Asked and Answered 

By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

Q. I am the owner of an elder law firm in Phoenix, Arizona. I have one full-time associate, one part-time associate, and three staff members. I am earning around $300,000 a year from the practice and my full-time associate’s salary is $100,000 a year. I am 60 years old and would like to retire and be out of the practice in five years. I would like to begin phasing down and working part time in the next year or two. My full-time associate has been with the firm for 10 years. I feel that I should be entitled to some sweat equity from the practice in the form of retirement compensation or buy-out. With this said I would prefer that my practice “stay in the family” and be sold to my associate rather than selling my practice to an outside buyer. I would appreciate your suggestions.

Several ISBA leaders recently attended a CLE event focused on personal branding for female attorneys.

"Advancing Your Firm: Personal Branding for the Female Lawyer" was held Nov. 1 at the ISBA Regional Office in Chicago. The half-day seminar detailed traditional and modern business branding and ethical marketing strategies for reaching diverse populations. 

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 October 2018 there were more than 800 referrals given.

Here are the results for October 2018:

Discover how to find, utilize, and confront expert witnesses during your next case. Expert witnesses play a valuable role by offering unbiased evidence that helps prove something important to the case. Regardless of their expert knowledge and independent opinions, though, they are oftentimes discredited as an expert or shown that their opinion is not without bias by opposing counsel. Civil litigators, workers’ compensation lawyers, and administrative law attorneys – and any other practice areas where retained experts are required or encountered – with all levels of practice experience who attend this seminar on Dec. 12 will better understand: how to find an expert for your next case; how to prepare your expert for trial; how to present your expert for the deposition or direct examination; and how to confront the opposing counsel’s witness during the cross-examination.

New attorneys will be admitted to practice in Illinois on Thursday, Nov. 8, with Illinois Supreme Court and Illinois Appellate Court justices presiding and administering the attorney's oath to 1,283 new attorneys at five separate locations across the state. 

All of the candidates set to be sworn in have passed the Illinois State Bar Examination and a required ethics examination and were certified by the Supreme Court Committee on Character and Fitness. They will bring the total number of licensed attorneys in Illinois to approximately 98,000.

The largest group, 1,051, will be admitted in the First Judicial District during two ceremonies at the Arie Crown Theater, located at 2301 S. Lake Shore Drive, in Chicago. The ceremonies will be at 9:45 a.m. and 12:45 p.m. Illinois Supreme Court Justices Mary Jane Theis and P. Scott Neville, Jr., will preside over the morning ceremony.

At the Dec. 8 meeting of the ISBA Assembly, four at-large delegates to the ABA House of Delegates will be elected, two from Cook County and two from outside Cook County. The nominees for these positions must be members of the ISBA in good standing from the appropriate area. The elected delegates will serve for two-year terms commencing June 2019 at the close of the ISBA Annual Meeting. The delegates will join the ISBA delegation in August 2019 at the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

Nominations must be made in writing by at least 20 ISBA members in good standing from the appropriate area.  Nominations must be filed with the office of the Executive Director not later than Monday, Nov. 19. 

Suppose your client walks into your office and explains that he has been sued by his former employer for violation of a noncompete clause in his employment contract. Your client signed the noncompete a week after starting his employment and then worked for the employer for 23 months. Is the noncompete supported by adequate consideration? The answer could depend on the judge and court hearing the case.

A postemployment restrictive covenant must be supported by adequate consideration—generally characterized as “employment for a substantial period of time.” But what is a “substantial period of time”? May other forms of consideration be substituted? Does it matter if an employee quits or is terminated with or without cause? Illinois appellate courts have been unable to clearly answer these questions.

The Illinois Supreme Court handed down one opinion on Thursday, Nov. 1. The supreme court upheld the dismissal of a man’s post-conviction petition in an armed robbery case.

People v. Dupree

By Kerry J. Bryson, Office of the State Appellate Defender

Torrence DuPree was charged with, and convicted of, two counts of armed robbery for an incident in 2010. Evidence at trial was that two men drove to an apartment complex to sell marijuana to a third. During the transaction, a hooded man approached the seller’s vehicle, displayed a weapon, and took money and a backpack. No physical evidence linked DuPree to the offense, but the prosepective marijuana purchaser identified him as the offender. Also, one of the vehicle’s occupants identified DuPree in a photo array, stating that he was 70 percent certain of the identification. That witness also described the offender as being at least 6 feet tall, but DuPree was only 5 feet, 8 inches tall. The vehicle’s driver did not testify at trial.

Don’t miss this online seminar on Dec. 4 that discusses the Wayfair case, the basis for being overturned, and its impact on online purchases. Tax attorneys and general practitioners with intermediate practice experience who attend this program will better understand: the prior basis of the law; reasons for the decision; the current status of the law; what to expect in the future; the rules governing Internet taxing in Illinois; and how the Wayfair decision affects every Internet purchase. 

Asked and Answered 

By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

Q. I am the managing partner of a 12-attorney family law firm in Kansas City, Mo. We have been in practice for about 30 years. During the last 10 years we have shifted more of our advertising from print directories and advertising to the internet. Today virtually all of our work comes from the internet. While to some extent this has been a blessing, it has also been a curse as we must continue to make investments in search engine optimization, update the website, and pay to be included in online directories. It is a vicious circle and we are losing business to new attorneys who are just starting out, creating first-class websites, and making online investments.  I would appreciate your thoughts.