The Illinois Supreme Court has appointed Allan J. Masters to the position of Circuit Judge of Cook County, Ninth Subcircuit. This appointment is effective June 14, 2013 and terminates on Dec. 1, 2014. The vacancy was created by the retirement of the Hon. Lee Preston.
ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. In this episode he covers Privacy and the workplace (Senate Bill 2306), Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (House Bill 2339), E-insurance card (Senate Bill 1775), Recorded interrogations (Senate Bill 1006) and Mortgage Foreclosure Article (Senate Bill 56). More information on each bill is available below the video
Applying the Family Medical Leave Act properly -- i.e., in a way that doesn't open the door to FMLA interference or retaliation claims -- can be a tricky for employers, Lisle Stalter notes in the latest ISBA Local Government Law newsletter. But now there's help, she writes. "McClelland v. CommunityCare HMO, Inc. an unpublished Tenth Circuit opinion and its district court case, provides good guidance on appropriate process and procedure to protect employers on the application of FMLA." Read her analysis.
Join us as we celebrate our accomplishments and outline initiatives for the coming bar year. The deadline for advance registration is June 14th at 4:30 pm.
The advanced member registration fee is $75 online. The onsite member fee is $100. Register at webarchives.isba.org/annual/2013/reg.html
More information on the 137th Annual Meeting is available at www.isba.org/annual
U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) has recommended Manish Shah of Chicago, Chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office and former Chief of its Appellate Division, for appointment to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
“I am proud to put forward the name of Manish Shah to be the next federal district court judge for Northern Illinois,” Senator Kirk said. “He’s the most experienced prosecutor we have, and because of his stellar record in working with former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, I think he is the best one for the bench. I look forward to working with Senator Durbin to make sure we have highly-skilled candidates like Shah to help strengthen our courts and clean up Illinois.”
Asked and Answered
By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC
Q. I am a partner in a four partner law firm in Cleveland, Ohio. Our firm does class action cases and all are on a contingency fee basis. We do keep track of time expended on these cases even though we don't bill by time. One of our partners has announced that he will be withdrawing from the firm. We each have 25% ownership interests. How do we value the firm and determine his buyout? Our partnership agreement does not address this nor do we have any precedent. Do you have any suggestions?
A. The real value component is the value of your unsettled cases and it will be difficult - if not impossible - to determine the value of these cases until they are concluded in the future. Some firms payout the capital account and the value of the hard assets upon departure or over a relatively short payout period and they have a future payout formula for the cases in progress as the cases are concluded.
Join us from the comfort of your home or office for this live webcast on June 28th that examines the recent developments and hot topics in Illinois’ insurance coverage law. Topics include: uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage; professional liability insurance coverage; insurance coverage issues relating to legal malpractice; and comprehensive general liability insurance.
The program is presented by the ISBA Insurance Law Section and qualifies for 2.25 hours MCLE credit.
The Illinois Supreme Court issued an amended Rule 138 on June 3. Check out the changes at http://www.state.il.us/court/SupremeCourt/Rules/Amend/2013/060313.pdf
The Assembly meeting agenda has been posted at http://www.isba.org/leadership/assembly/minutes. This page is password protected and available only to ISBA members. The Assembly will next meet on Saturday, June 22 at the 137th Annual Meeting at the Grand Geneva Resort & Spa in Lake Geneva, Wis.
Lake County has become the twelfth county in Illinois to adopt procedural rules that expressly prohibit nonlawyers from representing parties before its tax appeals board of review.
The growing trend of counties banning the unauthorized practice of law ("UPL") in their tax appeal boards is in accord with Illinois Supreme Court precedent dating back at least as early as 1987. Lacking any state statute that addresses the issue, the implementation of local UPL rules for tax appeals boards has been officially supported by the ISBA Board of Governors since 1992. Find out more in the June IBJ.