People

J. Gordon Henry, age 95, passed away in Naples, Fla. on Dec. 6, 2011.

Before moving to Marco Island in 1981, Gordon worked as Senior Vice President and Trust Counsel at the Northern Trust Company in Chicago.

His principal avocation was teaching and he devoted significant time organizing and teaching courses in estate planning and business law in numerous states throughout the country. His most important legal advocacy was as a member of a five-member Federal Taxation Section Committee which succeeded in causing Congress to repeal a complex law that would have had a devastating effect on the administration of decedents' estates.

Gordon assumed multiple leadership positions throughout his lifetime in community, church, athletic, and school-based committees and Boards in Illinois and Florida. He served as Commander of the Marco Island Power Squadron, Commodore of both the Marco Cruise Club and the Marco Bay Yacht and Sailing Club, and Director of the Marco Island Yacht Club and YMCA. With his wife Coke Henry, he became cruise planner extraordinaire and a backwater specialist navigating through dense mangrove islands in the Everglades.

His family thanks all of Gordon's friends and acquaintances on Marco Island who helped provide him with a deeply satisfying and happy retirement. Gordon was predeceased by his first wife of 41 years, Aileen Wilson; and his second wife of 24 years, Carol Seaman Sudler.

Gordon is survived by a daughter Laura Henry of Zion, IL; and two stepchildren Carroll and Elizabeth Sudler of Los Angeles, CA and Sag Harbor, NY.

Effective January 1, 2012, the State of Illinois’ Supreme Court appointed Johnson & Bell, Ltd. Shareholder Joseph R. Marconi as Advisor to the Judicial Conference Committee on Discovery Procedures. Mr. Marconi is the chair of the Business Litigation/Transactions group at the firm.

The Committee is comprised of circuit court judges from around the state and is chaired by Justice Maureen E. Connors of the First District Appellate Court. As directed by the Supreme Court, the Committee “shall investigate and make recommendations on innovative means of expediting pretrial discovery and ending any abuses of the discovery process so as to promote early settlement discussions and encourage civility among attorneys.” The Committee reappointed Advisors Eugene Pavalon of Pavalon & Gifford (Chicago), Paul E. Root (Chicago), and David Mueller of Cassiday & Mueller (Peoria). Professor Marc D. Ginsberg of The John Marshall Law School was also reappointed as “Professor-Reporter” to the Committee.

Donohue Brown Mathewson & Smyth LLC is pleased to announce that Michael Borree and Timothy Hogan have been elected to the partnership.

Michael Borree's practice is focused on professional malpractice defense, products liability defense, and commercial litigation. Mr.
Borree joined the firm after practicing at a Chicago litigation firm. He graduated from DePaul University College of Law, cum laude, in 2003. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1999.

Timothy L. Hogan's practice is concentrated on professional liability, products liability and commercial matters. Mr. Hogan joined the firm following a clerkship with Judge Lynn M. Egan in the Law Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County. He is a graduate of Loyola University Chicago School of Law (2002), where he was on the Dean's List, staff editor of the Loyola University Consumer
Law Journal, and a member of the London Advocacy Program. He received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University.

About DBMS

Donohue Brown Mathewson & Smyth LLC is one of Chicago's pre-eminent trial practice boutiques. Founded in 1995, the firm successfully tries difficult, high exposure cases in the country's most challenging jurisdictions. The firm is known as one of the "go to" firms in Chicago for particularly difficult or high stakes cases and, since its founding, no firm in Chicago has tried as many complex cases as successfully as DBMS.

Judge Frank J. McGarr, the son of a Chicago plumber, sat on the federal bench for 18 years and presided over a number of significant cases that included Oakland A's owner Charles O. Finley's lawsuit against then-baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn.

Judge McGarr also was chairman of then-Gov. George Ryan's Commission on Capital Punishment in the early 2000s, which paved the way for the state's 2011 abolition of the death penalty.

"Frank was the perfect guy to chair this group, to lead the discourse on a topic that was and remains such a lightning rod issue," said U.S. District Court Judge Charles P. Kocoras. "Looking back on what took place back then, I can't imagine a better person to bring about a consensus from people with such discordant views."

The commission's report concluded that the system was deeply flawed and offered scores of proposals, a dozen of which Judge McGarr said at the time were essential to "meaningful reform," including the videotaping of interrogations.

Judge McGarr, 90, the chief judge for the U.S. District Court's Northern Illinois District from 1981 to 1986, died Friday, Jan. 6, at his Downers Grove home, after a long struggle with Parkinson's disease.

"As a judge, he never took himself too seriously," said his daughter Patricia DiMaria. "He would say, 'You don't have honor and intelligence, just by putting on a robe.' "