The Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA) has created an informational page about the impact of COVID-19 on ISBA meetings, events, and programs. 

While developments related to COVID-19 continue to unfold, the ISBA is monitoring a variety of sources, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, World Health Organization, Illinois Department of Public Health, and Cook County Department for Public Health, for the latest updates.

Join us  via live webcast from noon until 1 p.m. Thursday, April 2 to learn how to to be prepared for a professional investigation and analysis of a trip and fall claim. Plaintiff and defense attorneys working in the civil litigation arena with basic practice experience who attend this online seminar will better understand: the anatomy of a case and case intake; methods for handing these types of cases, regardless of the specifics of the claim; the considerations of a litigation and how to preserve evidence; how to file a complaint and respond to pleadings; how to obtain discovery; and effective resolution options.

With recent concerns regarding COVID-19, the Illinois Bar Foundation board and staff have made the difficult decision to postpone tomorrow night's Lawyers Rock concert fundraiser.

In their March 2020 Illinois Bar Journal article, “Talk Shows,” Allen Wall and Caitlyn Culbertson consider the phenomenon of the deponent who has undergone careful preparations to answer deposition questions truthfully and in the most simple and direct manner possible, but then ends up providing answers that go far beyond what is necessary. In so doing, the deponent often unwittingly promotes the interests of one litigant at the expense of another. Why do deponents often provide far more information than is needed and what can attorneys do to help deponents avoid talking too much during deposition questioning? As many attorneys have never been witnesses answering questions in a deposition, Wall and Culbertson suggest that exploring a talkative deponent’s mindset will allow them to better prepare such clients and witnesses for depositions.

By Marlo Del Percio and Victor P. Filippini, Jr. 

The novel coronavirus known as the COVID-19 virus has made international headlines for the resulting quarantines and work-stoppages as much as for the actual symptoms of the virus. Should the COVID-19 virus become widespread in Illinois, certain legal barriers may hamper local governments’ ability to continue to operate safely and effectively. 

Please save the date for the Illinois Bar Foundation’s Lawyers Rock presented by ISBA Mutual on Thursday, March 12 at the Lincoln Hall in Chicago. Enjoy live music and lots of fun as lawyers rock out for justice. The proceeds of this event help the Illinois Bar Foundation ensure access to justice and support juvenile justice causes through the Foundation’s M. Denny Hassakis Fund. General Admission is $50 per person and VIP tickets are $100 per person. A limited quantity of reduced price YLD General Admission tickets are available for current ISBA YLD members.

Jerome Larkin, the administrator of the Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission (ARDC) of the Supreme Court of Illinois, the entity that investigates and prosecutes attorney misconduct, has announced the following promotions and new hires at the ARDC. The changes are the result of months of planning and are spurred by various forces, including the broadening of the ARDC’s mission to include education and outreach, shifts in discipline caseloads, and retirements from the ARDC’s workforce.  

Join us in Chicago or via live webcast from 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Thursday, March 26 to learn how to master Microsoft Word. For most law offices, Microsoft Word is the core production tool used to create a work product. Further, legal users require more from Word than almost any other profession because the documents produced are necessarily complex. Unfortunately, most legal users find Word frustrating. Getting documents to look the way you want them to is often described as a "wrestling match" where attorneys have to try and "outsmart the program." Some advanced features like automatic paragraph numbering, tables of contents, and tables of authority can seem completely inaccessible. The good news is that once you understand how Word works, it is completely controllable. Issues like "how do I fix this mess?" can be avoided before they occur. Designed by lawyers, for lawyers (and staff), this program helps you master and control Word. Imagine if you spent all of your time creating content and none of it fighting the program!

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 February 2020 there were more than 600 referrals given.

Here are the results for February 2020: