Illinois Bar Journal

“I’ve spent most of my 55 years thinking of myself as an undercover introvert,” writes Karen Erger in her Your Life’s Work column in the August 2019 Illinois Bar Journal. “I love what I do, and my work puts me behind a podium and face-to-face with strangers all the time. But I don’t enjoy or seek out those activities for their own sake, and my idea of a great day (at work, anyway) is one spent alone in my office reading, writing, and delving so deeply into my projects that I lose track of time.” In her column, Erger reflects on life as an introverted lawyer, coming to peace with that, and how she refuses to let it get the best of her.

The State Bar of California is considering a proposal that would allow legal technicians to offer legal advice and nonlawyers to share fees with attorneys. Similar proposals have drawn criticism from Illinois State Bar Association leaders, who claim they would fundamentally shift the legal landscape.

 “It has been the consistent position of the Illinois State Bar Association that the practice of law is a privilege reserved for licensed lawyers,” said ISBA President David B. Sosin. “The sharing of fees with hedge funds, multi-national corporations, and nonlawyers has been a disaster in other countries. Most importantly, nothing in the California proposal, or similar proposals and plans, address the preeminent issue, which is the protection of the public.”

It should go without saying that most attorneys will apply Illinois law to personal injury lawsuits filed in Illinois courts. But if you could rely on another state’s laws that favor your client on a substantive legal issue, why wouldn’t you? What if it would mean the difference between a multi-million-dollar verdict and a statutory cap on damages? Or, maintaining a valid cause of action versus facing a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim? In his August 2019 Illinois Bar Journal article, “Using Another State’s Laws to Your Advantage,” civil litigation defense attorney Dustin Karrison examines how Illinois courts make choice-of-law determinations in personal injury cases when Illinois’ laws conflict with laws from another state.

The ISBA has created a new section council to address food law, an increasingly specialized practice area that shows signs of surging.

The practice of food law includes legal issues affecting agriculture and farmers, health and the environment, sustainability, intellectual property and licensing, the regulation of food trends and innovation, and laws and regulations protecting consumers, says Molly Wiltshire, a Chicago-based attorney who was instrumental in drafting a proposal to create the new section.