Join the Illinois Bar Foundation and the Friends of Tom Leahy for a Leahy Memorial Happy Hour on Thursday, September 8 in Chicago to celebrate the life of Tom Leahy. The proceeds from this event will support the Foundation's Legal Fellowships program at Tom's alma mater, Loyola University Chicago School of Law. Tickets are $100 and sponsorship opportunities are available. For tickets and sponsorship information, please call 312-726-6072 or click here. 

Asked and Answered

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

Q. I am the managing partner of a five lawyer firm in Denton, Texas. We have the opportunity of acquiring a sole owner practice in a nearby city with a complimentary practice area. We have had one meeting and our firm is interested. We want to initially do a quick and dirty due diligence so see whether this firm is really a qualified opportunity. What sort of information should we ask for?

Members of the ISBA Traffic Law Section attended the annual National College for DUI Defense 2016 Harvard Session at Austin Hall, Harvard Law School.

You may have been asked this by a client, or maybe your Aunt Mabel: "If I see a dog in a hot car, can I break the window to let it out?"

Not without breaking the law, writes Melissa Anne Maye in the June Animal Law newsletter. "Although a person might feel that it's worth taking the risk to save the dog, smashing in someone's car window constitutes Criminal Damage to Property," she writes, quoting 720 ILCS 5/21-1(a), which defines it as "knowingly damag[ing] any property of another."

"There is no exception for 'good intentions,'" Maye writes. And if the property damage exceeds $300 - likely in the case of a broken car window - the crime is a Class 4 felony. 

That doesn't mean the inhumane pet owners won't get theirs, though. Find out why in the August Illinois Bar Journal.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), U.S. Department of Justice, is seeking an experienced attorney to work as a Division Counsel in the Chicago Field Division of DEA.  The position is part of the staff of DEA, Office of Chief Counsel and is located in Chicago, Illinois.

Job Description: 

The Division Counsel is involved in all legal matters and issues concerning the Chicago Field Division, including criminal, civil, and administrative law.  This includes substantive drug-related and money laundering statutes, investigative methods and techniques, search and seizure, electronic surveillance, interview and interrogation, evidence, discovery, drafting and reviewing legislative proposals relating to criminal law and procedure, and Federal sentencing guidelines, legal training, and legal review of operational policies and procedures.  It also includes matters relating to support of civil and administrative litigation, including regulatory issues under the Controlled Substances Act (21 USC § 801 et seq.), as well as personnel and fiscal law questions.

The new overtime regulations issued by the U.S. Department of Labor, which take effect December 1, will impact many law-firm employers to the extent they have traditionally been paying, or not paying, employees with certain job responsibilities for hours worked in excess of 40 per week.

In general,  executive, administrative, and professional ("EAP") employees are exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act's overtime provisions. According to the DOL's fact sheet, the Department has historically required three tests to be met before the FLSA's EAP exemption applies. See https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/final2016/overtime-factsheet.htm.

To qualify for the exemption, employees must (1) be paid a fixed, predetermined salary; (2) the amount paid must meet a specific minimum salary level; and (3) the employee's job duties must primarily involve executive, administrative, or professional duties.

The new rule raises the minimum salary from a weekly amount of $455 ($23,660 annually) to $913 per week ($47,476 annually), doing away with the requirement that the rate be an annual salary as opposed to a fixed hourly rate. Teachers, lawyers, and doctors are considered bona fide professionals under the rule; whether they make $913 per week is irrelevant. Law firms need to audit positions within their ranks to determine both whether the weekly amount and the duties tests are met.

Attorney Robert Duncan discusses 4 things you need to know about pleadings when starting your legal career.

Asked and Answered

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

Q. I am the managing partner of a 12-attorney firm in Providence, R.I. In our recent partner meetings we have been discussing ramping up marketing. How much should we be spending on marketing?

ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews legislation in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers Property crimes Public Act 99-631, FOIA Public Act 99-586, Creates the Local Government Travel Expense Control Act Public Act 99-604, Common Interest Community Association Act Public Act 99-627, Omnibus Juvenile justice changes Public Act 99-628, Cell site simulator device Public Act 99-622, Short-term guardian Public Act 99-599, Land Trust Beneficiary Rights Act Public Act 99-609 and Common Interest Community Association Act and the Condominium Property Act. Public Act 99-612.

More information on each bill is available below the video.

Chief Circuit Judge Kathryn E. Creswell is pleased to announce that following a tabulation of ballots by the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts in Springfield, the Circuit Judges of the Eighteenth Judicial Court, DuPage County, Illinois have appointed Bryan S. Chapman to the position of Associate Judge.

Mr. Chapman fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Associate Judge Jane Hird Mitton.