Biz advice collegium is April 5, CRO
An interactive collegium on issues arising in representation of small corporations will be conducted by the ISBA Business Advice and Financial Planning Section Council on Friday, April 5, in the ISBA Chicago Regional Office.
Beginning with a 12 noon luncheon, the continuing legal education program will continue from 1 to 5 p.m. with discussions focusing on a hypothetical fact pattern.
Among issues to be reviewed are anticipating conflicts of interest; analyzing competing stock and asset purchase proposals; significant differences between S and C corporations; dealing with minority stockholders, and means of protecting the attorney and client.
The registration fee of $30 includes materials and luncheon. Call Selina Thomas at (312) 726-8775 to register.
New officers are elected for LAWPAC
New officers of the Illinois Lawyers' Political Action Committee (LAWPAC) were elected recently. Michael D. Block of Joliet has succeeded Thomas A. Clancy of Chicago as chair.
Other officers are Joseph A. Power Jr. of Chicago, vice chair; Paula Hudson Holderman of Chicago, secretary, and Herb Franks of Marengo, treasurer. Additional trustees are Rex L. Brown of Decatur, Leslie A. Hairston of Chicago and J. William Roberts of Springfield.
Staff liaisons to LAWPAC are legislative affairs director James R. Covington III of Springfield, grassroots coordinator Mary McClain Grant of Kenilworth and legislative counsel Daniel L. Houlihan of Chicago.
Board to meet on March 13
The ISBA Board of Governors will meet at 8 a.m. Wednesday, March 13, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Springfield, following celebration on March 12 of the state bar association's 125th anniversary (see story on page 1).
The remaining meetings of the current Board of Governors will take place Friday, April 19, at the Park Hyatt Hotel, Chicago, and Friday, May 17, at the Ramada Inn, Fairview Heights.
The 126th ISBA Annual Meeting will be conducted June 20 to 23 at the Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva, with Loren S. Golden of Elgin succeeding Tim Eaton of Chicago as president.
Juries, babies are cable topics
Two new ISBA public service cable television programs are scheduled for broadcasts during March at 10 p.m. Tuesdays on Chicago Access Network channel 21.
They are: "Peer Juries" on March 5 and March 19, and "Abandoned Babies" on March 12 and March 26. Nancy Hablutzel of the Special Committee on Cable Television Programming is the moderator for both programs.
Participants include Cheryl Cesario, a member of the ISBA Juvenile Justice Section Council, and Cook County Judge Sophia H. Hall.
By Timothy Eaton, President
One hundred and twenty-five years ago, the Illinois State Bar Association was founded because a group of lawyers from around the state saw a need the creation of an Appellate Court to alleviate congestion in an overcrowded Supreme Court.
The founding lawyers realized that a statewide effort was needed to accomplish that need. Within six months, the first Illinois Appellate Court was formed!
The ISBA has had a proud history of making contributions to our legal profession, as well as to society as a whole. What was true in 1877, and remains true today, is that the ISBA is there to get things done, both for our members and for our communities and state where we live and practice.
A few years ago, a candidate for a judicial office was displeased with his ISBA evaluation and referred to us as nothing more than a "trade association, you know like the tobacco lobby." It was not meant as a compliment.
But if he had in mind that we are there for our members when it comes to providing an organized voice on issues of importance to the bar such as the sale of law practice, preventing the unauthorized practice of law and concerns over other professions being engaged in the practice of law in the absence of our profession's core values then I take his characterization of our activities as a compliment, and with no apology.
We also do more, and often not for our own benefit. The ISBA's focus on providing legal services to the poor, through seeking funding for legal services organizations and promoting pro bono work, is not so we can derive some economic benefit. It is to help others.
The ISBA's community outreach programs and access to justice initiatives are not to feather our own nests, but are to address needs of those who need our assistance.
In fact, some of our efforts have not always been popular with our members. In the late 1890s, it was the ISBA that pressed our Supreme Court to require a lawyer to have at least a high school education before being admitted to the bar, and it was the ISBA that helped create the first Board of Bar Examiners.
The ISBA in recent years has advocated mandatory continuing legal education and lawyer financial responsibility to protect consumers of our services. These proposals have not always received everyone's support, but it has been the right thing to do.
The ISBA also has created services to its members that lawyers need. We have provided counseling in law office management and technology, and we offer continuing legal education programs, first-rate legal publications, group health and life insurance policies, lawyer referral services and chartered trips for members and their families, to name a few. Our members have come to expect and enjoy these benefits.
Finally, for many that are involved, the ISBA has become a second family. It offers one an opportunity to meet lawyers from all over the state and to make friendships that last throughout our professional careers.
The ISBA has much to be proud of over the past 125 years and will have much to be proud of in the next 125 years. I am very fortunate to be able to be part of our celebration this year.
(Glimpses from pages of the March 2, 1992, issue of the ISBA Bar News.)
Member of the bench, bar, legislature, business, education and journalism were anticipating the Future of the Courts of Illinois Conference, called by Chief Justice Benjamin K. Miller for April 1-4 . . . Cook County Judge Sophia H. Hall, president of the Illinois Judges Association, had just begun her tenure as presiding judge of the Juvenile Division. . .
ACLU executive director Ira Glasser was keynote speaker for the Peoria County Bar Association's 84th Lincoln Memorial Banquet. . . Springfield attorney Thomas R. Lamont was elected president of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees.
The chain of lawyer members in the family of David Davis of Bloomington, U.S. Supreme Court justice from 1862 to 1877 and ISBA President in 1884 (ISBA Bar News, February 1, page 1), which ended briefly with the death in 1998 of David Davis V, has resumed.
Julia Elizabeth Davis, granddaughter of David Davis V, is a second-year student at the Southern Illinois University School of Law. Thanks to Bloomington attorney Frank Miles for providing this update of the family history.
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The February 1 article about other U.S. Supreme Court justices with Illinois connections did not mention that Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller (1888-1910) served as ISBA president in 1886 while he was a prominent Chicago attorney.
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The Edwin A. Rothschild Award that Chicago attorney Ronald S. Miller received in 1987 was presented by the Chicago chapter of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, not by the American Civil Liberties Union as stated in the letter nominating him as a Laureate of the Academy of Illinois Lawyers (ISBA Bar News, February 15, page 1).
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A few heads have rolled at our contract printshop for cropping James Morici out of the photo on page 10 of the February 15 issue. To make up for that, we have expanded coverage of the Justinian Society mentoring project.
Federal judges are faculty for downstate panels
The ISBA Special Committee on Federal Practice and a new association of lawyers and judges in the Central and Southern Districts are co-sponsors of two upcoming downstate Law Ed Series seminars, "Back to Basics: Federal Practice."
The presentations will take place from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Friday, March 8, at the Radisson Hotel, Bloomington, and on Friday, April 19, at the Holiday Inn, Collinsville.
The co-sponsoring Bar Association for the Central and Southern Federal Districts of Illinois was established by federal Judges Joe Billy McDade and Michael R. McCuskey and ISBA past president Richard L. Thies of Urbana.
The seminars will consist of the following roundtable discussions: 1 p.m., Motion Practice and Discovery Disputes; 1:45 p.m., Rule 16 Conferences; 2:30 p.m., Alternative Dispute Resolution and Settlement Conferences; 3:15 p.m., Trial Practice.
Bloomington faculty
Judge Michael McCuskey of the Central District, Urbana, is coordinator of the Bloomington seminar on March 8. He is vice chair of the Committee on Federal Practice and a member of the section councils on Bench and Bar, Civil Practice and procedure, and Criminal Justice.
The moderator in Bloomington will be Joseph G. Bisceglia of Jenner & Block, Chicago, chair of the Committee on Federal Practice and past chair and newsletter co-editor of the Civil Practice and procedure Section Council.
Speakers in Bloomington include Central District Judges Joe Billy McDade and Michael M. Mihm of Peoria, and Jeanne E. Scott of Springfield. Others are Magistrate Judges David G. Berntham of Urbana, Byron G. Cudmore of Springfield and John A. Gorman of Peoria.
Collinsville faculty
Judge J. Phil Gilbert of the Southern District, Benton, is program coordinator for the Collinsville seminar on April 19. He serves on the Committee on Federal Practice.
Speakers in Collinsville include Southern District Judges David R. Herndon and Michael J. Reagan of East St. Louis, and Senior Judges James L. Foreman of Benton and William D. Stiehl of East St. Louis. Others are Magistrate Judges Gerald B. Cohn and Clifford J. Proud of East St. Louis, and Philip M. Frazier of Benton.
The Lawyers' Assistance Program will conduct a free training session for intervenors and peer counselors from 12 noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 19, at the Illinois Bar Center, Springfield.
Judges and lawyers who would be willing to provide support to colleagues in need of help with dependencies and personal problems are welcome to attend. Confidences that result from interventions and peer counseling are privileged. Call Bridget McLaughlin, (312) 716-6607, for reservations.
Meet the 2nd District reviewing court justices
Illinois Supreme Court
Robert R. Thomas of Wheaton was elected to the Supreme Court in 2000 after four years on the Appellate Court, 2nd District, and eight years as a judge of the 18th Circuit Court. He was named Lawyer of the Year in 2001 by the DuPage County Bar Association (see photo below).
A 1981 graduate of the Loyola University School of Law, Justice Thomas studied law while playing professional football for the Chicago Bears and setting scoring records as a place kicker.
After seven years in private practice in DuPage and Kane Counties, he was elected to the circuit court in 1988. He presided over civil jury trials and served as acting chief judge from 1989 until 1994, when he was elected to the Appellate Court.
Elected an Academic All-American in 1974, while at the University of Notre Dame, Justice Thomas is a member of the Academic All-American Hall of Fame. He received an NCAA Silver Anniversary Award in 1999.
Illinois Appellate Court
This is part two of an ISBA Bar News series focussing on justices of the reviewing courts in Illinois - the Appellate Court and the Supreme Court. Justices of the 1st District were profiled in the February 15 issue, and other downstate districts will follow. The series is part of ISBA President Tim Eaton's year-long study of the court systems in the state, leading up to the Future of the Courts Conference in April at the Oakbrook Hills Conference Center.
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Susan F. Hutchinson of Woodstock, presiding judge of the 2nd District, was elected to the Appellate Court in 1994 after 13 years as a judge in the 19th Circuit. A 1977 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law, she was an assistant McHenry County state's attorney from 1977 to 1981.
An active member of the Illinois State Bar Association, Justice Hutchinson serves on the Committee on Women and the Law and the Special Committee on Appellate Practice. She is a member of the Youth Service Bureau of McHenry County and the Illinois Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges.
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John J. Bowman of Oakbrook Terrace was elected to the Appellate Court in 1990 after 14 years as a judge of the 18th Circuit. A 1959 graduate of The John Marshall Law School, he had served in the Army Counter Intelligence Corps.