By Michele Miller
Attorneys throughout Illinois will commemorate National Pro Bono week from Oct. 21-25, 2013 in a variety of ways -- from CLE opportunities to social events to a new online system for attorneys to find volunteer legal assignments.
By Michele Miller
Attorneys throughout Illinois will commemorate National Pro Bono week from Oct. 21-25, 2013 in a variety of ways -- from CLE opportunities to social events to a new online system for attorneys to find volunteer legal assignments.
The ISBA Senior Lawyers Section Council will present "Computer Basics for Senior Lawyers" on Oct. 18 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at National Louis University, 122 S. Michigan, Rm. 4024, Chicago. Join the Senior Lawyers with assistance from Young Lawyers at this basic workshop on becoming familiar with your computer. You will become familiar with the computer workstation, using the keyboard and the mouse, menus; Basic typing/word processing; accessing the Internet-how to do searches, “google-ing” and links; and basics of e-mail and email use.
Find out more and register at www.isba.org/sections/seniorlawyers/computerbasics
For many lawyers, sending an income withholding notice after winning a child support order is routine stuff. "Secretaries or legal assistants often prepare the documents from forms that have been in use for many years," Jennifer A. Shaw and Barry T. Underwood write in the latest ISBA Family Law newsletter.
Big mistake. Things have changed in the last 18 months or so, and "[f]ailure to recognize the latest protocols could result in complaints to the ARDC or charges of malpractice as the penalties attributable to employers who fail to withhold are substantial," Shaw and Underwood continue. Ouch.
Fortunately, their excellent article recites key federal and state statutory provisions and cases and points lawyers in the right direction. Read it.
Asked and Answered
By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC
Q. I have just been elected as the firm's first managing partner. We are a 9-attorney firm in El Paso, Texas. After a month, I am already frustrated and wish I had declined the role. I have two partners that are simply not producing, do as they please, and I am powerless. I would appreciate your thoughts.
A. Non-productive partners always pose a challenge. They are usually the “nice – easy to get along with folks” which makes it difficult to confront and deal with them as well. However, the longer that you let such problems fester the harder these situations will be to deal with in the long term. Layout performance expectations and deal with them in real time.
Consider:
The Illinois Supreme Court announced Friday the appointment of Evanston attorney Jerry A. Esrig as Cook County Circuit Judge in the Ninth Judicial Subcircuit.
Mr. Esrig, a resident of the Ninth Subcircuit, was appointed by the Court to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Allen S. Goldberg. The appointment is effective October 30, 2013 and will terminate December 1, 2014, when the position is filled by the 2014 General Election.
Justice Mary Jane Theis recommended the appointment to the Supreme Court after she announced an open application process and after the candidates were reviewed by bar associations and Justice Theis' bipartisan screening committee.
Our panel of leading appellate attorneys review Thursday's Illinois Supreme Court opinions in the civil case In re Marriage of Earlywine and the criminal case People v. Hale.
By Michael T. Reagan, Law Offices of Michael T. Reagan, Ottawa
In re Marriage of Earlywine presented the issue of whether attorneys’ fees paid to a spouse’s attorney and held in an advance payment retainer account complying with Rule 1.15 of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct is subject to a disgorgement order for payment of interim attorneys’ fees under the authority of § 501(c-1) of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act. The circuit court, finding that neither party had the financial ability or resources to pay their respective attorney fees, ordered the husband’s attorney to turn over to the wife’s attorney half of the fees previously paid.
The appellate court affirmed, and in turn was affirmed by the supreme court. The trial court’s opinion noted that the purpose of the Dissolution Act is to achieve substantial parity between the parties, and that that public policy should override the advance payment retainer device for protecting fees. The supreme court endorsed that reasoning.
ISBA President Paula H. Holderman asks Illinois Supreme Court Justice and former ISBA Board member Mary Jane Theis about how the court selects its cases, the justices living together in Springfield and the court's move to Chicago for this term.
Fastcase has enhanced its Authority Check feature to show you where courts have noted that a case has been treated negatively (i.e., reversed or overruled on any grounds). The new feature, "Bad Law Bot," uses algorithms to find negative citation history. Bad Law Bot then flags those cases that have negative citation history and provides you with the links to those cases. Keep in mind that Bad Law Bot is not intended to be a complete replacement for a full editorial citator or for reading all later-citing cases. A red flag means that there's likely negative treatment, since a court has said as much by their use of a negative citation, but no red flag does not necessarily mean that a case is still good law. If a case has been overturned but no court opinion has cited to it yet, Bad Law Bot won't be able to find any citation signal information.
Bad Law Bot is a part of Fastcase’s Authority Check, which means it’s free to you as a member of the Illinois State Bar Association. For more information, visit www.fastcase.com/badlawbot.
A recent and groundbreaking Illinois Appellate Court case, Fifield and Enterprise Finance Group, Inc. v. Premier Dealer Services, Inc., 2013 IL App (1st) 120327, holds that "a noncompetition agreement is not valid and enforceable if an employee is fired or resigns within two years,” Ayla N. Ellison writes in the September issue of ISBA’s Labor & Employment Law newsletter.
“Illinois companies can still require newly hired workers to sign noncompetition agreements, but if the employee is employed for less than two years the restrictive covenant will lack the consideration necessary to be enforceable by an employer," Ellison writes. "There must be two years of continuous employment to be considered adequate consideration to support a postemployment restrictive covenant.” Read her summary and analysis of Fifield.
Asked and Answered
By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC
Q. We are an 8-attorney firm in Fort Worth, Texas. We have two partners - myself and my partner. Our approach to compensation has been based upon our ownership interest percentages which have been adjusted over time based upon working attorney (personal) collections. We have been discussing implementing a formula using working attorney collections and also bringing client origination credit into the equation as well - weighing each equally. Our ownership percentages would be adjusted based upon the fee credit ratio between the two of us. I would appreciate your thoughts on the matter.
A. My first thought is whether you are trying to build a firm-first firm or a group of separate practitioners. How will you incorporate other factors such as firm management, business development, mentoring and training associates, etc? If both of you are making roughly equal contributions in these areas your approach might have merit but be careful that you do not head down the path of separate practices - and become a lone ranger firm. My other concern is with client origination - this often gets tricky. With only two partners you don't have anyone to serve in the capacity of attribution police when and if there are disagreements as to origination credit. (attribution committee) So you will have to be able to discuss this subject openly and hopefully upfront. Share origination credit when appropriate, allocate to firm when it appears that a client came to the firm based upon firm brand or name recognition, and consider a 5-year sunset provision whereby the credit reverts to firm or responsible attorneys.