Honoraria

The distinguished career of Illinois Su-preme Court Justice Mary Ann G. McMorrow will be celebrated by the Women's Bar Association of Illinois on Wednesday, July 12, a week after her retirement from the bench.

The WBAI has scheduled a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Peninsula Hotel, Chicago. Call (312) 341-8630 for reservations at $100 per person.

Justice McMorrow, the only woman in the 1953 class at the Loyola University School of Law, was president of the Women's Bar in 1974-75. She was elected to the Supreme Court in 1992 and was chief justice from 2002 to 2005.

Thelma Brook Simon was honored May 4 by the Women's Bar Association of Illinois for many years of participation that were highlighted by her service as president a half-century ago.

A graduate of the University of Chicago Law School who was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1940, Thelma Brook embarked on a legal career that was similar to what most women encountered as legal professionals six decades ago.

Her attempt to get a job in the trust department of First National Bank did not succeed, although she was interviewed by Ellen Nylund Whitsett, who was then WBAI president.

So Brook went to work for Angerstein & Angerstein in 1940 and married Harold Simon the same year. In 1941, she joined the staff of the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Public Debt.

Thelma Simon dropped out of the practice from 1943 to 1946 to raise a son while her husband, an Army artillery officer, was on active duty in Hawaii.

Beginning in 1946, she was a night clerk for Appellate Court justice George Briston, doing research and drafting opinions while her children were sleeping. The job ended when the jurist died in 1960.

A clerk for Senior Judge Walter LaBuy in U.S. District Court from 1961 to 1963, Simon helped him write the Jury Instruction Manual in Federal Criminal Cases.

She became a torts and administrative law instructor at The John Marshall Law School in 1963, the first woman to teach a substantive law course there.

Elected to the Wilmette Village Board in 1961, she served for eight years and was chair of its judiciary committee.

Simon's tenure as WBAI president in 1956-57 began with her taking the oath of office from Cook County Judge B. Fain Tucker, the first woman elected to the circuit court.

Simon had led efforts of the Women's Bar to re-elect Tucker, who was WBAI president in 1941-42, and also to elect Jean Hurley to the Illinois House of Representatives. Hurley subsequently married Paul Simon and was WBAI president in 1959-60.

Illinois Supreme Court Justice Mary Ann G. McMorrow, another past president whose election also was supported by Thelma Simon, was on hand last month to present to her the McMorrow Award for Lifetime Dedication.

Cook County Judge Carole Kamin Bellows, a past president of the Illinois State Bar Association, received a Founder's Award from the CBA Alliance for Women during its annual luncheon May 31.

Lisa T. Scruggs of Jenner & Block received the Alta May Hulett Award.

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Retired federal judges George N. Leighton and Abner Mikva received awards June 1 during a luncheon of the Chicago chapter of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy. Also honored were attorneys Newton N. Minow and Dawn Clark Netsch.

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Chief Judge Joel M. Flaum of the U.S. Court of Appeals received a Professionalism Award on May 22 from the American Inns of Court.

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Chicago attorney William J. Martin received an Accipiter Award from the Fenwick Bar Association during its annual luncheon May 5 in Chicago.

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Chicago attorneys Thomas Z. Hayward of Bell, Boyd & Lloyd; Max Brown of Rush University, and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama were honored June 5 by the Illinois Fatherhood Initiative during a celebration dinner at the Union League Club.

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William I. Kohn of Schiff Hardin, Chicago, received an Excellence in Public Interest Service Award on June 6 from the U.S. District Court and the Chicago chapter of the Federal Bar Association.

Kohn was honored for his pro bono work as head of the Bankruptcy Partnership Initiative of the Center for Disability and Elder Law.

Peoria attorney Robert E. Muir was honored May 5 as Pro Bono Attorney of the Year, and the firm of Heyl, Royster Voelker & Allen was named Law Firm of the Year.

The Peoria County Pro Bono Plan Awards were presented by Prairie State Legal Services and the Peoria County Bar Association during the annual Law Day luncheon.

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Lake Bluff attorney Thomas A. Pasquesi has been elected to membership in The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel.

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Douglas J. Pomatto, managing partner in the Rockford office of Heyl, Royster, Voelker & Allen has been inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is a past president of the Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel.

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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.

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Chicago attorney Edward M. Genson was inducted into the International Academy of Trial Lawyers (IATL) during its annual meeting in April in Washington, D.C. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was host of a reception attended by the IATL fellows and the 29 inductees.