Ralph J. Schumann of Elk Grove Village has started off his tenure as president of the Illinois Real Estate Lawyers Association with a plea to members for financial help in litigation to support the work of lawyers in real estate transactions.

IRELA is involved in a dispute with a broker who substitutes his judgment for that of the seller's lawyer in the choice of title insurance underwriters and agents for clients, and bars lawyers from reviewing or modifying his choices.

Founded in 1997 by Arlington Heights attorney John G. O'Brien, now third vice president of the ISBA, the Real Estate Lawyers Association has strived to ensure that clients have independent, experienced counsel before and during closings.

As Schumann began his two-year term last month, succeeding Aurora N. Abella-Austri----aco, he pledged to continue IRELA's legal fight against the unauthorized practice of law that has often involved partnership with the ISBA.

A 1983 honors graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law who first practiced with Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal, he was with Garr & DeMaertelaere for five years before forming the Law Offices of Ralph J. Schumann in 1995.

As a founding IRELA board member, he has created a Web site (www.irela.org) and helped draft the multi-board residential real estate contract that the association has copyrighted.

Schumann chairs the Northwest Suburban Bar Association Real Estate Law Committee and is a former director of the Northwest Suburban Estate Planning Council. He is a past president of the United Way and Rotary Club of Elk Grove Village, and a past trustee of the public library.

For information about IRELA membership or contributing to the litigation fund, call (847) 593-5750.