In this Quick Takes for Your Practice video, attorney Rory Weiler discusses how to manage client relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic.

By Clarissa Gaff, Land of Lincoln Legal Aid Executive Director

The nation’s largest legal nonprofit funder, the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), wants attorneys outside of legal aid organizations to have opportunities to provide free legal services to low income community members. To ensure that attorneys have a variety of options for pro bono service, LSC awards Pro Bono Innovation Grants to civil legal aid providers around the country to  create new and diverse programs for other attorneys, like ISBA members, to provide legal services to those individuals with civil legal needs who cannot afford an attorney.

Attorneys and their firms operate on both sides of the online consumer and data-collecting divide. We interact with all manner of websites and services, and therefore care that private information is safely managed. We also operate websites and services where consumers and our clients expect the same. Government regulation of personal information at state, national, and supranational levels is just beginning and cannot be ignored. Since websites know no geographic boundaries, attorneys—particularly those with firms that operate in multiple states or internationally—must educate themselves about these issues. In April’s Illinois Bar Journal’s Practice HQ column, “Don’t Be a Cookie Monster,” Affinity Consulting Group’s Jeffrey Schoenberger summarizes how website cookies work and an attorney’s obligation to be aware of the internet’s data-collecting nature.

The Illinois Supreme Court announced today an emergency order which limits freezes on personal bank accounts during the COVID-19 pandemic. This order temporarily relieves debtors of the burden of asset freezes, up to the $4,000 exemption provided by law, at a time when they have limited recourse to the courts.

The order is available on the court website.

Effective Jan. 1, 2020, Illinois’ Workplace Transparency Act requires employers to make changes to anti-harassment policies, incorporate an annual training program, make changes to employment and severance agreements, and report annually to the Illinois Department of Human Rights.

Join us online from noon until 2 p.m. on Wednesday, May 6 for this introductory look at the rights of employees and the new obligations of employers; how to identify harassing behaviors as defined by federal, state, and local laws; the venues, remedies, and damages available to current and former employees; and how to advise your clients on employee handbook revisions.

Voting is now underway in the 2020 ISBA Election. ISBA's election provider Election America distributed ballots on March 26. All members of the Association (except non-lawyer members) with dues paid by March 1, 2020 are eligible to vote. 

The deadline for voting is Thursday, April 30, 2020 at 4:30 p.m. Central Time for all voting methods: e-ballot, paper or internet.

The Illinois Supreme Court, for the first time in its history, will hold oral arguments via the Zoom videoconference platform when it hears cases in May. The court is doing this to practice social distancing while still conducting court proceedings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ISBA members from across the state provide helpful advice for other attorneys during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Illinois Supreme Court has announced that attorneys with a June 30, 2020 MCLE compliance deadline may opt for a three-month extension at no cost if they choose the option by July 31, 2020. Hundreds of free accredited courses are available, including the ISBA’s member-only 15 hours of free CLE per bar year (which ends June 30), sponsored by the ISBA Mutual Insurance Company.

The full press release is as follows:

The Illinois Supreme Court recognizes that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, attorneys with last names beginning A-M in the 2018-2020 reporting period may be unable to complete their continuing education credits by the upcoming June 30, 2020 deadline. In consultation with the MCLE Board, the Court has decided to provide every attorney in this group the option to secure a no-cost, three-month extension to complete those credits. An attorney secures that extension by submitting an online report to the Board no later than July 31, 2020. 

Consider the following sequence of events: The trial court enters summary judgment in favor of the defendant and strikes the affidavit of plaintiff’s expert witness. Within 30 days, the plaintiff files a motion for reconsideration of the foregoing order. The motion is stricken because the plaintiff failed to provide the judge with a courtesy copy of the motion. The plaintiff then renotices the motion (and, presumably, provides a courtesy copy this time). The motion is heard and denied on the merits six weeks later. Within 30 days of the denial, the plaintiff files notice of appeal. If, based on the foregoing, you thought the plaintiff perfected a timely appeal, think again, writes Reuben A. Bernick in his April Illinois Bar Journal article, “Perils of the Postjudgment Motion,” which offers a practical examination of postjudgment motion practice.