package price of $150 includes a tax-deductible portion of $65. For tickets, call executive director Michael Reynolds at (312) 922-7332.
Holiday activities support benevolence
The annual holiday benefit reception and fashion show of the Women's Bar Association of Illinois Foundation will begin at 5 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 2, at the Union League Club of Chicago.
A scholarship fund raiser for women law students, the event will focus on endowment of an Esther R. Rothstein Scholarship in memory of the past president who started the foundation program 30 years ago.
The showing of fashions from St. John Knits and Hana K on Oak Street will start at 5:45 p.m. A silent auction of airline tickets, hotel, restaurant, beauty and sports opportunities will be conducted.
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The Coordinated Advice and Referral Program for Legal Services (CARPLS) will hold its annual meeting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 2, at the Vedanta Gallery, 110 N. Peoria, Chicago. Call (312) 738-9494, ext. 432.
The six-year celebration will include a speech by State Sen. Lisa Madigan and award presentation to ISBA past president Todd A. Smith, CBA past president Patricia Bobb, Thomas Comstock II and Evan Voboril.
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Members of the Winnebago County Bar Association will ring bells for the Salvation Army from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 3, at Rockford locations. Call (815) 964-4992 to volunteer.
The North Suburban Bar Association is collecting new, unwrapped children's gifts for the annual Marine Corps Toys for Tots program. They may be dropped off through Dec. 14 at the 2nd Municipal District Courthouse in Skokie or the office of Kenneth Dobbs, 47 W. Polk St., Chicago.
The CBA Young Lawyers Section will provide volunteers at a party for 1,500 children who are wards of the state. Gifts, games and crafts will highlight the event from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 11, at Cook County Juvenile Court. Call Tracy Bradford, (312) 377-5017.
DuPage Bar to discuss parental rights hearings
A children's advocacy seminar, "The Juvenile Court Act: Termination of Parental Rights," will be conducted from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 8, by the DuPage County Bar Association. Call (630) 653-7779 for registration information.
Judge Elizabeth Walter Sexton, a member of the ISBA Child Law Section Council and past chair of the Civil Practice and Procedure Section Council, will be the seminar moderator.
Discussion topics will include permanency hearings, goals and legal screenings; unfitness grounds, burdens of proof and evidentiary issues; and best interest and parents defense issues.
Part three of "Anatomy of a Personal Injury-Med Mal Case," a DCBA seminar for new lawyers, paralegals and legal secretaries, will take place Friday, Dec. 10.
Cook County Bar
An intellectual property seminar, "Protecting Your Clients' Most Valuable Assets," will be presented by the Cook County Bar Association from 3 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 8, in the ISBA Chicago Regional Office. To register, call Shirley Thomas, (312) 630-1157.
Scheduled speakers John S. Kendall and Tyrone Davis will review commonly overlooked assets that are protectable under patent, trademark and copyright law in interstate and Internet commerce.
Capital Funding
Members of Capital Funding Corp. are invited to attend one of two free mortgage origination training seminars Wednesday, Dec. 8, in the Oakbrook Terrace office of Attorneys' Title Guaranty Fund. Call Lori Gallagher, (312) 372-2744 to register.
Dion Alimorong, vice president of CFC will conduct the programs from 9 to 11:30 a.m. and from 1 to 3:30 p.m., providing an overview of attorney mortgage origination from inception through closing.
Illinois Trial Lawyers
The Illinois Trial Lawyers Association Education Fund will conduct a medical negligence seminar Saturday, Dec. 11, in the Double Tree Guest Suites Hotel, Chicago. Call (800) 252-8501 to register.
ITLA President Michael J. Reagan of Belleville will open the program at 8:45 a.m. Terrence J. Lavin of Chicago, a member of the ISBA Board of Governors, will speak at 9:25 a.m. on "Proximate Cause in Obstetrical Cases: Can the Lost Chance Doctrine Help Your Case?"
ISBA board member Robert J. Napleton of Chicago will discuss "HMO Liability: What Now, Following Petrovich?" at 1:25 p.m. Highland Park Assembly member Robert S. Baizer will review "Damages in Obstetrical Cases" at 11:30 a.m.
Assembly member Joseph J. Miroballi of Chicago will conclude the program at 2:35 p.m. with "Emergency Room Cases Including Obstetrical Emergencies."
Two Chicago members of the ISBA Tort Law Section Council will speak: Bruce R. Pfaff at 10:40 a.m. on "Life Expectancy in Obstetrical Cases," and Monica E. McFadden at 11:05 a.m. on "Demonstrative Evidence in Obstetrical Negligence Cases."
Keith A. Hebeisen of Chicago, secretary of the Illinois Bar Journal Editorial Board, will discuss "Medical Negligence: Identifying the Viable Case" at 1:50 p.m.
Decalogue Society
Debra L. Quentel will review "Art Law for the General Practitioner" during a Decalogue Society educational seminar at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 8. Call (312) 263-6493 for a complete schedule of weekly programs.
In the last seminar of the year, Rabbi Michael Remson will present "Halakah: The Reconstructionist Approach" on Dec. 15. The series will resume Jan. 5.
Employment Lawyers
The Illinois affiliate of the National Employment Lawyers Association will present a year-in-review program from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 14, on the eighth floor of the DePaul Center, 1 E. Jackson., Chicago.
Scheduled speakers are Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer of U.S. District Court, Prof. Christine Godsil Cooper of the Loyola University School of Law, and Paul W. Mollica of Meites, Frackman, Mulder & Burger.
The program will be co-sponsored by the Chicago Bar Association Civil Rights Committee. Call (217) 522-4411 for information.
Illinois attorney authors provide books for review
Three attorneys have provided copies of books that were published recently under their authorship. ISBA members who would consider reviewing them for publication may call Stephen Anderson at (312) 726-8775.
The titles are "Queen of Battle" by John W. Cooley, "Kerner: The Conflict of Intangible Rights" by Gene Schlickman with Bill Barnhart, and "Tao Te Chang for the West" by Richard Degen.
"Queen of Battle" is the first novel for Cooley, a Chicago attorney and former U.S. magistrate judge. It is a modern interpretation of the story of Pallas Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and war.
The lead character is Kate McKeane, who like Cooley is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a war veteran. She was alienated from her sister, a mentally disable adult, but was reunited when she returned from battle physically disabled by wounds.
McKeane's drive fuels her ambition to penetrate the Army's glass ceiling and provide a place in history for women alongside such military leaders as MacArthur and Eisenhower. "This diamond cuts glass," Cooley says.
A decorated Army captain who was a battery commander in Vietnam, he has actively encouraged and recruited women to enter West Point since they became eligible in the 1970s.
Cooley's previous works have been texts on mediation and arbitration for the National Institute for Trail Advocacy (NITA). A resident of Evanston, he is a mediator and arbitrator of complex commercial disputes.
"Queen of Battle" by John W. Cooley; Xlibris Corp. 1999, (609) 278-0075; Library of Commerce No. 98-89880, ISBN No. 0-7388-0313-8 (hardcover), No. 0-7388-0314-6 (softcover).
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Gene Schlickman, an ISBA member and Illinois legislator for 16 years, will discuss "Kerner: The Conflict of Intangible Rights" during a Monday morning forum of the City Club of Chicago this month.
He will appear at 8 a.m. Dec. 6 in the Chicago Athletic Association with his co-author, Chicago Tribune writer Bill Barnhart. Call (312) 759-8339 for reservations.
"Kerner was an attorney from beginning to end," Schlickman said, a U.S. attorney, Cook County judge, Illinois governor, judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals and chair of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders.
"His law career ended when he was convicted for a crime the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, after his death, was a fabrication without a legislative basis," Schlickman added.
According to the book jacket summary, "This first biography of Otto Kerner traces the career of a major figure in Illinois politics and examines his precipitous descent from public hero to convicted felon."
"Kerner: The Conflict of Intangible Rights" by Gene Schlickman and Bill Barnhart; University of Illinois Press 1999; ISBN No. 0252-02504-0 (hardcover).
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In "Tao Te Ching for the West," Mascoutah attorney Richard Degen offers in a "new rendition of the revered classic generally attributed to Lao Tzu . . . a clear, contemporary application of Taoist wisdom to the problems created by modern Western living."
A student of Taoism for almost three decades, Degen wrote his version over a seven-month period while living on his farm in southwestern Illinois. He is a 1963 graduate of the St. Louis University Law School.
In the introduction, Degen says his book "might best be viewed as an overhaul manual for troubled minds," and he offers brief descriptions of six such minds. Among them are those "that cannot understand why aggressive, take-no-prisoners behavior has not yielded better results."
Giving an ancient Chinese discipline "a twist of the Western mind," he says "this is the Taoist manual I wish I could have found when I first encountered this wisdom tradition many years ago."
"Tao Te Ching for the West" by Richard Degen; Hohm Press, Prescott, Ariz. 1999; (800) 381-2700; ISBN No. 0-934252-92-0 (paperback).
Advocates Society
The annual Christmas meeting of the Advocates Society will take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 17, at the Copernicus Foundation, Chicago. Call President Peter C. Wachowski, (847) 823-9030.
Bohemian Lawyers
Children and grandchildren of members of the Bohemian Lawyers Association of Chicago are invited to a St. Nicholas Christmas party Sunday, Dec. 12, in the Crystal Room at the Klas Restaurant in Cicero.
A 2 p.m. reception and 3 p.m. buffet luncheon will precede a visit from "Svaty Mikulas," a puppet show and gift presentations. Register with G. Robert Vlach, (708) 795-4400, by Dec. 6.
Chicago Legal Secretaries
The Chicago Legal Secretaries Association will meet at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 15, for holiday festivities in the ISBA Chicago Regional Office. Call Norma Magine, (312) 427-4540.