Q. I would like to join the Board of Governors for my local Bar Association. Are there any rules I should be aware of before joining?

The ISBA Young Lawyers Division will host "Legal Malpractice Pitfalls for Young Lawyers" on Monday, April 20 from noon-1 p.m. at the ISBA Chicago Office, 20 S. Clark, Ste. 900.

Studies show that approximately 1 in 10 lawyers will be sued for malpractice during their career. Even meritless claims can burden you and your firm with both financial and emotional costs. By law, attorneys are not required to obtain legal malpractice insurance. Moreover, some types of legal malpractice insurance only provide coverage for certain conditions. This presentation will highlight common mistakes young lawyers make that often result in malpractice claims, provide steps to take to avoid these pitfalls, discuss an overview of important features of malpractice insurance policies, and evaluate the risk of young attorneys who find themselves in hot water.

YLD Professional Development Luncheons are aimed at teaching law students and young attorneys practical steps in developing their legal careers.

Presenters:

Two tech-savvy ISBA members, one a litigator and the other a transactional lawyer, describe some of their favorite iPad apps in the April Illinois Bar Journal.

Asked and Answered

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

April 21, 2015 Google Update May Impact Your Google Ranking

Q. I am the managing partner with a 14 attorney firm in Cleveland. A friend of my just advised me that Google was coming out with a change to their search engine that might impact our website. Have you heard anything?

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 2015, ISBA helped people in need of legal services find lawyers in the following areas:

Here are the results for March 2015:

• 904 phone referrals made by Lawyer Finder staff
• Most requested areas of law: Family (151), Civil Disputes (82), Real Estate (68), Criminal Law (67), Personal Injury (55), Employment Law (51) and Civil Rights (32).
• 20,920 visits to IllinoisLawyerFinder.com (18,831 unique visitors)

Want to be part of the ISBA Lawyer Finder Service? Call (800) 252-8908 and ask for the Legal Department, or visit www.illinoislawyerfinder.com

Clients should call (800) 922-8757.

Chief Justice Rita B. Garman and the Illinois Supreme Court on Tuesday announced amendments to a rule that will help lawyers properly dispose of unidentified funds in their trust accounts and generate revenue to support legal aid in the process. The changes to Rule 1.15 of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct, which regulates the safe-keeping of client property, creates a mechanism for lawyers to remove unidentified fund balances from their Interest on Lawyers Trust (IOLTA) Accounts. The amended rule takes effect July 1, 2015. A copy of the changes can be found at http://www.state.il.us/court/SupremeCourt/Rules/Art_VIII/ArtVIII_NEW.htm#1.15.

Update your civil practice knowledge with this top-rated, full-day seminar that addresses all phases of the trial! Get the information you need on new developments in the last year and a review of various civil procedure issues, particularly those that could create professional liability, on Friday, April 17, 2015 in Moline, Illinois. Attorneys with intermediate practice experience who attend this seminar will better understand: how to set the proper foundation for a successful outcome; the issues that can arise during the pleading phase of a lawsuit; motions to dismiss and summary judgment motions; how to effectively use all types of discovery before trial; how electronically stored data affects all types of cases; the disclosure of opinion witnesses and Supreme Court Rule 213; the requirements and considerations for requesting or defending against temporary restraining orders and injunctive relief; the strategic use of motions in limine before the trial; how to create a strong closing argument; how to obtain circuit court and appellate review of administrative decisions; and the post-trial motions appellate issues that counsel wishes you knew.

The seminar is presented by the ISBA Civil Practice & Procedure Section and qualifies for 5.75 hours MCLE credit, including 1.75 hours Professional Responsibility MCLE credit (subject to approval).

Click here for more information and to register.

Attorney Nerino Petro shows how to secure online document storage for popular Cloud services like Dropbox, iCloud, and Google Drive. Popular cloud tools such as boxcryptor, cloudfogger, and sookasa are also explained in this instructional video.

Q. I mentioned to a client that I was delegating a portion of her matter to a lawyer outside of my firm and she didn’t respond one way or the other. Do I need something more from her?

A. IRPC 1.2 allows delegation of client work outside of the retained lawyer’s firm with the client’s informed consent. Informed consent is defined in RPC 1.0, Comment [7] as requiring an affirmative response from the client and that a lawyer may not assume consent from a client’s silence (although the Comment also notes that client consent can be inferred from the client’s conduct).

ISBA members can browse past ISBA Ethics Opinions, access our Ethics Hotline, and other resources on the ISBA Ethics Page.

[Disclaimer. These questions are representative of calls received on the ISBA’s ethics hotline. The information provided below is meant as an educational tool to highlight potentially applicable Illinois RPC or other ethics resources that might help the lawyer answer the question posed. The information provided isn’t legal advice. Because every situation is different, often complex, and the law is constantly evolving, you shouldn’t rely upon this general information without conducting your own research.]