Joseph Cunningham, twice seated on Supreme Court

Waterloo attorney Joseph Francis Cunningham Jr., who served two interim appointments to the Illinois Supreme Court, died July 13 at age 84 in St. Anthony Medical Center, St. Louis.

In September 1987, Mr. Cunningham filled the vacancy created when Justice Joseph H. Goldenhersh resigned for health reasons. He served until the following December.

Then in 1991, he succeeded the justice who had succeeded him. Horace L. Calvo had been elected to the Supreme Court in 1988, but he died June 3, 1991, of cancer. Mr. Cunningham served until the election in 1992 of Moses W. Harrison II.

He was chief judge of the 20th Judicial Circuit when he was first appointed to the Supreme Court, and he was director of the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts when he was reappointed to fill the Calvo vacancy.

A 1952 graduate of the Washington University School of Law who was honored in 2002 as an ISBA Senior Counsellor, Mr. Cunningham had done research work for the Army Air Corps during World War II.

Formerly of East St. Louis and Fairview Heights, he was corporate counsel of two municipalities during his early practice.

His 32 months on the Supreme Court capped a judicial career that began in 1965, when he was appointed a magistrate in the 20th Circuit. He served as chief magistrate in 1969 and as chief associate judge in 1971.

Mr. Cunningham was appointed to the circuit court in 1972 and elected two years later. He served as chief judge from 1975 to 1984 and was re-elected in 1987.

A past president of the Illinois Magistrate Judges Association, he chaired the Conference of Chief Judges from 1979 to 1981, was president of the Illinois Judges Association in 1981.

Mr. Cunningham received a Distinguished Alumni Award from Washington University. He was an adjunct professor at McKendree College and a director of Children First.

James Sweeney, 47-year leader of intellectual property bar

Retired Chicago attorney James R. Sweeney, a leader in the development of practice and education in intellectual property for almost a half-century, died July 10 at age 80 of Alzheimer's disease.

Mr. Sweeney was living in Corona Del Mar, Calif., where he and his wife, Cook County Judge Rhoda Davis Sweeney, had a second home.

Honored in 2006 as an ISBA Senior Counsellor, Mr. Sweeney was a 1956 graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law. He had served for three years as a Navy lieutenant commander on the submarine Irex along the East Coast.

He joined the firm of Schroeder, Hofgren, Brady & Wegner and later practiced with Lee, Mann, Smith, McWilliams, Sweeney & Olson. He was a partner in Barnes & Thornburg when he retired five years ago.

"Jim Sweeney was an outstanding lawyer and an outstanding person," said his friend, Chief Judge James Holderman of U.S. District Court. "He cared deeply about his clients and cared deeply about the law."

Judge Holderman added that "Jim had a great sense of humor and keen sense of justice… Whether at a friend's home or in a large federal courtroom during a trial, he was always an engaging guy to whom people were naturally drawn."

After his long career in patent, trademark and copyright prosecution and litigation, Mr. Sweeney served as director of the John Marshall Law School Center for Intellectual Property Law from 1998 to 2003 after heading an unsuccessful search for another candidate.

He had chaired the center's advisory board for a year, building on a curriculum that began in 1940 at the law school in cooperation with the Chicago Patent Law Society.

Due to his extensive national and foreign experience in intellectual property, Mr. Sweeney often testified as an expert witness and served as an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association.

In 2000, he and his wife visited Malaysia on behalf of the U.S. State Department to discuss intellectual property enforcement with local officials.

Mr. Sweeney was president of the Intellectual Property Law Association in 1974. He served on the council of the American Bar Association Section of Intellectual Property Law from 1978 to 1983 and was secretary for three years.

A member of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission Hearing Board for nine years, Mr. Sweeney was appointed to the ISBA Committee on the ARDC in 1989 and was its chair in 1994-95. He served again from 1997 to 2002.

Also  a member of the ISBA Assembly from 1990 to 1996, he served on the Special Committee on Gender Bias in 1991-92 and subsequently on the Joint Committee on Gender Equality for three years.

Michael Abramovic

Retired Chicago attorney Michael Raymond Abramovic died in August at age 66. He was a 1974 graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law.

At one time a partner in Abramovic & Pedicone, he also was a special assistant attorney for the Illinois Department of Revenue.

Thomas Amberg

Retired attorney Thomas Hickson Amberg, formerly of Winnetka and Fountain Hills, Ariz., died July 19 at age 91 in Philadelphia. Admitted to the Illinois bar in 1941, he served in the military during World War II.

Basil Anagnos

Retired Chicago attorney Basil Con-stantine Anagnos died July 5 at age 72 of pancreatic cancer in Lake Forest Hospital.

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School after two years of Navy service, Mr. Anagnos was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1964. He joined Angelos & Angelos, which was renamed Angelos & Anagnos after he became a partner.

He was a founder of the Ascension of Our Lord Greek Orthodox Church in Lincolnshire.

Edwin Armstrong

Retired Chicago attorney Edwin R. Armstrong, founder and editor of the Illinois Family Law Report, died July 22 at age 86 in Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

An Oak Park resident, Mr. Armstrong served in the Marine Corps on Iwo Jima and in Japan during World War II and graduated in 1948 from the Northwestern University School of Law.

A partner in Armstrong & Donnelly and past chair of the Chicago Bar Association Juvenile Law Committee, he was joined in the practice by a son, Gregory C. Armstrong, in 1988.

Edwin Armstrong was a past president of the Oak Park Elementary School Board, the Oak Park River Forest Booster Club and the Thatcher Woods Area Council of Boy Scouts of America.

Robert Barry

Lincoln attorney Robert John Barry, a past president of the Logan County Bar Association, died July 23 at age 61 in his home. He had completed studies at the Springfield School for the Ministry and clinical pastoral education, and was preparing for ordination.

A 1973 graduate of the Drake University Law School, Mr. Barry was elected county state's attorney in 1980 and served one term.

Active in many capacities in the Episcopal Diocese of Springfield, he was a past president of the North American Council of the Anglican Fellowship of Prayer.

A former board member of the local council of Boy Scouts of America, Mr. Barry received the Silver Beaver Award.

Anthony Bosco

Retired Cook County judge Anthony John Bosco, a mediator with ADR Systems who resolved about 1,600 cases after he left the bench, died July 25 at age 80 in his son's Galewood neighborhood home.

Mr. Bosco joined the Navy after high school. Later in the Air Force pilot training program, he left the service in 1950 on medical retirement after a plane crash in Texas.

A 1956 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law, he was in private practice until his appointment as an associate judge in 1972. He was elected to the circuit court in 1978.

Survivors include a son, Joseph A. Bosco of LaRose & Bosco.

Thomas Colbert

Chicago attorney Thomas Francis Colbert, a 1963 graduate of The John Marshall Law School after Army service, died in August at age 77. An associate at Sands & Associates, he handled personal injury cases for railroad and maritime workers.

C. Stacie Dallio

Chicago attorney Chanthadary Stacie Pathammaboun Dallio, an associate in The Law Offices of Jeffery M. Leving, died July 4 at age 31 of a brain aneurysm.

A native of Southeast Asia whose family fled and settled in Joliet when she was 2, Mrs. Dallio graduated in 2003 from The John Marshall Law School.

She was honored by the law school for conducting tours for applicants, helping with open houses and advising first-year students.

Byron Eisenstein

Chicago attorney Byron Allan Eisenstein of Sanford Kahn died in July at age 75. He was a 1956 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law.

Gerald Haney

Oak Lawn attorney Gerald Joseph Haney Jr. died in August at age 75. He was a 1958 graduate of the Loyola University School of Law.

Mr. Haney was a labor relations attorney with the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railroad and the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Steel Co. before beginning a 28-year private practice.

David Hill

David Kimball Hill Jr. of Inverness, founder and chair of Kimball Hill Homes in Rolling Meadows, died July 26 at age 67 of melanoma in Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, Park Ridge.

A 1965 graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law, Mr. Hill served in the Navy Judge Advocate General's Office in Washington, D.C., during the Vietnam War. He returned to Chicago in 1969 and joined a brother in the affordable home-building industry.

A past president of the Homebuilders Association of Greater Chicago, Mr. Hill was involved in housing projects in Cabrini Green and Stateway Gardens. He served on the board of Roosevelt University.

Michael Hogan

Michael Patrick Hogan of Chicago, a graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law who was not registered to practice, died July 13 at age 61 of cancer in his home.

A past president of the Beverly Improvement Association, Mr. Hogan was founding president of the Young Irish Fellowship Club of Chicago.

Thomas Kehr

Retired Chillicothe attorney Thomas Willis Kehr died July 3 at age 88 in Port Orange, Fla. A 1947 graduate of the University of Nebraska Law School, he served in the Army Infantry and Judge Advocate Generals Corps during World War II.

After a stint with Harris Trust in Chicago, Mr. Kehr established a private practice in Chillicothe in 1950 and later opened another office in Peoria.

A past president and attorney for the Chillicothe Township High School and Grade School Districts, he was instrumental in forming a consolidated district. He also headed the Library Board.

Mr. Kehr facilitated consolidation of Chillicothe and North Chillicothe in 1966, and in establishing the Park and Sanitary Districts. He was general counsel to Peoples Savings and Loan Association for many years.

Richard Leiser

Peoria attorney Richard Gordon Leiser, a Bloomington resident, died July 9 at age 74 in OSF St. Joseph Medical Center. A former teacher, he was a 1968 graduate of the University of Iowa Law School.

A workers' compensation attorney, he was affiliated with the law firm of Warren E. Danz.

John Poust

Retired Chicago attorney John G. "Jack" Poust died in July at age 87. A 1946 graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law, he served with the Army in France, Belgium and Germany during World War II.

He was former senior partner and chair of Rooks, Pitts & Poust (now Dykema), where ISBA past president Henry L. Pitts also was a founder.

President of the Illinois Society of Trial Lawyers in 1970-71, Mr. Poust was Illinois chair of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a member of the Illinois Supreme Court Committees on Character and Fitness and Jury Instruction.

An Evanston resident, he was an alderman and past president of Westmoreland Country Club.

Mitchell Rieger

Chicago attorney Mitchell Sheridan Rieger, a partner in Schiff Hardin, died July 27 at age 85 in a Denver hospital after suffering a stroke in his Vail, Colo., home.

A Navy lieutenant in the Pacific during World War II, he later volunteered for duty on a ship that sailed from Hong Kong through Asia, Africa and Europe to South Carolina. He documented his travels with photographs throughout his life.

A member of Phi Beta Kappa and first in his class at Northwestern University, Mr. Rieger was a 1949 graduate of the Harvard Law School.

He practiced with Rieger & Rieger in Chicago from 1950 until 1954, when he became chief of the U.S. attorney's Tax and Criminal Divisions. He was promoted to first assistant in 1958.

After a year as general counsel to the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, Mr. Rieger joined Schiff Hardin in 1961, concentrating in insurance securities and futures litigation.

He was president of the Chicago chapter of the Federal Bar Association in 1959-60, and national district vice president in 1960-61.

Robert Russell

Retired attorney Robert Emmett Russell, formerly of Chicago and Bloomingdale, died July 12 at age 87 in a Greensboro, N.C., hospital.

A 1953 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law, Mr. Russell was an Army Signal Corps captain in the Pacific during World War II.

Edward Rustigan

Retired Chicago attorney Edward C. Rustigan of Wilmette died July 18 at age 88 of heart failure at Mather Pavilion in Evanston.

A member of Phi Beta Kappa and a 1945 graduate of the Harvard Law School, Mr. Rustigan worked on the docks and drove a cab to pay for his education. He practiced with the U.S. Treasury in Washington for 15 years.

In 1960, Mr. Rustigan became a partner and tax litigator with Mayer, Brown & Platt and was admitted to the Illinois bar that year. He retired in 1990.

Leonard Schultz

Chicago attorney Leonard Anthony "Bud" Schultz Jr. died in August at age 61. A 1973 graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law, he was a defense attorney in Cook and DuPage Counties.

Irwin Thall

Retired Chicago labor law attorney Irwin S. Thall died in July at age 71 of cancer. He was a 1960 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law.

A former partner in Libit, Lindauer, Henry & Thall, he retired in 1995 and moved to Punta Gorda, Fla.

Julian Venezky

Julian Brown Venezky of Northbrook, the oldest member of the Peoria County Bar Association, died July 13 at age 99. He was a 1931 graduate of the George Washington University Law School.

Admitted to the Illinois bar in 1940, Mr. Venezky practiced in Peoria with Joseph Z. Sudow from 1947 to 1959, and subsequently with Kavanagh, Scully, Sudow, White & Frederick for more than 40 years. He was past president of the OSF St. Francis Medical Center board.

Founder and former national chair of both the United Jewish Appeal and State of Israel Bonds, Mr. Venezky was vice chair of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which bestowed on him an honorary doctorate.

Ted Wedemeyer

Wisconsin jurist Ted E. Wedemeyer Jr. died July 23 at age 75. A graduate of the Marquette University Law School, he had a master of laws degree from The John Marshall Law School.

President of Goethe House, a German-American cultural organization, he was a past president of the Milwaukee Kickers Soccer Club and member of its hall of fame.