Honoraria
WBAI honors president who served in 1956
Thelma Brook Simon will be honored next month on the 50th anniversary of her term as president in 1956-57 of the Women's Bar Association of Illinois.
Committees appointed during her tenure achieved the re-election of Judge B. Fain Tucker, the first woman to sit in the Criminal Division, and passage of a Paternity Act that replaced the archaic Bastardy Act. The WBAI also supported the election of Jean Hurley to the state legislature.
A 1940 graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, Simon was a law clerk in the Appellate Court and U.S. District Court, and she served on the Wilmette Board of Trustees from 1961 to 1969.
She will receive the Justice Mary Ann G. McMorrow Lifetime Dedication Award during a WBAI reception and program from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 4, in the Mid-Day Club, Chicago. WBAI Service Awards will be presented to Jeanne Reynolds, Kim Kayiwa and Deane Brown.
The event includes a Balancing Act Committee panel discussion, Achieving the Pinnacle of Success with a Family.
Speakers are Judge Virginia Kendall of U.S. District Court for the Northern District; Christina Tchen of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, and Vicki Kunkel of Spotlight Strategists.
For reservations, call the WBAI office at (312) 341-8530.
Coco to receive Cerise tribute
Cook County Associate Judge Gloria G. Coco will receive the Helen M. Cerise Outstanding Leadership Award during the Thursday, April 20, meeting of the Justinian Society at Giannotti's Restaurant in Schiller Park.
The award is named in honor of the late judge Cerise, who in 1921 became the first woman of Italian heritage to be admitted to the Illinois bar. She served as president of the Women's Bar Association and West Suburban Bar Association.
Coco, who was the first woman president of the Justinian Society, also received a Catherine M. McAuley Leadership Award on April 1 at the 14th annual dinner of Mother McAuley High School alumni.
The Justinian Society presented an Anthony Scariano Memorial Humanitarian Award to Cook County Circuit Clerk Dorothy Brown during its March 16 meeting in Chicago.
Chicago matrimonial attorney Frances H. Krasnow, a partner in Holland & Knight, received a Women of Achievement Award on March 15 during the 13th annual dinner of the Anti-Defamation League.
An ADL board member, Krasnow is a commissioner of the Highland Park Business and Economic Development Com-mission, former chair of the District 112 Education Foundation and a director of the Lake Forest Bank and Trust Co. She also serves on the Appleseed Foundation board.
Chicago attorney and Public Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey will receive a Public Humanities Award on Thursday, April 27, during an Illinois Humanities Council benefit luncheon at the University Club.
Philip H. Corboy of Corboy & Demetrio, Chicago, will be honored Thursday, April 20, by the Loyola University School of Law during a 5:30 p.m. reception at Winston & Strawn. Proceeds will benefit the school's trial advocacy program.
Corboy, a Laureate of the ISBA Academy of Illinois Lawyers, has contributed substantially to legal education at Loyola, including the courtroom that bears his name.
Cook County Judge Thomas Chiola received a Judicial Leadership Award on April 11 during a reception held by the Gay and Lesbian Legal Alliance at The John Marshall Law School. Other gay and lesbian judges were recognized.
Co-sponsors included the ISBA Com-mittee on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, the Chicago Bar Association Com-mittee on the Legal Rights of Lesbians and Gay Men, and the Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of Chicago.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is one of five women who were honored March 30 in recognition of Women's History Month during a ceremony conducted by Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown in the Richard J. Daley Center.
Also honored were 1st District Appellate Justice Shelvin L. Hall, Cook County Judge Patricia Mendoza, DePaul University Law Prof. Sumi Cho and Chicago Police Sgt. Kathleen Argentino.
Terence F. MacCarthy, executive director of the Federal Defender Program and a Laureate of the ISBA Academy of Illinois Lawyers, received a First Defender Award from First Defense Legal Aid on March 29 during a Chicago reception.
Robert L. Graham of Jenner & Block received a Dedication to Justice Award from the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice during its annual dinner March 29. Stephen F. Gates, senior vice president and general counsel of ConocoPhillips Co. received an Unsung Hero Award.
John C. Kocoras, a managing director and regional counsel of Kroll, a risk consulting firm, received two awards March 20 for his work while a federal prosecutor in a 2005 Medicare fraud case.
Kocoras received an Award of Ex--cellence from the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, and an Inspector General's Integrity Award from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Assistant U.S. attorney Jeff Cramer and others involved in the case also were honored during a Chicago ceremony conducted by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and HHS Inspector General Daniel R. Levinson.
Stephen R. Winters, associate general counsel of BP America, accepted the company legal group's Employer of Choice Award on from the Minority Corporate Counsel Association at its Midwest Region diversity dinner on March 15 in Chicago.
The Peoria County Bar Association pre-----sented its annual Distinguished Com-munity Service Award to Donald R. Jackson during its 98th Lincoln Memorial Banquet on Feb. 9.
Judge James Doyle of the 16th Circuit in Kane County was honored Feb. 26 by the Dundee Township Republican Central Committee during its annual Lincoln Day dinner.
Howard E. Kane, a partner in the Chicago office of DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, has received the firm's inaugural Howard E. Kane Award for exceptional service in the Real Estate Group.
Chair of the ICSC Law Conference three times, Kane chaired the Anglo-American Real Property Institute in 1997 and has counseled leaders of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers and the ABA Sections of Real Property and Probate and Trust.
Chicago attorney Ira F. Leibsker has been elected president of the National Association of Retail Collection Attorneys. A partner in Blatt, Hasenmiller, Leibsker & Moore, he is also vice president of the Illinois Creditors Bar Association.
Robert G. Markoff of Baker, Miller, Markoff & Krasny, Chicago was NARCA elected secretary, and Louis S. Freedman of Freedman, Anselmo, Lindberg & Rappe, Naperville, is parliamentarian. Fred N. Blitt of Blitt and Gaines, Chicago, also serves on the NARCA board.
ISBA Assembly member Lori G. Levin of Chicago has been re-elected chair of the Illinois Integrated Justice Information Systems Implementation Board. She is executive director of the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Agency.
Levin serves on the ISBA Criminal Justice Section Council, the Special Committee on Over-representation of Minorities in the Criminal Justice System, and the Committee on Continuing Legal Education.
Chicago attorney Steven L. Good has been named to the advisory board of The Citadel School of Business Administration in Charleston, S.C. He delivered two lectures last month at the school on leadership and ethics in business.
Good was honored recently as Realtor of the Year by the Chicago Association of Realtors. A past president of the organization, he is chair and CEO of Sheldon Good & Co. International.
Prof. Kathryn J. Kennedy of The John Marshall Law School Center for Tax Law and Employee Benefits was a delegate last month at the National Summit on Retirement Savings in Washington, D.C. She is newsletter co-editor for the ISBA Employee Benefits Section.
Richard L. Menson of McGuireWoods, Chicago, has been elected to a three-year term on the board of the Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America.
He has served on its Legal and Legislative Committee since 1992, and is a past chair of two ABA committees on employee benefits and executive compensation.
Donald R. McGarrah, a partner in Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard, Chicago, has been named to the Chicago Board of Prevent Child Abuse America.
ISBA member John Galvin of Fox Galvin, St. Louis, has been elected by invitation to sustaining membership in the Product Liability Advisory Council, a not-for-profit organization of defense attorneys.
Former assistant U.S. attorney Ricardo Meza, who served in Chicago and El Paso, is Midwest Region counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Foundation. He is a past president of the Hispanic Law Students Association at The John Marshall Law School.
Kay W. McCurdy of Lord, Bissell & Brook, Chicago, has been elected to the board of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., an international insurance brokerage and risk management services firm.
A partner in the law firm since 1983, she is a trustee of Bradley University and a member of its Finance and Property Committee and Academic Planning Committee.
Lake Bluff attorney Thomas A. Pasquesi has been elected to membership in The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel..
Assistant Cook County state's attorney Sandra Black has been named an associate member of the Jurisprudence Section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. She is a member of the ISBA Assembly and secretary of the Criminal Justice Section Council.