Practice News

Michael R. Clancy has been appointed as a Circuit Judge of Cook County, Eleventh Subcircuit. This appointment fills the vacancy created by the retirement of the Hon. Edward P. O'Brien. It takes effect on May 27, 2011, and terminates on Dec. 3, 2012.

By Peter LaSorsa I know the title of this article sounds like a germ that may overtake the country but relax it’s something less threatening but of importance nonetheless.  Before we start with IPv6 we need to discuss IPv4.  Everyone is on the Internet and logging into your computer from home or work is seamless. Behind the scenes, what really takes place is a number known as an Internet Protocol or “IP” address identifies the sender and receiver of information being sent over the Internet. Currently the industry standard for obtaining the IP address is the IPv4 protocol, however that standard will be changing in June 2011.  The reason for the change is that the IPv4 protocol is running out of IP addresses—much like with the explosion of cellular phones, the wireless wavelength bands are being overtaken. The solution to this problem is IPv6. IPv6 will give another 340 trillion IP addresses and serve to be the new standard. Why should you care and how does this affect you? Well in the future you will need to upgrade at a minimum your router or firewall or both. Now the good news is the future may be 2014 or so. There are several reasons not to run out and purchase IPv6 routers and firewalls at this time. First, many Internet Service Providers don’t have the proper technology in place to offer IPv6 services so your IPv6 router or firewall would not work. Second, even though IPv6 is rolling out in June 2011, the old IPv4 will still work and no immediate change is needed.

Asked and Answered By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. I am the Executive Director of a 75 attorney firm in Miami. We are meeting in a few months to revise our strategic plan. Some of our partners have suggested that as a result of the current business and economic climate that we start with a clean sheet of paper. Where should we start? What do you see as the key questions that we should be addressing? A. Strategic planning is essentially a five-step process. The first step begins be asking questions. Start by asking the following questions: 1.      What substantive issues does the firm face today? 2.      What issues will the firm face tomorrow? 3.      How has technology impacted (or will impact) how the firm conducts business and delivers services to clients? 4.      What are we doing and doing well? 5.      What are we not doing well? 6.      What do we need to improve or enhance? 7.      What metrics will tell us how we are doing? 8.      What should be eliminated? 9.      What are we not doing that we should be doing? 10.  What kind of training will we need to plan for?

More Illinois lawyers provided free legal services during the economic downturn according to the ARDC Annual Report. The report indicates that 29,276 Illinois attorneys provided a total of 2,328,770 pro bono legal service hours last year - a 6% increase over 2009.  The number of lawyers making monetary contributions increased 6% as well, with a total contribution of $15,266,660. Grievances against Illinois attorneys continue to decline. The Commission docketed 5,617 investigations, a 3.7% decrease from 2009 and the fewest number of docketed investigations in 18 years. The top three areas of a grievance involve problems with the client-attorney relationship including allegations of neglect (38% of all investigations), failing to communicate (21%) and conduct involving fraud or deceit (15%). Consistent with prior years, the top areas of practice most likely to lead to a grievance include criminal law, domestic relations, tort and real estate. The report shows that the Master Roll of Attorneys continues to increase. The lawyer population in Illinois rose to 86,657 as of Oct. 31, 2010. That does not include the 2,117 attorneys sworn-in in November. That total is a 2.2% increase over 2009. The counties with the greatest increase in attorney population include McHenry (3.2%), Will (2.5%), Lake (2.4%) and Cook (2.4%).