ISBA News

“Recent Decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court” will air on Chicago Access Network Television, Channel 21 in Chicago, at 10 p.m. as follows: Part I will air on Tuesday, Jan. 17, and Part II will air on Tuesday, Jan. 24.

Appearing on the shows are program moderator John T. Theis, a Chicago lawyer; Cecil J. Hunt II, a professor at The John Marshall Law School; Michele M. Jochner, judicial law clerk to Justice Charles A. Freeman of the Illinois Supreme Court; and Hon. Leonard Murray, an associate judge in the Circuit Court of Cook County.

Illinois Law is a cable production of the Illinois State Bar Association and can also be viewed online at iln.isba.org/blog/illinois-law-video.

Just in time for the IBJ's 100th birthday, the ISBA is making it available for download as a PDF to allow members to read the latest issue on their iPads. And because it's in PDF, you can also view it on other tablets, phones, or your computer and even print all or part of the issue.

ISBA members, find out more and download the PDF. And don't forget that the IBJ full text back through November 1998 is fully searchable and free to all members.

50 Year Anniversary Speech

By Herbert H. Franks, ISBA Past President and Class of 1961

Today we remember Pearl Harbor and the day of infamy. This is a day of infamy also for Gov. Blagojevich. He got 14 years.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, "the life of the law is not logic, it is experience." Holmes must have had our class of senior lawyers in mind when he made this quote, because if there is one thing the people in this class have, it is experience.

I wonder how many people in this room expected to reach this day. I sure know I didn't.

After being raised on a farm and slopping the hogs and milking the cows twice a day, almost everything you do in later life is easy.

How different is the world today! When we were in law school, there might have been one or two women in our class. Now, women are the majority of law students.

When we came out to try and make our mark and living, the electric typewriter was just gaining acceptance. A few years later came fax machines, and then in dizzying speed came computers, cell phones, iPads, laptops and the list goes on. How we had to change and learn to use these things, things that our grandchildren can do automatically.

The Illinois State Bar Association's Assembly met on Saturday at the conclusion of the Midyear Meeting at the Sheraton Hotel & Towers Chicago.

Highlighting the meeting was an e-business update from Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas Kilbride. Justice Kilbride noted that the court is developing e-filing standards to be in place throughout the state. This would allow different vendors to have a framework to work with from county to county. He expects e-filing to be open across the state voluntarily by April 3, 2012.

The Assembly also approved the ISBA legislative package for 2012.