The Illinois Bar Foundation (IBF) has elected its officers for the organization’s 2019-20 fiscal year. They are: Deane B. Brown, shareholder at Hughes Socol Piers Resnik Dym, Ltd., president; William A. Peithmann, principal of The Peithmann Law Office, first vice president; and Lisa M. Nyuli, partner at Ariano Hardy Ritt Nyuli Richmond Lytle & Goettel P.C., second vice president. Sandra Crawford, principal of Law Crawford, P.C., was elected third vice president. Mark L. Karno, principal of Mark L. Karno & Associates, L.L.C., was elected as treasurer and Lauren Tuckey Murray, attorney at Bellows Law Group, was elected as secretary.

Many attorneys spend their time and resources focusing on getting more leads but fail to realize that what they do with those leads is just as important as generating them.

The ISBA’s whitepaper on managing leads and converting prospects into paying clients highlights four major components of improving conversion rates, which include training for your front office and intake staff; specific tactics and strategies to maximize conversion at each stage; an intake customer relationship management software; and tracking and measuring key metrics.  

Attorney Steve Flores discusses fiduciary obligations that apply to employers who maintain qualified retirement plans.

In his July 2019 Illinois Bar Journal article, “Responding to Affirmative Defense,” Jake Crabbs, a law clerk for Justice Mathias W. Delort in the Illinois Appellate Court (First District), lays out a plan for responding to affirmative defenses in the early stages of litigation. To set the stage, he asks you to “[i]magine you have filed a civil complaint for breach of a simple personal-loan contract. Predictably, the defendant responds with a section 2-619.1 combined motion to dismiss and throws everything into it. After a tedious round of briefing and even oral arguments, the judge denies the motion entirely and orders the defendant to answer the complaint. Finally, you assume, this simple, little case can get moving. But you are wrong. When the defendant files her answer, she also raises 11 affirmative defenses. Eleven! Some of the defenses are merely one-sentence denials of your well-pleaded allegations and several were already raised in her motion to dismiss. Does opposing counsel even know what affirmative defenses are? Regardless, you are now in for another round of time-consuming motion practice.”

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 June 2019 there were more than 800 referrals given.

Here are the results for June 2019:

The American Bar Endowment (ABE) announced today that it is now accepting applications for its 2020 Opportunity Grant Program cycle. 

ABE Opportunity Grants will be awarded to "boots-on-the-ground" initiatives and innovative projects that:

• Enhance access to justice through innovative legal services delivery;
• Promote the rule of law and improve the justice system; and
• Increase the public’s understanding of the law and the legal system and increase civic engagement.

The peculiarities of the Illinois estate tax and the confusing math underlying it require nuanced, cautious approaches to estate planning and gift giving. In his July Illinois Bar Journal article, “Wrapping Your Head Around the Illinois Estate Tax,” Robert J. Kolasa explains the peculiarities of the Illinois estate tax and the subsequent and considerable changes in estate planning strategies. He begins by noting that while the federal and Illinois estate calculations share similarities, they are different in many respects. Illinois’ formula selects the lower of either the “2011 calculation” under former Section 2011 of the Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) or the “hypothetical tax” based on federal estate taxes reckoned with a $4 million estate tax exclusion amount. Also included are several helpful calculation tables showing various estate-planning outcomes.

The ISBA Springfield and Chicago offices will be closed for the holiday beginning Thursday, July 4. They will reopen on Monday, July 8. During this time, members can expect the following:

• E-Clips will not be delivered for the duration of this period.
• The Bar News will not be delivered on Thursday, July 4. 

All business and e-newsletter distribution will resume as usual on Monday, July 8. 

Hon. James F. McCluskey, the Illinois State Bar Association’s immediate past president, will be honored at a reception hosted by the Illinois State Bar Association and Illinois Bar Foundation at Maggiano’s Little Italy, 240 Oakbrook Center, Oak Brook on Thursday, July 18 from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. 

Tickets can be purchased online.

Before becoming an associate judge of the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit, Judge McCluskey was a founding member of Momkus McCluskey, LLC. There he handled 60 jury trials as a commercial litigator. In addition to serving as the 2018-2019 ISBA president, Judge McCluskey served as president of the DuPage County Bar Association, and is a member of the Kane County Bar Association and West Suburban Bar Association. He is a Gold Fellow of the IBF. He received a bachelor’s degree from Elmhurst College, a J.D. from Northern Illinois University College of Law, and an L.L.M. from the John Marshall Law School.

The Illinois Department of Central Management Services is seeking an assistant labor counsel in Chicago.

Responsibilities of the position include performing technical  and  legal  work  in  the  areas  of  labor  agreements  and  arbitration;  representing  the  state  in arbitration  hearings  and  before  the Illinois  Labor  Relations  Board;  reviewing  resolutions and  disciplinary  actions; recommending administrative action on labor relations issues; and carrying out public speaking assignments at off-site locations.