ISBA News

The Illinois Bar Foundation, the charitable arm of the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA), has elected its officers for the organization’s 2015-16 fiscal year. They are: Shawn S. Kasserman, founding member, Tomasik Kotin & Kasserman, LLC, president; Elizabeth A. Kaveny, partner, Burke, Wise, Morrissey & Kaveny, first vice president; Perry J. Browder, shareholder, Simmons Hanly Conroy, second vice president; Timothy W. Kelly, principal, Kelly Law Offices, third vice president; Lisa M. Nyuli, partner, Ariano Hardy Ritt Nyuli Richmond Lytle & Goettel P.C., treasurer; and Donald Tracy, partner, Brown, Hay & Stephens, LLC, secretary.

The Illinois Bar Foundation, which is the charitable arm of the Illinois State Bar Association, strives to ensure meaningful access to the justice system, especially for those with limited means, and to assist lawyers who can no longer support themselves due to incapacity. This year, the foundation will distribute more than $850,000. The Illinois Bar Foundation is located at 20 S. Clark St., Suite 910, Chicago, IL  60603. Call (312) 726-6072 or visit www.illinoisbarfoundation.org.

The Illinois State Bar Association issued two ethics opinions June 30, 2015:

• Ethics Opinion 15-01: An in-house lawyer, admitted to the bar of a state other than Illinois but with a permanent office in Illinois, may practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office on behalf of his or her employer without a limited license under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 716. Such a lawyer’s practice is restricted to those activities that are authorized by 37 C.F.R. 11.5(b).
• Ethics Opinion 15-02: A lawyer may deposit his own funds into a client trust account to pay bank service charges on that account, and should pay himself back such funds when they are no longer necessary for that purpose. Unidentified funds contained in a client trust account must, after one (1) year from the discovery of the unidentified funds, be remitted to the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois. Unclaimed funds contained in a client trust account should, after five (5) years, be remitted to the State as abandoned property.

View our full database of ethics questions on our ethics page at www.isba.org/ethics

The Illinois State Bar Association's Board of Governors elected a new secretary and treasurer at its meeting June 20 in Lake Geneva. For the first time in many years, President Umberto S. Davi held the Board's organizational meeting in conjunction with the Annual Meeting.

David Sosin, of Orland Park, was named treasurer. He is the founding partner in the Orland Park firm of Sosin & Arnold, Ltd. He has served on the Board of Governors since 2013 and is a past president of the Illinois Bar Foundation. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the ISBA Mutual Insurance Company. Sosin has been honored as a 2011 Laureate of the ISBA Academy of Illinois Lawyers and has received an ISBA Board of Governors Award.

Sonni Choi Williams, of Peoria, will serve as secretary. She is Deputy Corporation Counsel for the City of Peoria. Williams has served on the Board of Governors since 2012 and the Assembly since 2004. She received the ISBA Diversity Leadership Award in 2015.

The Board welcomed new members Dennis J. Orsey of Granite City, Daniel R. Saeddi of Chicago, Kent A. Gaertner of Wheaton and Rory T. Weiler of St. Charles.

President Davi appointed Williams and Chantelle Porter to the Board of the Illinois Bar Foundation.

The ISBA 139th Annual Meeting kicked off Thursday at the Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva, Wis. We will celebrate the many accomplishments of ISBA President Richard Felice and, we will celebrate the induction of 2015-16 President Umberto Davi. The Grand Geneva Resort provides an ideal setting for this gathering of the profession. Follow along and join the conversation on Twitter at #139thAnnual.

• June 18 - 20, 2015
• Grand Geneva Resort & Spa, Lake Geneva, Wis.

Full schedule and more information available at www.isba.org/annual