Running your own practice is rewarding, but it can be hard to juggle all the tasks that are required for running a successful business. Join us via the Internet on March 8, 2017 as Kevin Stine teaches us the importance of engagement letters (and how to draft them), how to keep track of your time, and how to produce accurate bills for clients. Topics include: understanding how you get paid and your monthly communication with the client; why use engagement letters; terms of representation; the importance of retainers; the cost of collection; proofreading your timesheets for accuracy and offering descriptions of tasks performed on the timesheet; dealing with travel and its expenses; the ethical issues and pitfalls to avoid; and much more!

The seminar is presented by the ISBA Standing Committee on Law Office Management and Economics. It qualifies for 1.0 hour MCLE credit, including 1.0 hour Professional Responsibility MCLE credit (subject to approval).

Click here for more information and to register.

Asked and Answered

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

Q.  We have a 16-attorney business law firm in Cleveland, Ohio – six equity partners and 10 associates. The equity partners have been discussing putting in place an associate attorney career advancement program and outlining equity partner admission requirements. Can you share your thoughts on what we should be considering and how we should get started?

David Kupiec of Kupiec & Martin LLC discusses Illinois state and local tax issues.

Leading appellate attorneys review the Illinois Supreme Court opinions handed down Friday, February 17. The cases are Stone Street Partners, LLC v. City of Chicago Dept. of Administrative Hearings, Wardwell v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., Grimm v. Calica, and, from the criminal docket, People v. Fort, People v. Ayres, and People v. Shinaul.

Get the information you need on post-secondary transition options and education protections for young adults with disabilities with this online seminar on Wednesday, March 8, 2017. Disability law attorneys, mental health lawyers, family law practitioners, and education law attorneys with basic to intermediate practice experience who attends this seminar will better understand: which services are available to assist students for adult living; options under the Individuals with Disabilities Act and the Illinois School Code; how student rights and options change when transitioning out of high school; the post-secondary admissions process and testing requirements; the landscape of reasonable accommodations and modifications in post-secondary education; and how student discipline and dismissals are handled at the post-secondary level.

The program is presented by the ISBA Standing Committee on Disability Law and co-sponsored by the ISBA Education Law Section. It’s qualified for 2.0 hours MCLE credit.

Click here for more information and to register.

More and more of our interactions take place on social media, but the law is struggling to catch up. In the February Illinois Bar Journal, Chicago trial lawyer Kathryn Conway offers 10 things that lawyers - especially plaintiffs' lawyers - should keep in mind about discovery and admissibility of social media evidence. Here are three of the 10.

1. Because Illinois has so little case law on social media evidence, "most issues will be decided on a case-by-case basis according to traditional discovery and admissibility principles," Conway writes.

2. There's no evidentiary privilege for social media communication.

3. Even though your client uses restrictive privacy settings, "courts have generally allowed discovery of posted content so long as the requested production is relevant," Conway writes.

Read the full list in the February IBJ.

ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews legislation in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers a bill about judicial complaints, the Probate Act, the Insurance Code and arbitration, changing names under the IMDMA, guardians, the Jury Act, and criminal law and defense.

More information on each bill is available below the video.

Asked and Answered

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

Q. We have a 12-attorney business litigation firm in Sacramento, California. I am one of three members on our technology committee. Our IT infrastructure consists of an in-house Microsoft file server, a separate Microsoft Exchange e-mail server, and document management and time, billing, and accounting software. Our documents are stored locally and managed by the locally installed document management software. Several of our partners have talked with other firms that are operating totally in the cloud. We would appreciate whether moving to the cloud is something that we should consider?

Springfield lawyer Barry Hines discusses the law governing boundary disputes in Illinois.

K. Nykoel Dinardo with Froum Law Group, LLC in Evanston is the first-place winner in the ISBA’s 2017 Lincoln Award Legal Writing Contest. She received a cash award of $2,000 for her article “Accessing Digital Assets after Death or Disability.” Though the first-place article typically appears in the February Illinois Bar Journal, Nykoel's article will not because another article on the digital assets law appeared in the November 2016 IBJ. 

Second place winner is Joshua R. Gross, Springfield, whose article “Discharging Student Loans in Bankruptcy: Yes, it Can Be Done” appears in the February Illinois Bar Journal. Third place goes to Esther Seitz, Springfield, for “Growing Tolerance for Cannabis in Illinois; the Implementation of Public Act 099-0697.” The second place winner gets a $1,000 cash prize, and the third place winner receives $500.