Creating a budget (and following it!) helps your law practice reach its goals, plan for the future, secure financing, and pay the bills. Without it, your practice risks financial ruin. Don't miss this one-hour live webcast on Dec. 11, 2014 that helps you create a budget for your practice and explains how it can be used as a strong management tool to improve the long-term profitability of your practice. The seminar is presented by the ISBA Standing Committee of Law Office Management and Economics and qualifies for 1.0 hour MCLE credit.

Click here for more information and to register.

The Supreme Court of Illinois announced the filing of lawyer disciplinary orders on Thursday, November 13, 2014, during the November Term of Court. Sanctions were imposed because the lawyers engaged in professional misconduct by violating state ethics law.

The fax machine is almost as quaint a relic as the typewriter, and Grandma loves her iPad. Isn’t it time for an Illinois statute that expressly provides for electronic wills? That’s the question Darrell Dies posed recently in the ISBA Trusts & Estates Section newsletter.

He notes that since 2002 the federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-SIGN) has “ensured the validity and legal effect of contracts entered into electronically.” In 2012, the Illinois Supreme Court promulgated statewide e-filing standards and encouraged circuit court clerks to implement them. Yet the probate process remains squarely in the world of “paper, lots of paper,” he writes.

Of course, just because no statute expressly authorizes digital wills doesn’t mean a court would refuse to recognize one. In fact, last year an Ohio judge recognized a will signed on a tablet with a stylus. But a statute is a far more efficient and comprehensive way to move the probate process into the digital age.

Thus far, only one state has an electronic will statute – Nevada, which, as Dies informs us, has no income or estate tax. And the statute also illustrates the many e-will obstacles that remain, including concerns about authentication, confidentiality, tampering, and fraud. Read his article for more, including a look at the Nevada statute.

Q. How much supervision must I give to our paralegals and secretaries?

A. Illinois Rule of Professional Conduct 5.3 requires a lawyer with supervisory authority to make reasonable efforts to ensure the nonlaywer’s conduct is compatible with the professional regulations of the lawyer.  A nonlawyer may include any secretary, investigator, intern, or paralegal. Comment [2] to Rule 5.3 states supervising lawyers should be responsible for the nonlawyer’s work product and maintain supervision over the legal aspects of their employment.

Michael J. Tardy, Director of the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, announced today that the Eighth Judicial Circuit judges voted to select Debra L. Wellborn as an associate judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit.

Ms. Wellborn received her undergraduate degree in 1984 from the University of Missouri in Columbia, MO, and her Juris Doctor in 1986 from Washington University in St. Louis, MO. Ms. Wellborn is currently affiliated with the State of Illinois Attorney General's Office in Quincy, IL.

Asked and Answered

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

Q. I am the managing partner of a 12-attorney firm in Springfield. We have never had a financial plan or budget but I have been thinking of creating one for next year. I would appreciate your thoughts as to whether the time invested in putting one together is worth the effort.

Illinois Supreme Court Justice Thomas L. Kilbride is seeking public comment on three finalists who have applied to fill a judicial vacancy in the Tenth Judicial Circuit.

Under the Illinois Constitution, judicial vacancies are filled by Supreme Court appointment. Justice Kilbride uses an extensive application, evaluation, and interview process to make a recommendation to the Court for judicial vacancies in the Third Judicial District.

Please join us at the ISBA/YLD Annual Holiday Party and show your support for the IBF/ YLD Children's Assistance Fund, a 501(c)(3) charitable entity. Initially created to assist with the opening of children's waiting rooms in courthouses across the State of Illinois, the IBF/YLD Children's Assistance Fund has since grown, and now provides funding to organizations across the State of Illinois that provide legal assistance to children, maintain children's waiting rooms in courthouses, work to reduce recidivism of juveniles, and/or work to reduce the incidents of domestic violence in families with children.

WHEN: Friday, December 5, 2014, 6 p.m.-10 p.m.

WHERE: Duffy's Tavern and Grille, 420½ W. Diversey, Chicago, Illinois

WHAT: Open Bar, Warm Appetizers, and Live Band!

COST: $40 per person for tickets purchased online through Sunday, November 23, 2014
$50 per person for tickets purchased at the door the evening of the event.

Register at www.holidayparty.org