People

[caption id="attachment_19475" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Charles Flack"][/caption] Charles "Chick" Flack, 83, passed away last month at Wesley Village Rehabilitation Center in Macomb. Mr. Flack attended Macomb schools and graduated from Northwester University in 1951 and Northwestern University Law School in 1954. He joined his father and George B. Kerman in the practice of law in 1954 and practiced until his retirement from Flack, McRaven and Stephen's in 1997. Mr. Flack served in the U.S. Navy during World War II aboard the carrier USS Enterprise and USS Midway. Read the full obituary in the McDonough Voice.

[caption id="attachment_19421" align="alignright" width="134" caption="Mary Patricia Benz"][/caption] Mary Patricia Benz, an experienced trial and appellate lawyer, opened her practice in downtown Chicago concentrating on litigation and appeals, mediation and arbitration, and lawyer professional responsibility matters. In her business model, Ms. Benz often works with co-counsel, adding collaborative services and offering clients an efficient, creative and personal approach to complex legal problems. Ms. Benz has over 30 years of experience in state and federal courts and will focus on dispute resolution for individuals and businesses including lawyers, educators, and other professionals. Recent cases include a dispute among the principals of a real estate development company, a contract dispute among pharmaceutical vendors, an alleged class action involving claims of violation of individuals’ rights of publicity, insurance disputes involving property damage coverage and title insurance, consumer disputes, breach of fiduciary duty claims, employment disputes, professional malpractice and malicious prosecution claims, disputes related to attorney’s fees and professional discipline, and legal ethics counseling. For more than 10 years, Ms. Benz served as a volunteer on the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC) hearing and inquiry boards providing her with a solid base for representing lawyers at ARDC and counseling lawyers about ethics issues.

[caption id="attachment_19056" align="alignright" width="120" caption="Dorothy W. Spomer"][/caption] Southern Illinois lost a legal pioneer on Saturday, April 23. Dorothy Wilbourn Spomer, 90, passed away in Cape Girardeau. Dorothy held the distinction of being the first woman judge in Southern Illinois, having been elected Alexander County Judge in 1950 and later Circuit Judge. After 27 years, she retired from the bench, only to soon be appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court to become the first female to sit on the Fifth District Appellate Court. She left the court in 1980 and joined the practice of law with her husband, W.C. Spomer. They practiced as Spomer and Spomer until 1992. Judge Spomer graduated at the age of 22 with honors from the University of Illinois School of Law, where she was a member of the Order of the Coif. Her first case after law school was with her father, attorney Asa Wilbourn, before the Supreme Court, where she argued and won an election contest lawsuit. During her judicial career, Judge Spomer heard cases throughout Southern Illinois and garnered the reputation as a principled, fair-minded jurist. Quiet and demur, she led by example. Always prepared and proficient in shorthand, it was not unusual for her notes to rival those of the court reporter. In 2009, she was a recipient of Southern Illinois University's Inspiring Women of Achievement Award.

The Chicago Alumni Chapter of Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity's "Team PAD" participated in the 2011 March of Dimes Walk for Babies on April 17 along the Chicago Lakefront.  Since 1998, Team PAD has raised over $100,00 for this charity. This year's team members included (left to right): Royal F. Berg, Colin Norris, Sharon Hunt-Muryn, Michael Muryn, Edward “Skip” Meyer,  PAD District Justice John K. Norris, Team PAD Captain Julie-April Montgomery, Kristy Norris and Sean Norris.