The Illinois Bar Foundation (IBF) has elected its officers for the organization’s 2017-18 fiscal year. They are: Perry J. Browder, shareholder, Simmons Hanly Conroy, president; Timothy W. Kelly, principal, Kelly Law Offices, first vice president and Deane B. Brown, partner, Hughes Socol Piers Resnik Dym, second vice president. William A. Peithmann, principal of The Peithmann Law Office, was elected third vice president. Mark L. Karno, principal of Mark L. Karno & Associates, L.L.C., was elected as treasurer and Donald R. Tracy, partner at Brown Hay + Stephens, was re-elected as secretary.

The Illinois Bar Foundation, the charitable arm of the Illinois State Bar Association, strives to ensure meaningful access to the justice system, especially for those with limited means, and to assist lawyers who can no longer support themselves due to incapacity. This year, the foundation will distribute more than $750,000. The Illinois Bar Foundation is located at 20 S. Clark St., Suite 910, Chicago, IL  60603. Call (312) 726-6072 or visit www.illinoisbarfoundation.org.

Asked and Answered

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

Q. I am the owner of a five-attorney estate planning practice in Denver. I have four associate attorneys. Three have been with the firm for over 12 years. Last year, an associate that had been with me for many years left the firm and started his own practice. I thought I was paying him well by virtue of a competitive salary and a discretionary bonus in addition to other benefits. I do not want to lose other seasoned attorneys. What should I do to provide more incentives for associates to stay with the firm?

A. Experience and research by our firm and others has demonstrated that the following, in priority order, are the key drivers of associate attorney job satisfaction:

1. Satisfaction with immediate manager or supervisor
2. Opportunities for training
3. Satisfaction with team and coworkers
4. Opportunities for career growth
5. Compensation
6. Opportunities for promotion

While compensation often is considered the primary factor related to associate satisfaction, I often find that opportunities for career growth and promotion play a significant role. Associates do take pay cuts for career growth and promotion opportunities in other firms — or, in some cases, starting their own firm.

Lenovo PCs are back-to-school ready. These ISBA member deals are great for all students and include free shipping, now through September 30, 2017.

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Remember, these special monthly offers are tailored specifically for you and include: FREE shipping on all web orders, access to energy-efficient green technologies and award-winning service.

We recently launched our new member benefit, Practice HQ. Organized by the lifecycle of a law practice, this one-stop microsite houses together high-quality practice information in one place.

Once you've opened your firm, developed a marketing and retention strategy to build your client base, and learned the ins and outs of managing your practice, you can focus your energies on safeguarding your practice. In the face of disruptions — natural or man-made — you have to be prepared to keep your clients' data, firm, and employees safe, and recover quickly from unpredicted circumstances. For members who are interested in developing a plan to protect a practice, Practice HQ offers the tools you'll need. 

A recent court order (http://bit.ly/2rkz8A6), which amends the court's January 22, 2016 mandatory e-filing order, requires circuits with existing e-filing programs to switch to the statewide eFileIL system by July 1, 2018. The original order had not set a specific date, but said that one would be announced in the future.

Another change wrought by the amendment is that all courts must make their case documents and information available to a new statewide remote access system known as re:SearchIL. However, this does not mean that attorneys and the public will have immediate access to the new system. The high court has stated that implementation and access will progress at a pace that it sets.

Initial access will only be provided to judges, clerks, and court officials. The amended order says that attorneys and the public will ultimately gain access -- re:SearchIL "is designed to serve as an online remote access system similar to Pacer in the federal courts."

Before that can happen, "a remote access policy needs to be fully vetted and approved by the supreme court," Madison County Chief Circuit Judge David Hylla says. The high court's e-Business Policy Advisory Board, of which Hylla is chair, is working to recommend a policy, he says. He expects that re:SearchIL will be "available to the bar and the public soon after all or nearly all courts are integrated with the central [Electronic Filing Manager.]"

There will be a predetermined document access fee (much like Pacer). The amended order says that the fee will be paid in full to the circuit court owning the case documents-so long as the court has migrated to eFileIL.

The ISBA Board of Governors voted at its July 21 meeting to ask the Illinois Supreme Court not to require self-represented litigants to use the e-filing system that launches in January until the impact of mandatory e-filing on nonlawyers can be studied and addressed. Speaking on behalf of the proposal, Board member Angelica Wawrzynek of Mattoon noted that no other mandatory e-filing state requires pro se litigants to file cases electronically and that two-thirds of civil cases filed outside Cook County in 2015 included at least one self-represented litigant.

In other action, the Board

● agreed to join the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers in filing an amicus brief in In re the Marriage of Goesel, 2017 IL App (3d) 150101. The ISBA/AAML brief will support the court’s ruling that earned and paid legal fees are not available for disgorgement as part of an interim fee award under the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act;

● approved an ethics opinion stating that an in-house lawyer may provide legal services to multiple subsidiaries of the same corporate parent as long as doing so doesn’t otherwise violate the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct;

● voted to support an ABA resolution that urges states and units of local government to adopt a policy of trapping, neutering, vaccinating, and returning stray cats to the community;

Save up to 45 percent on Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's show, Soul2Soul: The World Tour, in Chicago, taking place on September 1 in Rosemont. 

These offers are provided to you through the Illinois State Bar Association’s Member Marketplace.

Want to sign up? It's free and easy: 
1. Visit www.ticketsatwork.com
2. Use your company code: ISBA
3. Read and follow the easy steps on our site, and once registered you can access all tickets, events, hotels and more online for free.

Do you advise clients on the liability considerations involving real estate or business operations? Then you won’t want to miss this opportunity to hear from a seasoned environmental law attorney as he discusses environmental due diligence under the new administration. Attorneys with all levels of practice experience who attend this online seminar on September 14, 2017 will better understand: how to manage the risks associated with environmental considerations; the role of the government in these cases; the doctrine of caveat empter and its role under the administration; how tort liability and environmental law intersect; statutory environmental cleanup liability under state and federal law; and how the new Administration’s proposed changes to environmental liability and regulations might affect your client.

The seminar is presented by the ISBA Real Estate Law Section and qualifies for 0.75 hour MCLE credit.

Click here for more information and to register.

The ISBA Board of Governors met on Friday, July 21. At the meeting, the Board filled one vacancy on the Board of Governors in Area VIII and two vacant Assembly seats in Cook County. The results of the elections to fill these leadership positions are below.

Board of Governors

• Area VIII (Circuits 3 & 20): Perry Browder, Alton

Assembly

• 18th Circuit: Richard Veenstra, Wheaton
• Cook County (Two-Year Term): Jill O'Brien, Chicago
• Cook County (One-Year Term): Evan Schanerberger, Chicago

What's the experience like at your law firm for the people who matter most - your clients? Isn't it time you asked them?

Many firms and attorneys don't take the time and effort to map clients' journeys through the firm, with the goal of ensuring that they reach their destination as efficiently and effectively as possible.

"I've learned to ask a very simple question that drives this point home: 'How easy are you to do business with?'" says Josh Kubicki, Cincinnati-based chief strategy officer at Seyfarth Shaw LLP. "You may be one hell of a lawyer, but you may be a pain-in-the-you-know-what to do business with, from billing, to reaching you, to communicating, to you using words clients understand. If you're able to make that easier for your clients, you'll be able to capture value."

Kubicki discussed client mapping as part of his presentation at the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism's The Future Is Now: Legal Services 2.017 conference in Chicago in May (see http://bit.ly/2tfrOUv).

The process of journey mapping isn't that difficult but requires an ongoing, step-by-step commitment, Kubicki says. First, an attorney or firm needs to take a step back and think about all the different touchpoints - people, processes, and tools - they use in delivering service, he says. Find out how to remove pain points and improve service for your clients in the August Illinois Bar Journal.