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  • June 4, 2015 | Practice News
    ISBA Statehouse Review for the week of June 4, 2015

    ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews legislation in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act (Senate Bill 45), Mechanics Lien Act (House Bill 2635), Consular notification of foreign nationals (House Bill 1337), Condominium Property Act (House Bill 2644), Boundary-line agreements (House Bill 2744) and Municipal Code violations (House Bill 2745). More information on each bill is available below the video.

    Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act. Senate Bill 45 (Barickman, R-Bloomington; Andersson, R-Geneva) simplifies the procedures to take the deposition of an Illinois person who is subpoenaed for discovery purposes from an out-of-state court. The Act creates establishes a simple, clerical procedure in which a subpoena from an out-of-state court is reissued as a discovery subpoena in Illinois. Passed both chambers.

  • June 3, 2015 | People | Practice News
    ATG’s Peter J. Birnbaum appointed Chief Justice, Illinois Court of Claims

    Governor Bruce Rauner has appointed Peter J. Birnbaum, president and CEO, Attorneys’ Title Guaranty Fund, Inc., as chief justice of the Illinois Court of Claims. Birnbaum has served as a judge on the Court since 2004.

    The Illinois Court of Claims was established by the legislature in 1889 as a forum of limited jurisdiction to render decisions on monetary claims and lawsuits against the state. Birnbaum is one of seven judges on the Court of Claims. They are appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Illinois Senate. “I am honored to be chosen by Governor Rauner to lead the court, and I welcome the challenges and responsibility that go with the role of chief justice,” Birnbaum said. “It is a privilege to serve on a court that plays an integral role in determining the rights and responsibilities of the state and its citizens.

    During his tenure, Birnbaum has provided leadership for the court in a number of areas, for example, cases involving soldiers killed in the line of duty. He also has authored several significant opinions including Dorsey v. State, a case involving a State Trooper who killed two young girls while he was texting and driving at reckless speeds.

  • June 3, 2015 | Practice News
    Best Practice: How to adjust compensation for client origination

    Asked and Answered

    By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

    Q. Our firm is an 8 attorney general practice law firm located in Kansas City, Mo. Five of the attorneys are equity partners and the other three are associates. The two founding partners are the only ones in the firm that bring in clients - the other partners are just workers. Currently the partners are paid based upon their collections for cases/matters to which they are assigned. They are also credited for work that others do on their assigned matters as well. We are concerned that in a general practice firm such as ours, everyone must be bringing in clients and we are considering changing our compensation system to factor in credit for client origination. I would appreciate your thoughts.

  • June 1, 2015 | ISBA News | Practice News
    Illinois Bar Foundation announces $185,000 in grants

    The Illinois Bar Foundation, the charitable arm of the ISBA, approved 23 grants totaling $185,000 which will be distributed to nonprofit legal aid organizations statewide.

    Illinois Bar Foundation grant recipients for FY15 are:

    Outside of Chicago

    • Administer Justice, Elgin - $5,000
    • Catholic Urban Program’s Neighborhood Law Office, East St. Louis - $10,000
    • Farmworkers and Landscaper Advocacy Project - $5,000
    • Illinois Equal Justice Foundation- $5,000
    • Illinois Legal Aid Online- $15,000
    • Immigration Project, Bloomington - $5,000
    • Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation, East St. Louis - $15,000
    • The Parent Place, Springfield - $5,000
    • Public Interest Law Initiative- $15,000
    • Prairie State Legal Services, Rockford - $15,000
    • Pro Bono Network, Oak Park - $5,000

    Chicago

  • May 28, 2015 | Practice News
    Supreme Court amends rule to require online attorney registration

    Chief Justice Rita B. Garman and the Illinois Supreme Court announced on Wednesday changes to a rule that will now require attorneys to register online each year.

    Under Amended Supreme Court Rule 756, attorneys will also have to provide specific practice-related information to the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC).

    The amendments to Rule 756, which governs the annual attorney registration process, will make Illinois one of at least seven states that will require the online submission of registration data by next year. At least a handful of states already mandate lawyers to do so.

    ARDC Administrator Jerome Larkin said while 81 percent of Illinois' approximate 95,000 attorneys registered online this year, the rule's mandate for online registration will allow the ARDC to collect practice-related information from all lawyers, not just those who provide it voluntarily.

    Historically, lawyers have been required to provide an address and telephone number for inclusion on their public listing on the Master Roll. With the amendments, an attorney will also have to furnish to the ARDC a residential address; the name of all other states in which he or she is licensed to practice law; the type of entity at which the attorney practices; the number of lawyers working there; the areas of law the lawyer primarily practices; and whether that organization has created a written succession plan.

    "The disclosure of practice-related demographic information will allow us [the ARDC] to better understand lawyers' practices," Mr. Larkin said. "We'll be able to target our educational and regulatory resources to lawyers and assess whether those approaches are working."

    7 comments (Most recent May 29, 2015)
  • May 27, 2015 | Practice News
    Results of survey on attorney professionalism released

    All in all, a vast majority of Illinois attorneys are perceived by their colleagues as civil and professional, according to a 2014 survey of Illinois attorneys released today. At least 90 percent of survey respondents reported that most of their colleagues exhibit either civil/professional or very civil/professional behavior. 

    However, more than 85 percent of respondents reported experiencing at least one instance of uncivil or unprofessional behavior within the past six months, with sarcastic or condescending attitudes, misrepresenting or stretching the facts, or negotiating in bad faith as the most reported unprofessional behavior. 

    “Looking at these numbers, it’s clear that there is plenty of room for improvement,” said Judge Debra B. Walker, chair of the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism. “That said, I am gratified to see that nine out of 10 attorneys who responded to our survey perceive their colleagues as exhibiting civil and professional behavior.” 

    The 2014 Survey on Professionalism was designed by the Commission on Professionalism in collaboration with the National Center for Professional and Research Ethics at the University of Illinois (NCPRE). The Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission provided the Commission a randomized sample list of attorneys, proportionate by gender and location, within Illinois’ five Judicial Districts. The sample was divided by quartiles by years of admission to the bar. 

  • May 21, 2015 | Practice News
    Quick takes on Thursday's Illinois Supreme Court opinions

    Our panel of leading appellate attorneys review Thursday's Illinois Supreme Court opinions in the civil cases Marks v. Vanderventer, McVey v. M.L.K. Enterprises, LLC, Turcios v. The DeBruler Company and Warren County Soil and Water Conservation Dist. v. Walters and the criminal cases People v. Allen, People v. Gaytan and People v. Kuehner.

    CIVIL

    Marks v. Vanderventer

    By Karen Kies DeGrand, Donohue Brown Mathewson & Smyth, LLC

    Here the Illinois Supreme Court overturned the trial court’s rulings that held unconstitutional a $10 surcharge collected by a county recorder of deeds as set forth in the original and amended versions of state legislation primarily aimed at funding the Rental Housing Support Program, which the General Assembly created to help local governments address the shortage in the state of affordable, decent rental housing. The circuit court certified a class of plaintiffs required to pay the fee for recording real estate-related documents and a class of defendants consisting of the county recorders of deeds throughout the state.

  • May 21, 2015 | Practice News
    ISBA Statehouse Review for the week of May 21, 2015

    ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews legislation in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers Service tax white paper, Property fraud alert system (House Bill 3672), The Parentage Act (House Bill 1531), Lifetime revocation issue (House Bill 1446) and Court security fee (Senate Bill 804). More information on each bill is available below the video.

    Service tax white paper. The Taxpayers Federation of Illinois and the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability issued an issue brief on a service tax for Illinois at a press conference in Springfield yesterday. It recommends that the majority of professional services should be excluded from the Illinois sales tax base. Attorneys were not included in this proposed tax base. From the brief:

  • May 20, 2015 | Practice News
    Associate Judges evaluated in ISBA Poll

    Associate circuit judges in Illinois outside Cook County have been evaluated in a poll of lawyers conducted by the Illinois State Bar Association. Results are available at www.isba.org/sites/default/files/judicialevaluations/2015%20Associate%20Reappointment.pdf

    Associate judges are subject to reappointment every four years. The reappointment is accomplished through the casting of secret ballots by circuit court judges in their circuit. Successful candidates receive votes that tally three-fifths (60%) or greater in favor of their reappointment. Voting will be concluded prior to the beginning of the new associate judge terms. The new term of office for each reappointed associate judge will begin on July 1, 2015 and terminate on June 30, 2019.

    Although the decision on associate judge reappointment is made by circuit judges, the ISBA is releasing these poll results to the public, because all judges are public officials and the opinions of their professional colleagues about their performance is of public interest.

    ISBA attorneys in each judicial circuit (except Cook County) are mailed a ballot containing the names of every associate judge seeking reappointment in their circuit. Licensed attorneys who are not members of ISBA may request a ballot. Attorneys are asked to respond only if they have sufficient knowledge about the associate judge’s qualifications for judicial office to give a fair, informed opinion. Opinions expressed in the poll are of those attorneys who chose to respond and do not reflect the opinion of the ISBA or the opinion of all attorneys.

  • May 20, 2015 | Practice News
    Best Practice: How to deal with retirement

    Asked and Answered

    By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

    Q. I am the managing partner in a 12-attorney firm in Chicago. We have six partners and six associates. We are a boutique litigation firm. Three of our partners are in their mid to late 60s and should be thinking about retirement, but they seem to be in denial. How do we begin to address this issue?