Judicial evaluators ready for major '08 challenges

Having recently completed its investigations and ratings of 105 primary election candidates for Supreme, Appellate and Circuit Court in Cook County, the ISBA Committee on Judicial Evaluations is looking ahead to equally daunting challenges.

Presently, there are 287 candidates for eight associate judge openings, about half of whom have not been evaluated recently for other judgeships.

The Committee on Judicial Evaluations will join other members of the Alliance of Bar Associations for Judicial Screening in the task of investigating and interviewing those for whom prior ratings are outdated.

The committee will provide ratings of all 287 to the office of chief judge, where the list will be pared down to just 16 candidates. Eight will be elected by the circuit court judges.

Next in line are almost 80 appellate justices and circuit judges who face retention elections in November. Barring subsequent retirements, they will be evaluated during the summer months.

Findings by the ISBA committee and other Alliance members will be communicated to news media and interested organizations throughout Cook County.

In sheer numbers, the voluminous candidacies tax the best efforts of the most conscientious of the committee's 85 members. Investigations and interviews take considerable chunks of time from other responsibilities.

Adding to the crunch are the occasional loss of committee members due to their either having conflicts because of previous relationships or becoming judicial candidates themselves.

Volunteers are always welcome. All one needs to do to participate in this vital bar association mission is to send a brief letter to Executive Director Robert E. Craghead in Springfield.

The fastest way is by e-mail to rcraghead@isba.org. By regular mail, it's Illinois Bar Center, 424 S. Second St., Springfield 62701, and by fax: (217) 525-0712.

Federal appointments

Magistrate Judge Sidney I. Schenkier of U.S. District Court for the Northern District was appointed Jan. 25 to a two-year term as presiding magistrate judge. He succeeds Magistrate Judge Morton Denlow.

A 1979 graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law and former clerk for Judge Marvin E. Aspen, Schenkier practiced with Jenner & Block for 17 years.

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U.S. Attorneys Rodger A. Heaton of the Central District and Patrick J. Fitzgerald of the Northern District have been appointed to four-year terms on the 17-member Attorney General's Advisory Committee.

Their work involves partnering with federal, state and local law enforcement entities in protection of the public from terrorism, violent crime, official corruption and civil rights violations.

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Gil M. Soffer, a partner in Katten Muchin & Rosenman, Chicago, left Jan. 25 to become counsel to the deputy attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice. He is a former assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago.

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Robert J. Scherschligt of Springfield has been named assistant federal defender for the Central District. He succeeds Douglas Beevers, who has taken a similar position in Fresno, Calif.

Scherschligt, a graduate of the Creighton University Law School, had been first assistant Sangamon County public defender for seven years and before that, an assistant Macon County state's attorney.

His Sangamon County vacancy was filled Jan. 16 by Joseph S. Miller, a staff attorney in the state appellate defender's Death Penalty Trial Assistance Division and former part-time public defender.

Seated on the bench

Summit attorney Nichloas Geanopoulos has been appointed to the Cook County Circuit Court vacancy caused by the Jan. 27 retirement of Philip L. Bronstein. He will serve until Dec. 6, 2010.

A 1982 graduate of The John Marshall Law School and former assistant state's attorney, Geanopoulos was with the Vrdolyak Law Group from 1992 until he opened a solo practice in 2006.

Retirement announced

Judge Dale A. Cini of the 5th Circuit in Charleston retired at the end of December after almost 15 years on the bench. A 1965 honors graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, he was a name partner in a Mattoon firm for 24 years.

Cini was appointed an associate judge in 1993 and elected to the circuit court in 1996. He served on the Supreme Court Committee on Education and chaired the Illinois Judicial Conference Committee on Discovery Procedures from 1997 to 2000.

Samuels retires again

Cook County assistant state's attorney Arthur M. Samuels retired Jan. 31 to go into private practice in mental health and guardianships, officed in Northfield near his Winnetka home.

Not that such a decision is unusual, but Samuels' situation is different. He is 96 years old, and has been a lawyer for 71 years!

This is his second retirement. In 1970, he left a real estate and corporate law practice to join the Mental Health Division of the state's attorney's office. It is now the Seniors and Persons with Disabilities Division.

Samuels is recognized as the authority on the state's Mental Health Code, which has expanded from four pages to more than 40 during his 37 years on the job.

Child abuse discussed

The 20th Circuit Family Violence Coordinating Council will conduct the workshop, "Investigating and Prosecuting Child Abuse: Preparing Children to Testify," from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, Feb. 22, in the Lindenwood University Auditorium, Belleville.

The presenter is Victor I. Vieth, author of "Unto the Third Generation" and director of the National Child Protection Training Center of the National Center for the Prosecution of Child Abuse.

The attendance fee of $10 includes lunch. To register, call council coordinator Jan Douglass at (618) 825-2698.

Bomber is defused

An Aurora man who threatened two 16th Circuit judges was arrested Jan. 1 by West Chicago police, who found in his car a homemade bomb consisting of gasoline and fireworks. He was indicted on six counts of possession of explosives or incendiary devices.

The 50-year-old man had appeared several times in the Kane County Judicial Center, and had made threats against the judges. He served time for trespassing and was released from Kane County jail in December.

Additional metal detectors are being added at the Kane County Judicial Center, so more people can be accommodated inside on busy court days, rather than in long lines that stretch outside the St. Charles facility.

Space will be created by eliminating an unused information desk. Circuit clerk's office employees manned the desk for only about six months after the Judicial Center opened a decade ago.

Reporters get funding

More than $2 million in funding for court reporter salaries and retirement benefits was restored to the state budget for fiscal 2008 on Jan. 10 by the Illinois House of Representatives.

That amount had been reduced in August by a governor's veto that later was said to have been inadvertent. The total allocation for court reporters during the current year is $38,017,200.

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Electronic court reporting for 10th Circuit Court cases will not be available on Friday, April 11, because no court reporters will be present to monitor the system. They will attend the official court reporter seminar that day.

For emergencies only, one court reporter will be present in Peoria County and one in Tazewell County.

Courthouse construction

Documents relative to construction specifications for the proposed new $58 million federal courthouse in Rockford were expected to be provided Feb. 14 by the U.S. General Services Administration.

A pre-bid conference for subcontractors is scheduled Tuesday, March 4, at the Stenstrom Center at Rock Valley College. Bids will be due March 14, and construction should be started soon thereafter.

The general contractor is Caddell Construction Co. of Montgomery, Ala. Representatives of about 275 other firms that could provide construction services attended a preliminary meeting Jan. 31.