The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has become an assembly line for Schedule A lawsuits, in which the complaint’s first exhibit names a list of the defendants—mostly small, Chinese-based sellers on platforms like Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba. Although not a class action, Schedule A complaints amass online storefronts to consolidate battles against intellectual property theft.
Illinois Bar Journal
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January 20, 2026 | Practice News
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January 12, 2026 | Practice News
“Compatible rules of evidence would certainly make life easier for lawyers who try cases in both federal and state courts,” writes Gino L.
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January 5, 2026 | Practice News
The Illinois Bar Journal’s January cover story, “Help Is on the Way,” dives deep into the ARDC’s new guide for attorneys interested in implementing artificial intelligence in their practice. The IBJ interviews the guide’s author as well as other attorneys who see the fast-evolving technology as a key tool for attorneys in the new year. That said, the IBJ also explores the caveats the ARDC’s guide lays out for using AI ethically and accurately.
Read the "Help Is on the Way" in the January Illinois Bar Journal.
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December 15, 2025 | Practice News
Still looking for holiday gift ideas for colleagues? Check out the Illinois Bar Journal’s “Holiday Gift Guide 2025,” written by Pointers From Practice HQ columnists Jeffrey S. Krause and Jeffrey S. Schoenberger. The list includes productivity products, apps, gadgets, and other items that will bring value, efficiency, and perhaps even a bit of fun to your working day.
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December 8, 2025 | Practice News
The need to obtain school student records may arise in everything from dissolution of marriage proceedings to general civil litigation and administrative proceedings, such as grievance proceedings involving school staff, observes Christian Ketter in his December Illinois Bar Journal article, “What’s in the File?” But Ketter notes the Illinois School Student Records Act ensures that a student’s individually identifiable information remains insulated from those contexts.
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December 1, 2025 | Practice News
New Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice P. Scott Neville, Jr., grew up in the Chicago Bronzeville neighborhood under challenging circumstances. As recounted in “Ready To Serve,” the Illinois Bar Journal’s December profile of the chief justice, those years “were challenging for his family and especially his mother, a schoolteacher,” Chief Justice Neville says. “But I maintain that those very difficult times made me the kind of person I am. I often say I grew up on the rough side of the mountain,” he says. “But it is pressure that turns coal into diamonds.
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November 24, 2025 | Practice News
“Lawyers often regard procedural history as a formality and as something to endure, like the seat-belt announcement on an airplane,” writes Justice Michael B.
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November 18, 2025 | Practice News
The November issue of the Illinois Bar Journal features two articles concerning gender violence and sexual abuse. The first is Whitney L. Barr’s “Gender Violence in the Workplace” and provides an in-depth discussion of the expanded protections included in recent amendments to the Gender Violence Act. The second is “Stand and Deliver” by Peter S. Stamatis, Steven S.
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November 10, 2025 | Practice News
In his November 2025 Illinois Bar Journal article, “Where Civil Law Ends & Criminal Begins,” Vadim A. Glozman calls attention to a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions drawing lines between bad or faulty business practices and criminal activity. What starts as a billing issue, regulatory inquiry, or business dispute, Glozman shows, can quickly escalate into something far more serious. A client forwards a grand jury subpoena. Days later, they’re calling about a target letter.
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November 3, 2025 | Practice News
In 2024, romance scams cost Americans $697 million, with those targeting people over 60 accounting for $277 million of that, according to research presented at a recent ISBA CLE program titled, “Don’t Let a Romance Scammer Steal Your Client’s Heart and Business.” The program’s presenters are featured in the Illinois Bar Journal’s November cover story, “Scams of the Heart,” which describes the nature of various scams, why they are so ensnaring, and what attorneys of elderly clients an