ISBA News

The Illinois State Bar Association invites members of the Young Lawyers Division to enter the Lincoln Award Legal Writing Contest and take aim at the $2,000 First Place Prize!

You're out in the trenches... you know the hot topics in your field...the legal developments you and your colleagues grapple with in the real world of lawyering.  We invite you to share your hard-won knowledge and maybe win $2,000 in prize money by entering the 2013 Lincoln Award Legal Writing Contest.
 
Get the details at www.isba.org/ibj/lincolnwritingaward. And don't delay – the deadline for filing a notice to enter the contest is July 16. Good luck!

The Illinois State Bar Association’s Lawyer Finder Service provides referrals to local lawyers Mondays through Fridays. The Service makes referrals in a number of areas of law. For the month of May 2012, ISBA helped people in need of legal services find lawyers in the following areas:

John Lafond is one of those rare people who enjoys being slapped up side the head day after day with perspective.

"Every day I see people getting by with not very much at all. I'm grateful for every little bit of what I've got. It's just an added bonus when you can do something that brings spiritual satisfaction to the material comforts," he said.

Lafond is not a minister or a counselor. He's a lawyer practicing in a niche that few pursue: public service law.

The 52-year-old Urbana man has spent all of his 25-year career with Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation, advocating in civil matters for those who can't afford a lawyer. For that, he's being honored next month by the Illinois State Bar Association with the first annual Joseph Bartylak Memorial Legal Services Award.

Read the full feature story in the Champaign News-Gazette

Jean A. Kenol, an attorney with the Joliet law firm of Mahoney, Silverman & Cross, LLC, has been appointed to an at-large Board of Governors seat of the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA).  The 27-member board directs the operations and activities of the bar association.

ISBA President-elect John E. Thies nominated Kenol at the May 18 meeting of the Board of Governors. The Board approved the appointment of Kenol to a two-year term beginning at the ISBA Annual Meeting in June. The at-large board seat, subject to nomination each year by the incoming president, was established in 2011 to reflect under-represented segments of the association in its governance.