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Six new Laureates are electedBy Stephen Anderson Six Illinois attorneys will be inducted Tues-day, April 8, as Laureates of the ISBA Academy of Illinois Lawyers. The luncheon will take place at the Standard Club in Chicago. The following new Laureates were elected Jan. 24 by the Academy Board of Regents. Posthumous recognition will be made of the career of Michael W. Coffield, who died March 27, 2007, in his Chicago office at age 67. A graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, Coffield was a partner in Kirkland & Ellis when he became a founder of Coffield & Ungaretti in 1974. He formed Michael W. Coffield & Associates in 1996. He served on the boards of the 7th Circuit Bar Association, the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism, and was founding president of the Chicago Inn of Court and a trustee of the American Inns of Court Foundation. A frequent law school lecturer and seminar speaker, Coffield was a founder of the Coalition for Law-Related Education of Chicago Public Schools. He coached several mock trial teams. In 1999, he was named Person of the Year by Chicago Lawyer magazine, and he received the A. Sherman Christensen National Leadership Award from the Inns of Court Foundation. • • • Bruce N. Cook, the principle of the Belleville tort litigation firm of Cook, Ysursa, Bartholomew, Brauer & Shevlin, is a 2008 Laureate. The prime benefactor of the Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation for more than two decades, Cook's enthusiasm and financial contributions made possible the purchase of a headquarters building in East St. Louis. A charter member of the St. Clair County Bar Association pro bono program, he was the first recipient of the Richard A. Hudlin Memorial Award for exemplifying ideals of the legal profession and public service. Cook is a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law and a past president of both the St. Clair County and East St. Louis Bar Associations. • • • Hillside attorney Alfred E. Gallo, a graduate of The John Marshall Law School who served as a member and president of its board of trustees for more than 30 years, is a 2008 Laureate. A trust officer and executive of several banks for 30 years after Army service during World War II, Gallo has had a general west suburban law practice since 1978. He was honored in 1949 as an ISBA Senior Counsellor. President of the Justinian Society of Lawyers in 1960, he received its Award of Excellence in 2003. He also received the Star of Sodality from the Republic of Italy for efforts to foster artistic and cultural relations between the two countries. Gallo has served on the boards of the Illinois College of Podiatric Medicine and the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association, and is a past president of the Illinois Bankers Association Trust Division. • • • Jack E. Horsley of Mattoon, a past president of the Coles-Cumberland Bar Association and Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel, is a 2008 Laureate. An ISBA member since 1939, he is a retired partner in Craig & Craig. A retired Army lieutenant colonel, Horsley served during World War II with the Judge Advocate General Department in the European Theater, where he received the Purple Heart and a Victory Medal. The author of several textbooks on various elements of trial practice, he also wrote a history of the law firm and some reminiscences of his military career. A past chair of the ISBA Grievance Committee and the Coles-Cumberland Bar Judicial Inquiry Committee, Horsley chaired the ARDC Review Board for three years. He also chaired the ISBA Insurance Law Section Council, the University of Illinois Law Forum Executive Committee and the Society of Trial Lawyers Professional Activities Committee. A founding member of the U.S. Air Museum, Horsley received an Air Force Distinguished Service Award. A past president of the Central Illinois Reserve Officers Association and the local school board, he served on the board of the Harlan Moore Heart Research Foundation. • • • Prof. Malcolm L. Morris of the Northern Illinois University College of Law, a nationally recognized legal scholar who has been honored as Professor of the Year by his students, is a 2008 Laureate. A member of the NIU law faculty since 1978 and a full professor since 1985, Morris has served as associate dean and interim dean and is the founder of three student academic associations. He developed a program for minority undergraduates, sponsored by the Council on Legal Education Opportunity, to recruit law students. Current chair of the ISBA Committee on Legal Education, Admission and Competence, Morris has chaired the Business Advice and Financial Planning Section Council and served on the Trusts and Estates Section Council. He has received the Austin Fleming Newsletter Editor Award. Founding chair of the Attorney's Section of the National Notary Association, Morris is the reporter for the Model Notary Act Revision Committee and co-author of the first casebook and text on notary law. He received the association's March Fong Eu Achievement Award. A resident of Sleepy Hollow, he has been a village trustee, member of the police board and manager of the Tri-Cities Little League. • • • Chicago attorney Letitia "Tish" Spunar-Sheats, a member of the ISBA Assembly with an extensive record of service to the bar association for 34 years, is a 2008 Laureate. A past chair of both the Committee on Minority and Women Participation and Committee on Membership and Bar Activities, Spunar-Sheats has served on Committees on Women and the Law, Continuing Legal Education, and Judicial Evaluation. She also has been a member of the General Practice Section Council. A partner in Sheats & Kellogg for 32 years after prosecuting city demolition cases, Spunar-Sheats is a past president of the John Marshall Law School Alumni Association and an adjunct professor of the National Louis University College of Management and Business. She has been a certified Cook County Circuit Court arbitrator for 19 years and a member of her condominium association board for 18 years. A past co-chair of the Women's Bar Association Lawyer Referral Committee, she has served on several Chicago Bar Association committees.
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