The Illinois Judges Foundation and the Illinois Bar Foundation will honor retired Justice Philip J. Rarick, Hon. Carole K. Bellows, and attorney Harvey B. Stephens for their exemplary careers and dedication to advancing the legal profession on Tuesday, May 15, at the Legal Luminary Reception at the Illinois State Library in Springfield, Ill.
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 March 2018 there were over 900 referrals given.
Here are the results for March 2018:
The U.S. Attorney's Office Northern District of Illinois is accepting applications for an assistant United States attorney opening in its Civil Division, primarily to handle bankruptcy and commercial lien cases and matters.
Applicants must possess a J.D. degree, be an active member of the bar (any jurisdiction), and have at least two years post-J.D. experience in bankruptcy practice. U.S. citizenship is required.
Preferred qualifications: Excellent academics, significant litigation experience, bankruptcy law experience, strong legal writing skills, and commitment to public service.
The Illinois Supreme Court handed down one opinion today in People v. Pepitone. At issue in this case was whether Section 11-9.4-1(b) of the Criminal Code of 2012, which prohibits sexual predators or child sex offenders to knowingly be present in any public park building or on real property comprising any public park, is facially violative of substantive due process. Jay Wiegman of the Office of the State Appellate Defender reviews the court's ruling.
Section 11-9.4-1(b) of the Criminal Code of 2012 prohibits “sexual predators” and “child sex offenders” from being knowingly present in any public park building or on real property comprising any public park. 720 ILCS 5/11 9.4 1(b) (West 2016). In People v. Pepitone, 2018 IL 122034, the Illinois Supreme Court considered whether this statute was facially violative of substantive due process and determined that it was not.
The defendant in Pepitone, who had been convicted in 1999 of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and sentenced to a six-year prison term, was arrested in 2013 while walking his dog in a public park in Bolingbrook. A jury found him guilty of being a child sex offender in a public park, and he was sentenced to 24 months’ conditional discharge, 100 hours of public service, and $400 in fines and costs.
Please join us at the ISBA Young Lawyers Division Bean Bag Tournament on Saturday, May 12 to show off your bean bag tossing skills. Groups will compete for first place in this annual tournament. Interested participants can register as a team or individually to be paired with another YLD member. We hope you help us continue this tradition of giving by joining us this year at our new location, the Firefighters Lake Club in Springfield.
Eric J. Anderson, partner with Info Law Group, LLP in Chicago, discusses how to keep social media advertising legal.
The ISBA Tort Law Section Council presented a webinar, Hot Topics in Trial:Jury Selection and Jury Questions, on Wednesday, April 4. Jurors ultimately decide the fate of a case, which makes jury selection one of the most important parts of a jury trial. During the webinar, attorneys and judges discussed what is the most important issues in jury selection and jury questions.
Asked and Answered
By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC
Q. Our firm is a 14-attorney firm in Chicago. There are nine partners and five associates in the firm. Our practice is limited to insurance defense. I am one of the founders and senior partners in the firm and have been practicing for 35 years. We are having problems getting our associates to produce at the levels that we need for the firm to be profitable. We have an annual 1,800 billable hour requirement and several of our associates are not even close. We have a bonus system that pays associates a bonus based upon billable hours exceeding 1,800 billable hours. What are we doing wrong?
Digital technology and internet connectivity allow attorneys and staff to work from almost anywhere. Storing data in cloud-based practice management programs is becoming more common, with the vaunted security of these systems being a major selling point.
But a surprising number of attorneys use free email accounts from vendors such as AOL, Yahoo, and Google in their law practices. While these accounts are attractive because they help small and solo firms reduce overhead — it can't get cheaper than free, right? — they come with serious security risks.
Many speakers warn about run-of-the-mill ethical concerns with technology, but only a select few understand the cutting-edge concerns that are shifting the practice of law and causing ethical headaches for sophisticated lawyers. Join Stuart Teicher in Chicago or via live webcast on April 20, 2018 as he explains both the expanding ethical pitfalls and the evolving ethical duties that lawyers face when using new technology. Attendees will learn about: