Asked and Answered

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

Q. I am the managing partner of an eight attorney general practice firm in Chicago's western suburbs. We have five partners and three associates. For years, it was just the five partners who started the firm together. In the last three years we added our associates. We are not making money from our associates and wondering what we need to be doing differently. One associate is logging 925 billable hours, one is logging 1,200 billable hours, and the other 1,400 billable hours. You thoughts are welcomed.

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ISBA members also receive:

The Illinois Pension Reform Act was recently struck as unconstitutional by the Illinois Supreme Court, which will have a significant effect on government efforts to address the state’s pension obligations. Attorneys with advanced levels of practice experience working in the labor/employment, government, administrative law, and state tax arenas won’t want to miss this opportunity on September 10^th to hear opposing counsel from the In re: Pension Reform Litigation case as they examine the arguments each made in court, why these arguments were made, and the reasoning behind the landmark ruling. An explanation of the Pension Protection Clause and the Contract Clause is also included.

The live webcast is presented by the ISBA Labor & Employment Law Section and qualifies for 1.0 hour MCLE credit.

Click here for more information and to register.

The Illinois Bar Foundation, the charitable arm of the Illinois State Bar Association, has added five members to its Board of Directors.

Newly-elected members are Christopher W. Niro, a senior associate attorney at Niro, Haller & Niro in Chicago; Chantelle A. Porter, a senior associate attorney at A. Traub & Associates with offices in Arlington Heights and Lombard; Gregory L. Shevlin, a partner in the Belleville law firm of Cook, Ysursa, Bartholomew, Brauer & Shevlin, Ltd.; Rory T. Weiler, a partner in Weiler & Lengle, P.C. in St. Charles; and Sonni Choi Williams, Deputy Corporation Counsel for the city of Peoria. Weiler and Shevlin will serve two-year terms and the other board members will each serve a one-year term.

ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews legislation in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers Mechanics Lien Act (Public Act 99-178), Child-support fines (Public Act 99-157), Collection of fines and penalties (Public Act 99-18), Civil discovery (Public Act 99-110), Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (Public Act 99-119) and Adoption Act (Public Act 99-49). More information on each bill is available below the video.

Mechanics Lien Act. Public Act 99-178 (Sandack, R-Downers Grove; Harmon, D-Oak Park) allows a lien claimant to proceed directly against a bond substituted for the lien on the owner’s real estate or funds. The court may dismiss all parties except the principal, surety of the bond, and the lien claimant. Defenses against the lien claimant are limited to those that could be asserted by the principal or contracting owner.

The “prevailing party” in an action brought under this new subsection shall be awarded its attorney fees. The “prevailing party” is defined as a lien claimant that recovers at least 75% of the amount of its lien claim, or the principal of the bond if the lien claimant recovers less than 25% of the amount of its lien claim. The attorney’s fees for a prevailing lien claimant is limited to the amount remaining on the bond after the payment of the claim and interest, and the attorney’s fees awarded to a bond principal shall be limited to 50% of the amount of the lien claim.

Effective January 1, 2016.

The United States Supreme Court's landmark civil rights ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges made marriage equality the law of the land. However, it may have a surprising impact on same-sex couples who are not married but share domestic partner benefits. Will employers start to rethink the wisdom of offering those benefits?

Todd Solomon, a Chicago-based partner at McDermott Will & Emery, says that the Obergefell ruling may have some "unanticipated consequences" for employers that offer domestic partner benefits. Those consequences depend, in part, on what kind of benefits a particular employer offers.

For some companies, now that couples are free to marry regardless of gender, domestic partner benefits may seem unnecessary. The companies "wrestling most" with the issue are those that offered benefits to same-sex couples out of a sense of fairness, observes Solomon.

"With no legal barriers to same-sex marriage, it's likely that some employers will eliminate [unmarried-partner benefits], which are complex administratively due to tax and other reasons." Solomon notes that employers that do eliminate those benefits could provide a grace period to allow same-sex couples to marry. Read more in the August Illinois Bar Journal.

Asked and Answered

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

Q. I am the managing partner of a 25 attorney firm in Charleston, South Carolina. Our practice is limited to insurance defense. We have eight equity partners, four income partners, and five associates. Our firm is in second generation and virtually all of our clients were originated by first generation partners that are no longer here - they have since retired. Our compensation system focuses totally on working attorney dollars. I believe that we must begin to stress the importance of origination of new clients and factor that into the equation. I would appreciate your thoughts.

ISBA Governor Stephen Komie was among approximately 750 U.S. attorneys who traveled to Runnymede, England to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the sealing of the Magna Carta. The lawyers came to to celebrate the Magna Carta’s worldwide impact while promising to rededicate themselves to the ideals and principles contained in, and inspired by, the famed legal document.

Among those in attendance at ceremonies before the rededication were Queen Elizabeth II; members of the royal family including Prince Philip, Princess Ann and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge; Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby; and U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron. Speakers at the rededication included U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and American Bar Association President William Hubbard. 

“What happened in these meadows eight centuries ago is as relevant today as it was then,” Prime Minister Cameron said. “All over the world people are still struggling to live by the rule of law, and to see their governments subject to those laws. The countries that have these things tend to be the long-term successes. Those that don’t tend to be the long-term failures.” Three of those successes, according to Cameron, have been the United States, India and South Africa, all former British colonies or dominions.

Female attorneys need to be more strategic than men to advance their careers, says Valerie Bell, an attorney, civil rights activist, and policy consultant in Clayton, Mo., who began her career in a New York law firm and later worked for a state economic development agency.

"Being as excellent as you can is key because it sets the tone for so many other things," Bell says. "Your own excellence becomes a strategy for being able to negotiate on your own behalf."