The login for the ISBA website will be disabled at noon on Thursday, September 24. This will affect access to CLE, Fastcase, ISBA Central, the store, members-only content and other features requiring login. We estimate it will take 1-5 hours to bring these services online.

During this time, the ISBA website pages not requiring a login will be available, and discussion emails via ISBA Central will still function. If you login to CLE, Fastcase, and ISBA Central before noon, you might be able to use them during the downtime.

Judge Blanche M. Manning was born in December 1934 in Chicago, Illinois.

She received her Bachelor of Education from Chicago Teachers College in 1961, a Juris Doctor from John Marshall Law School in 1967, a Master of Arts from Roosevelt University in 1972, and a Master of Laws from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1992.

Judge Manning attended law school while working as a Chicago Public School teacher. She also taught at Malcolm X Community College and DePaul University College of Law at various points throughout her career. She held many legal positions, including working as an Assistant State's Attorney for the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, supervisory trial attorney at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, general attorney at United Airlines, and Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

Bostock v Clayton County Georgia was the landmark case decided June 15, 2020 by the U.S. Supreme Court establishing that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is illegal. Don’t miss this in-depth look at how this case will impact future anti-discrimination laws, as well how the underpinning tensions of statutory interpretation and judicial philosophies brought a conservative justice to a surprising conclusion.

The Illinois Supreme Court announced the filing of lawyer disciplinary orders on September 21, 2020. Sanctions were imposed because the lawyers engaged in professional misconduct by violating state ethics law.

With the passing of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, our nation has lost one of its most brilliant and compassionate legal minds. The Illinois State Bar Association mourns her passing and this great loss to the legal community.

Ordinarily, an estate is taxed based on the value of its assets as of the decedent’s date of death. But for federal estate tax purposes, an alternate valuation date could be selected if it results in both the gross estate and the estate tax being reduced. The alternate valuation date is the date six months after the date of death. Utilizing the alternate valuation date would thus necessitate the filing of a federal estate tax return. In his September Illinois Bar Journal article, “COVID-19, Death, and Taxes,” Richard Hirschtritt discusses whether an Illinois resident who owns publicly traded stock, commercial real estate with an Illinois situs, and/or a business that has been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and has died within six months prior to the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak is subject to state or federal estate taxes.

The Illinois State Bar Association’s Lawyer Finder Service provides referrals to local lawyers Mondays through Fridays. The Service makes referrals in a number of areas of law. For the month of August 2020 there were more than 700 referrals given.

Here are the results for August 2020:

On September 16, Illinois State Bar Association President Dennis Orsey and Appellate Lawyers Association President John Fitzgerald co-hosted the 2020 Illinois Supreme Court Candidates’ Forum for the Fifth Judicial District Seat. The event featured Illinois Appellate Justices David Overstreet and Judy Cates, who are seeking the seat of retiring Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lloyd Karmeier in the November election.

Fastcase will transition all users to the newly updated version of the Fastcase legal research application starting Monday, September 21.

ISBA members receive complimentary access to Fastcase, an online legal research platform, as part of their ISBA membership.

The state of Illinois is facing a potential shortage of poll workers and judges for the upcoming November election due in large part to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Poll workers and judges play an essential role in ensuring that precincts stay open and elections are fairly held. To help sustain this foundational aspect of our democracy, the Illinois State Bar Association is encouraging interested members to consider volunteering as poll workers and judges during the upcoming election.