Celebration of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial will occupy significant portions of the program at the ISBA Midyear Meeting, which will take place Thursday through Saturday, Dec. 11 to 13, at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel.

Among the highlights on Friday, Dec. 12, is a joint presentation with the Illinois Judges Association titled “Celebrating the Lincoln Bicentennial: Lincoln, the Illinois Lawyer and Great Communicator.”

The educational session on the legal career of the nation’s 16th president, and his remarkable ability to communicate, is being co-sponsored by the American Society of Legal Writers.

The featured speaker for the IJA/ISBA joint luncheon will be Mark E. Steiner, a professor at the South Texas College of Law. His topic is “Your Honor, My Name is Abraham Lincoln: Lincoln and Judges.”

This is the second scheduled address in the commemorative ISBA lecture series, “Lincoln the Prairie Lawyer.” Others will take place in March and July.

Thursday, Dec. 11, will be devoted to a CLE Fest, consisting of two-hour segments on six substantive practice areas. Attendees can earn as many as six hours of MCLE credit. The CLE Fest will continue on Friday.

In addition to business meetings of ISBA section councils and committees all three days, the boards of the Illinois Bar Foundation and ISBA Mutual Insurance Co. will convene Thursday morning.

The opening reception that evening will signal the beginning of the state bar association’s mid-term gathering.

On Friday morning, the Fellows of the Illinois Bar Foundation will be host for a breakfast at which two attorneys will be honored.

Dean Peter Alexander of the Southern Illinois University School of Law will receive the Distinguished Service to Law and Society Award, and professor emeritus Dawn Clark Netsch of the Northwestern University School of Law will become an Honorary Fellow.

On Friday afternoon, alumni receptions will be conducted by DePaul University College of Law, The John Marshall Law School, St. Louis University, and the College of Law at the University of Illinois, Northern Illinois and Southern Illinois Universities.

The Justinian Society also plans to hold a reception that afternoon

Justices of the Illinois Supreme Court will be guests of honor on Friday night for a gala reception and dinner, at which Justice Lloyd A. Karmeier will speak on behalf of his colleagues.

The 201-member ISBA Assembly will convene at 9 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, for its semi-annual business meeting. The Illinois Lawyers Political Action Committee will meet at 12 noon.

Rooms fill up at the Sheraton Hotel very quickly. To inquire about availability, call (312) 329-7000 or (800) 233-4100 and mention the ISBA Midyear Meeting.

Reservations also may be made online at www.starwoodmeeting.com/Book/ISBA2008.