Practice News

The Illinois Supreme Court announced the filing of lawyer disciplinary orders on January 24, 2025. Sanctions were imposed because the lawyers engaged in professional misconduct by violating state ethics law.

 In their January 2025 Illinois Bar Journal article, “Powerful or Powerless?,” Thomas Osran and Robert Held focus on amendments to the Illinois Power of Attorney Act that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2025. Osran and Held note the amendments will help when third parties refuse to honor validly drafted and executed POAs. But, unhelpfully (and perhaps fatally), they add, the law creates no new teeth to enforce unreasonable refusals to honor valid POAs and lists 14 new ways for banks and others to legally refuse to honor otherwise valid POAs.

 “Perhaps no professional shortcoming is more widely resented than procrastination,” states Illinois Rule of Professional Conduct 1.3, Comment [3]. As explained in the Illinois Bar Journal January cover story, “The Procrastination Puzzle,” from a physiological standpoint, procrastination pits two sections of the brain against each other: the prefrontal cortex, which handles logic, reason, and organizational skills; and the limbic system, which triggers our gratification and fight-or-flight reflexes. The problem?

The Illinois Supreme Court announced today the release of a newly redesigned Annual Report Administrative Summary for 2023.

The Illinois Courts Annual Report for 2023 contains a summary of the day-to-day operations of the Supreme, Appellate and Circuit Court, and highlights judges, court managers, committees, the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, and other justice partners who carry out the work of the third branch of government.