A class of 124 ISBA Senior Counsellors who were admitted to the bar in 1956 will be honored during a luncheon Wednesday, Dec. 6, at the Holiday Inn Mart Plaza, 350 N. Orleans, Chicago. A reception beginning at 11:15 a.m. will precede the 12 noon luncheon and program.

Each 50-year member has received an invitation to request two tickets at no charge. Additional reservations at $50 per person may be made by sending an e-mail to jhibbs@isba.org.

The complete alphabetical listing of 2006 Senior Counsellors follows.

Ronald J. Adams, Naples FL

James G. Andros, Chicago

Harry B. Bainbridge, Flossmoor

Charles I. Barish, Buffalo Grove

Edward Bartosch, Elk Grove Village

Armour T. Beckstrand, Rockford

Gregory B. Beggs, Downers Grove

Robert L. Berner, Chicago

Alvin W. Block, Chicago

J. William Braithwaite, Hoffman Estates

Nathan G. Brenner Jr., Morton Grove

Donald J. Brooks, Chicago

James E. Buchmiller, Greenville

Warren E. Burgard, Urbana

Donald L. Calvin, New York City

Wence F. Cerne, Oak Brook

Aaron Cohen, Chicago

Juan G. Collas, Glastonbury CT

James J. Coryn, Rock Island

Robert M. Culbertson, Delevan

Joseph R. Curcio, Chicago

Robert A. Downing, Chicago

Raymond W. Edwards, Paris

Kevin C. Efroymson, Las Vegas

Nalien P. Ernst, Dubuque

Paul G. Fargo, Wilmette

Philip G. Feder, Belleville

John C. Feirich, Spokane WA

Sidney N. Fox, Northbrook
Paul W. Gabler, Chicago

J. Robert Geiman, Veno Beach FL

Asher O. Geisler, Decatur

Kenneth J. Glick, Libertyville

Robert Goldman, Chicago

Phillip C. Goldstick, Chicago

Ernest B. Goodman, Sherman Oaks CA

Robert L. Gorecki, St. Charles

James E. Gorman, Edwardsville

Arthur I. Gould, Chicago

Robert M. Green, Chicago

Edward J. Griffin, Chicago

Ronald J. Guild, Chicago

John W. Gustafson, Buchanan MI

Solomon Gutstein, Chicago

Richard W. Hakanson, Chicago

Bernard Healy, Rockford

Robert W. Joyce, Chicago

Charles A. Kelly, Chicago

John A. Kelly, Chicago

Robert L. Kiesler, Chicago

Claude L. Kordus, Rancho Santa Fe CA

Sandor Korein, Belleville

Robert S. Kosin, Chicago

Peter L. Krentz, Plano

Ronald S. Ladden, Chicago

John G. Langhenry, Arlington Heights

Norman E. Lapping, Chicago.

Elias Levin, Glencoe

Phillip I. Lifschultz, Las Vegas

Jay A. Lipe, Chicago

Thomas J. Logue, Mattoon

Peter H. Lousberg, St. Petersburg FL

Ralph E. Lowe, Aurora

John R. Luedtke, Bloomington

Earle A. Malkin, Las Vegas

Sherwin J. Malkin, Lincolnwood

Floyd B. Manilow, Chicago

John McAuliffe, Chicago

James O. McDonald, San Diego

Thomas W. McNamara, Covert MI

John T. Mead, Edgartown MA

George S. Miller, Champaign

Ralph W. Miller, Elmhurst

B. John Mix, Chicago

Edward C. Moehle, Pekin

Richard N. Molchan, Peoria

James D. Montgomery, Chicago

Ronald C. Mottaz, Alton

Donald G. Musick, Mt. Vernon

Lowell J. Myers, Chicago

Leonard E. Newman, Chicago

John K. Notz Jr., Chicago

Thomas S. Oehring, Lincolnshire

Robert J. Oliver, Rockford

Ronald W. Olson, Chicago

Eugene I. Pavalon, Chicago

Joseph Peck, Chicago

Roy I. Peregrine, Wheaton

Joseph R. Perozzi, Chicago Heights

Guenther M. Philipp, Michigan City IN

Eugene R. Pigatti, Rockford

Edward A. Puisis, Glenview

Charles R. Purcell, Palos Heights

Avrum Reifer, Chicago

Burton Relf, Chicago

John E. Repenning, Tempe AZ

Myron J. Resnick, Wilmette

Robert Rosenman, Northbrook

Eugene H. Ruark, Geneva

Howard M. Sanders, Oro Valley AZ

Robert Schey, Chicago

Donald M. Schindel, Highland Park

Harvey Schwartz, Skokie

Hugh J. Schwartzberg, Chicago

Norman M. Sevin, Coral Gables FL

Eugene L. Shepp, Wilmette

Alvin L. Singer, Highland Park

S. K. Smith, Gross Point MI

B. F. Stewart, Bloomfield Hills MI

John D. Stobbs, Alton

Lawrence J. Stukel, Fountain Hills AZ

James R. Sweeney, Chicago

Eugene Terry, Highland Park

Robert T. Trimpe, Champaign

Lawrence Walner, Chicago

John W. Wardell, Palatine

John T. Wardrope, Barrington

Frederick W. Wentker, San Francisco

Warren M. Wexler, Chicago

Richard J. Wildberger, Minnetonka MN

Bertram J. Wolf, Highland Park

Seymour Zaban, Chicago

John A. Zaleski, Algonquin

Anthony S. Zummer, Chicago

Some of the ISBA Senior Counsellors listed above may be worthy candidates for induction as Laureates of the ISBA Academy of Illinois Lawyers. The deadline for nominations is Friday, Dec. 1.

The Board of Regents will select six 2007 Laureates. Information about the process of making a nomination is posted at www.isba.org, where “ISBA Laureates” is listed under “ISBA and You.”

Eligible candidates must have practiced law primarily in Illinois for at least 25 years, including service on the bench by retired judges, and may be nominated posthumously within three years of death.

Lawyers who are not eligible include ISBA past presidents, current board members and Academy regents (and for 24 months after their terms of service), and sitting jurists.

The nomination should provide a statement of reasons, along with written letters of reference from no more than 10 personal and 10 professional acquaintances.

Nomination materials should be sent to Stephen Anderson, Academy of Illinois Lawyers, Suite 900, 20 S. Clark Street, Chicago, IL 60603, so they arrive by Dec. 1.

Innovations punctuated Peter H. Lousberg's tenure as ISBA president, month after month, like fireworks.

Some, like skyrockets, were brilliant while they lasted. Others, like cherry bombs, made lasting impressions on the surface of the legal profession.

Lousberg, who will be honored next month as an ISBA Senior Counsellor, heralded his presidency in 1992-93 as a celebration of pride in professionalism, albeit “at a time of mean-spirited, sometimes gleeful lawyer bashing.”

In his sights from day one was Vice President Dan Quayle, who, Lousberg said in his installation remarks, had “essentially vilified lawyers as a profession … with an abundance of misinformation, faulty data and flawed logic.”

Toward the end of his term, Lousberg took on the Miller Brewing Co. for its fat lawyer rodeo commercial, asked for an apology from the management, and banned the offensive brew from ISBA events.

Moving along with his theme of professionalism, Lousberg scheduled a conference, titled “Lawyers: The Problem or the Solution?” during the Midyear Meeting in December. Federal Judge Marvin Aspen gave the keynote address, “Renewed Commitment for Civility in Litigation: A Challenge for the 1990s.”

Prior to that, a wide-ranging Great Lakes Environmental Conference in October drew a blue-ribbon panel of speakers on the crucial need for a holistic approach to prevention of manmade perils to the purity of the environment.

Lousberg stressed a commitment to pro bono during his year in office, and he presided over establishment of the Illinois Pro Bono Center with a Champaign office and an executive director. A laudable idea, it foundered eventually for lack of funding.

A strong advocate of the bar-maintained, voluntary Clients' Security Fund as “a debt of honor that should be repaid,” he agreed with beleaguered chair Willis Tribler that perhaps the Supreme Court should step in. That happened subsequently, and now is funded through registration fees.

The Task Force on Minorities and the Justice System, appointed by Lousberg and chaired by Latham Williams, held its first meeting in February 1993. Its final report and recommendations were adopted in June 1998.

Other initiatives championed by Lousberg were continuing legal education requirements, emphasis on law office management, protecting the lawyer's traditional role in society from unauthorized practice, curbing bigotry in education, and improving public perception of the legal profession.

A 1956 cum laude graduate of the University of Notre Dame Law School, Lousberg served in the Marine Corps before becoming an assistant state's attorney in Rock Island in 1959. From 1960 until his retirement to Florida, he was a name partner in several Rock Island firms.

The list of ISBA activities in which Lousberg participated over a 30-year span is among the longest in association annals. It began with his 1963 appointment to the Committee on Public Relations, where he served for six years.

He served on the Board of Governors from 1969 to 1974, then on the Assembly from 1983 until 1989, when he was elected third vice president.

During the 1970s, Lousberg served on committees on the Annual Meeting, Assembly Representation, Federal and State Legislation, Availability of Legal Services, Auto Reparations Legislation, and Mandatory CLE.

He chaired the Committee on the Men-tally Disabled in 1979-80 and the Committee on Mandatory Fee Arbitration in 1982-83, and was a member of the first board of directors of the Lawyers Trust Fund.

During the 1980s he chaired special committees on Professionalism and on Bar Activities Clearinghouse, and he served on special committees to Determine Disposition of Files of Deceased or Impaired Lawyers, to Review Clients' Security Fund, and to Review Insurance Program.

A Gold Fellow and Charter Fellow of the Illinois Bar Foundation, he chaired the Foundation Fellows in 1987-88.

As a member of the Board of Governors, he chaired the Personnel Committee, the Budget and Audit Committee, and the Ad Hoc Committee on Judicial Evaluations. He was a member of the ISBA Mutual Insurance Co. board from 1993 to 1999.

In their 1992 holiday message in the Illinois Bar Journal, Peter and JoAnn Lousberg emphasized peace as “inherent to professing law and justice: If you want peace, render justice and peace will follow.”

They called on the bar to “willingly render justice to those of different color, sex, ethnic heritage or religious persuasion than ours, to the disabled in mind or body, to the poor, to those who are less fortunate than we, and to the defenseless who must be protected.”

When you ask Ruth Ann Schmitt about the movers and shakers behind establishment of the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois in 1983, one of the first names that comes to her mind is John C. Feirich.

Then a Carbondale attorney, and now a retiree in Spokane, Wash., Feirich is one of the ISBA's 124 Senior Counsellors who will be honored Dec. 6 in Chicago.

Schmitt, who has been executive director of LTF since its founding, is quick to give equal credit to David C. Hilliard, who was president of the Chicago Bar Association, and to Supreme Court Justice Howard C. Ryan.

But it was Feirich, president of the Illinois State Bar Association in 1982-83, who organized a fly-around in May 1983 to explain the concept to lawyers across the state. One of his stops was Rockford, where an ISBA Long-Range Planning Conference was in progress.

He was anxious to help find a way for small increments of interest on lawyers trust accounts to be aggregated for the benefit of struggling legal assistance provider agencies.

The ISBA and CBA had cobbled together a voluntary IOLTA plan in 1981, but it wasn't universally popular with the bar. In April 1983, the Illinois Supreme Court made voluntary participation official and Illinois became the 11th state to do that.

A petition to make participation mandatory was filed with the court in 1984. The ISBA Assembly voted 77-65 in 1985 to support the petition, and the Supreme Court adopted it the following year. Rule 9-102 took effect in 1987.

From its meager beginning allocation of $100,000 to legal aid organizations in 1984, the Lawyers Trust Fund divvied up almost $6 million in 2007 grants. The total over 24 years has been $67 million.

A 1956 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, Jack Feirich ended his term as ISBA president by honoring his father, John K. Feirich, as a Senior Counsellor at the June 1983 Annual Meeting in St. Louis.

That culminated the younger Feirich's 24-year record of activity in the state bar, starting in 1959 with appointments to the Junior Bar and Mineral Law Section Council.

He served in the 1960s on the Committee on Judicial Ethics, the Committees on the Judicial Article and Judicial Assignment (chair of both), and the Civil Practice and Procedure Section Council.

Feirich was appointed to the General Practice Section Council in 1971 and was its chair in 1973-74. He served on Special Committees on Uniform Court Rules and on Attorney Discipline.

Elected to the ISBA Assembly in 1972, Feirich had served on the Board of Governors from 1966 to 1968. He was elected to the board in 1977 and became third vice president two years later.

Outside his state bar association activities, Feirich has been president of the University of Illinois Law Alumni, chair of the Indemnity Section for the Committee on Pattern Jury Instructions, and co-chair of Project Merit Selection of Judges.

As a member of the American Bar Association Junior Bar Conference, he chaired committees on court improvement and lawyers title guaranty funds. He also chaired the ABA Section of General Practice the year after his term as ISBA president ended.

Feirich was founding president of Air Illinois Inc., president of the Southern Illinois Sailing School and secretary of the Crab Orchard Lake Sailing Club. He served two terms as Carbondale High School Board president and four years as chair of the YMCA Board.

As John K. Notz Jr. prepared to retire 11 years ago, he made a list of topics – most of them family-related – that he wanted to explore in depth and chronicle at great length.

He says he has accomplished more than half of them, some in the process of tracing family lineage in Milwaukee, Lake Geneva and burgs in Germany so small they were not mentioned in the Michelin guide.

Other studies have evolved from his calling as an architectural historian. He has written extensively and lectured on luminaries such as Jens Jensen and Marion Mahony Griffin.

A former partner in Gardner, Carton & Douglas, where he practiced from 1960 until Jan. 1, 1996, and still maintains an office, Notz will be honored next month as an ISBA Senior Counsellor for 50 years of membership.

His father, also John K. Notz (of Notz, Craven & Price), became a Senior Counsellor in 1984, four years before his death as the result of a fall.

John Notz Jr. graduated in 1956 from the Northwestern University School of Law and served in the Air Force as a judge advocate in Korea and Japan. He retired in 1960 as a captain.

A member of the ISBA Corporation and Securities Law Section Council from 1982 to 1984, one year as secretary, he served on the Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on Illinois Corporation Laws from 1982 to 1995 and was its chair for a year.

He also chaired the Not-for-Profit Act Subcommittee for two years, and was co-chair of the Advisory Committee on Illinois Commodities Laws.

Notz was a draftsman of the Illinois Business Corporation Act of 1983, the Illinois Not-for-Profit Corporation Act of 1986, and the Illinois Limited Liability Company Act of 1992.

He served on the ISBA Business Advice and Financial Planning Section Council, chaired the Chicago Bar Association Corp-oration Law Committee, and was co-chair of two subcommittees of the American Bar Association Section of Corporation, Banking and Business Law.

A director of the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education for many years, he was board chair in 1990-91. He was on the DePaul University College of Law Advisory Council from 1989 to 1997.

Currently an arbitrator and mediator, he has participated with the American Arbitration Association, NASD Regulation, National Futures Association, New York Stock Exchange, and the Cook County Circuit Court mandatory arbitration program.

Outside his professional endeavors, Notz has lectured to the Chicago Literary Club and written for the Wisconsin Academy Review on episodes from the sagas of his labors in architectural and family history.

A major share of his research has been devoted to the life of a maternal great-grandfather, Edward Gustav Uihlein, who was a patron and advocate of famed landscape gardener Jens Jensen, both in Illinois and Wisconsin.

Uihlein was born in Wertheim-am-Main, Germany, and lived in Miltenberg before emigrating to the U.S. and starting businesses in St. Louis and Chicago. Notz has visited his roots in southern Germany several times, as recently as last month.

It was there that he learned about the annual distribution of Uihlein pretzels to Wertheim school children, the regionally favored Krug Brewery (another family connection), and the woods where Hansel and Gretel reputedly were sent by impoverished parents.

Notz was president of the Chicago Literary Society in 1996-97. He was a vice president of the Mid-Day Club and the editor of its centennial history book in 2003. He has been treasurer of the Society of Architectural Historians, a trustee of Graceland Cemetery and Francis Parker School.

A Fellow of the Illinois, Chicago and American Bar Foundations, he is a life benefactor of the John Henry Wigmore Club at Northwestern and a past president of the Law Club of Chicago.

Notz is proud that a daughter, Jane E. Notz, has followed him as a lawyer. She is an assistant corporation counsel in the Appeals Division of the City of Chicago Law Department.

Two Chicago attorneys, James D. Montgomery and Eugene I. Pavalon, who have been inducted as Laureates of the ISBA Academy of Illinois Lawyers, are members of the class of 1956 who will be honored next month as Senior Counsellors.

James Montgomery, who was inducted with the inaugural contingent of Laureates in 2000, is a 1956 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law. He is a principal in James D. Montgomery & Associates.

An assistant U.S. attorney from 1958 to 1960 and a member of the Illinois Parole and Pardon Board in 1969-70, he is well known in civil rights, criminal defense and personal injury litigation.

Montgomery was Chicago city corporation counsel from 1983 to 1986 and counsel to Harvey from 1989 to 1995. He is a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. Frequently honored, he has received the Earl B. Dickerson Award from the Chicago Bar Association.

A cast member of the annual CBA Christmas Spirits show, he has portrayed Jesse Jackson, Walter Payton and Johnnie Cochran, who was a law partner from 2000 until his death, and he has even lampooned himself.

A member of the ISBA Assembly from 1993 to 1998, Montgomery served on the Criminal Justice Section Council for nine years and was vice chair from 1994 to 1996.

Eugene Pavalon, senior partner in Pavalon, Gifford & Laatsch, is a past president of both the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. He is a 1956 graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law.

A Charter Fellow of the Illinois Bar Foundation, Pavalon served on the ISBA Civil Practice and Procedure Section Council in 1978-79. He was a member of the Committee on Interprofessional Cooperation for four years and chaired it in 1981-82. He was inducted as a Laureate in 2005.

A former member of the CBA Board of Managers, he is a past chair of the CBA Civil Practice Committee and the Committee on Aviation Law of the American Bar Association Section of Litigation.

Pavalon is a past president and Lifetime Fellow of the Roscoe Pound Foundation and past president of Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, which he helped found. He is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, American College of Trial Lawyers, International Academy of Trial Lawyers and International Society of Barristers.

A recipient of the Leonard M. Ring Lifetime Achievement Award from ITLA, Pavalon has received the Harry M. Philo Award from ATLA, the Champion of Justice Award from Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, and the American ORT Jurisprudence Award.

The 124-member class of ISBA Senior Counsellors contains a worthy complement of lawyers and judges who have served the profession with distinction.

In addition to those whose accomplishments are featured in the October and November issues of the ISBA Bar News, 50-year members include the following.

John R. Luedtke of Bloomington, a member of the Illinois Bar Foundation board for nine years, was president from 1992 to 1994. He chaired ISBA Committees on Public Service and on Lawyer Referral Service for two years each.

Luedtke has served on the Real Estate Law Section Council, and the Committees on Public Relations, Mandatory CLE, Fair Trial Free Press, and Federal Judicial Appointments, and the Special Committee on Merit Selection of Judges.

A 1956 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, he is a past president of the McLean County Bar Association.

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Earle A. Malkin, a former Chicagoan who now lives in Las Vegas, was a pillar of the Family Law Section Council for eight years. A 1956 graduate of The John Marshall Law School and retired Army Reserve colonel, he is a past president of the North Suburban Bar Association.

Chair of the Fellows of the Illinois Bar Foundation in 1992-93, Malkin chaired the ISBA Committee on Public Relations in 1988-89 while serving for five years. He also was a member of the Committee on Legislation for five years.

A Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, Malkin is a past vice president of the Illinois chapter. He chaired the CBA Matrimonial Law and Military Law Committees.

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Richard N. Molchan, a past president of the Peoria County Bar Association, served on the ISBA Committee on Judicial Advisory Polls for nine years and was its chair from 1973 to 1875.

Molchan served on the Health Care Section Council from 1985 to 1989 and chaired it in 1987-88. He was an Assembly member from 1972 to 1978 and in 1985-86.

Other service includes Special Committees on Judicial Assignment and Screening of Judicial Candidates, Committees on Unauthorized Practice of Law, Mandatory Fee Arbitration and Employee Benefits, and Employee Benefits Section Council.

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Belleville trial lawyer Sandor Korein served on the ISBA Admiralty Law Section Council for nine years and was its chair in 1975-76. He is a Gold Fellow and Charter Fellow of the Illinois Bar Foundation.

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John W. Gustafson of Buchanan, Mich., and Ronald W. Olson of Chicago have two things in common. Each is a retired Cook County judge and a past president of the Nordic Law Club.

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Harvey Schwartz of Skokie, retired presiding judge of Cook County's 3rd Municipal District and former supervising judge of the 1st District Traffic Center, is a past president of the Illinois Judges Association.