Illinois Bar Journal

Verbosity, prolixity, circumlocution … impressive words that are also the weaknesses of many a lawyer. In his March Illinois Bar Journal Feedback Loops column, “Half-Life Your Message,” Patrick Barry walks through an exercise developed by University of Michigan researchers designed to help you discover and prioritize the core message of whatever you are trying to communicate. “Most discover that they can express their main point in less time than they originally thought.

In his March Illinois Bar Journal article, “Don’t SLAPP the Messenger,” Bryan G. Lesser explores why the General Assembly amended the Illinois Citizens Participation Act to expressly cover the freedom of the press. The amendment, effective Jan. 1, 2026, aims to protect the First Amendment and deter politically-motivated lawsuits in Illinois courts, such as some strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP). Lesser considers how the amendment could shape future litigation and assesses strategies for both plaintiffs and defendants in SLAPP cases.

In the March issue of the Illinois Bar Journal, Reuben A. Bernick revisits a previous IBJ article of his assessing the conflict between: a) cases holding that postdecree proceeds from the sale of retirement assets were income subject to child support and maintenance and b) other cases holding that such proceeds were not income and therefore not subject to support obligations. Reuben, in his March 2026 article, “Divorced Income,” says there continues to be no definitive resolution to this conflict in the caselaw.

Molshree Sharma in her February Illinois Bar Journal article, “When Courts Create Rules of Return,” notes that courts have sometimes ordered the return of a minor child under specific conditions that the petitioning parent must comply with to balance the competing concerns of ensuring the return of minor children to their habitual residence with preventing or ideally eliminating grave harm. These conditions are typically called “ameliorative measures” or “undertakings.” In her article, Sharma assesses the split in the U.S.