Central Illinois

Thomas Q. Keefe, Jr., trial attorney and Interim Dean of the St. Louis University School of Law, will be honored at the Fourth Annual Joseph R. Bartylak Award Dinner on Friday, May 3, at the Governor’s Mansion in Springfield.         

The Lawyers’ Assistance Program has been confidentially assisting Illinois lawyers, judges, law students and their families with alcohol, substance abuse and mental health issues since 1980. LAP created the Joseph R. Bartylak Award to be awarded annually to deserving ‘downstate’ volunteers. Joe Bartylak served LAP since its inception as an incorporator, volunteer, Board member and as the Associate Director from 2002-2007. Joe also served as Director of Land of Lincoln Legal Services for many years.

This year we will honor Dean Keefe for his continued support of LAP and its mission. Tom exemplifies the qualities that Joe brought to this important work.

Dinner tickets are $75 per person. Tables of 8 may be purchased for $600. If you are interested in attending, please contact Hon. James Radcliffe (ret.), Associate Director, so that we can include you on our mailing list.  He can be reached via mail at 2217 West Main Street, Belleville, IL 62226; via e-mail at jradcliffe@illinoislap.org.  and via phone at (618) 444-9706.

ISBA Laureate Mary Lee Leahy passed away Wednesday in Chicago. She was 72. Leahy was best known for winning the U.S. Supreme Court case Rutan v. Republican Party of Illinois – which banned most political hiring. She passed away in her Chicago condominum following a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Here is the bio from her 2001 Laureate induction: Two years after she graduated from law school in 1966, Mary Lee Leahy was principal attorney in the first of several landmark cases she has won in her distinguished career.

Pickering versus Board of Education, argued in the U.S. Supreme Court, established the right of public employees to publicly criticize their employers.

Perhaps her most familiar case – Rutan – was a class action decided in 1990 by the U.S. Supreme Court. It established the right of public employees to support or not to support a political party or candidate for public office without being denied promotion, transfer, recall from lay-off and employment due to a political patronage system. As the saying goes, "this changed everything."

ISBA Laureate and Attorneys’ Title Guaranty Fund, Inc. founder Stanley B. Balbach, Sr., 92 of Savoy died November 12, 2012 at his Savoy home.

Mr. Balbach was born December 26, 1919 in Normal, the son of Nyle Jacob and Gertrude (Cory) Balbach. He married Sarah T. Witherspoon on May 22, 1944 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and she survives. He is also survived by a son, Byron Balbach. (Jeanne) of Urbana, daughters, Nancy Fehr (Tom) of St. George, Utah, Barbara Balbach-Haines (Jack) of Champaign, Edith Balbach of Palm Springs, California, six grandchildren, two step grandchildren, seven great grandchildren, seven step great grandchildren and one step great-great grandchild. He is preceded in death by a son, Jacob.

The Illinois Supreme Court has appointed retired Judge Joe R. Vespa to be Resident Circuit Judge of Stark County. This fills a vacancy created by the retirement of the Honorable Stuart P. Borden.This appointment is effective Dec. 3, 2012 and terminates on April 1, 2013.