In August of 1893, thirty women lawyers from across the United States met in Chicago for the first-ever national meeting of women lawyers. The meeting was sponsored by the Queen Isabella Association and held in conjunction with the World's Columbian Exposition where the Chicago Legal News billed the event as "30 Female Blackstones Gather in Chicago”.

Paula Hudson Holderman, Illinois State Bar Association President and Julie Bauer, 7th Circuit Bar Association President, together with their host committee invite you to attend an event commemorating the 120th Anniversary of this historic milestone for women. The program and reception will be held from 3-7 p.m. on Aug. 22 at the offices of Winston & Strawn LLP, 35 W. Wacker, Chicago, 47th Floor.

Winston & Strawn LLP will apply for 2 Professional Responsibility Credit Hours from the Illinois MCLE Board.

Additional information will be coming soon.

ISBA President Paula H. Holderman is proud to announce that her primary focus this year is to ensure that the ISBA provides optimal services and programs to its current members while simultaneously attracting new ones. She has appointed a New Lawyer Task Force to identify challenges facing lawyers entering the profession and to determine what ISBA can do to help. Watch below as President Holderman discusses her other plans for the 2013-2014 bar year.

Asked and Answered

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

Q. I am one of the founding partners in a 27 attorney law firm in San Antonio, Texas. We have four equity partners, six non-equity partners and seventeen associates working in the firm. We focus totally on litigation. Each of us four equity partners have equal ownership percentages and since day one (20 years) have divided firm profits equally along those lines (25%, 25%, 25%, 25%). We each put in the same amount of effort and work - but since I am managing partner - my fee collections are much lower than those of the other three equity partners and I am concerned that they may feel that I am not carrying my weight since my fee collections are lower. How should this be handled in our compensation system?

A. This is a common question that we hear often. It sounds like you are still allocating income in the same manner that you did when the firm first started. Often when a firm grows the partner compensation system needs to be reexamined when and if partner roles or contributions change. As the firm has grown I suspect that your time spent on management activities has grown as well. I, as well as many other legal management consultants, believe that firm management (running the business) is as important as generating client fees and should be so considered in partner compensation systems.

We have numerous law firm clients where at least one or more of the equity partners "run the business" and do not provide billable client services at all.

The ISBA/JTBF Law and Leadership Institute (LLI) wrapped up its residential program last week at the Southern Illinois University School of Law in Carbondale. The downstate program is a one week residential program that ran from Sunday, June 23 through Saturday, June 29.

The LLI is a statewide initiative to assist students from minority, ethnic, and other groups who are currently underrepresented in the legal professions achieve academic success and aspire to a career in the law.

The two current programs in Illinois were spearheaded by the ISBA Diversity Pipeline committee. The Chicago commuter program will be held from Monday, July 22 through Friday, August 9 and hosted by the John Marshall Law School.

The Illinois State Bar Association had its mobile billboard in the lineup of Sunday's Gay Pride Parade in Chicago – one of more than 200 entries. The parade entry was a collaborative effort between the ISBA, CBA, and LAGBAC (the Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of Chicago).

The Illinois Supreme Court announced Monday that it has amended rules that would expand mediation for child custody cases to include requests by a custodial parent to move a minor child to another state.

Mediation programs for child custody and visitation cases have been a requirement for each judicial circuit in Illinois through Supreme Court Rule 905.

The Judicial Conference of the United States has authorized the appointment of a full-time United States magistrate judge for the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois. The official location for the position will be Peoria, Illinois. Full-time magistrate judges are appointed to eight-year terms of office by the judges of each respective United States district court.

Illinois Supreme Court Rule 138, amended to protect against identity theft and the disclosure of sensitive information through electronic filing, goes into effect Monday, July 1 with two of its provisions being deferred.

A requirement that birth dates and the names of minor individuals be excluded from documents in civil cases has been deferred until Jan. 1, 2014. The delay will allow attorneys and state agencies that handle high volumes of affected cases additional time to adapt to the new requirements. In the interim, the Illinois Supreme Court Rules Committeee will schedule a public hearing on the deferred provisions.

In response to additional inquiries from judges, practitioners, clerks and other court partners, the following clarifications are offered:

Honored in recognition of his commitment to equal justice and exemplary career as a civil legal services attorney

By Wendy Vaughn, Clinical Assistant Professor,
NIU College of Law, Zeke Giorgi Legal Clinic

During its 137th Annual Meeting, the Illinois State Bar Association awarded Bernard H. Shapiro with the Joseph R. Bartylak Memorial Legal Services Award at award luncheon on June 21, 2013.  For the last 35 years, Bernard H. Shapiro (Bernie) has dedicated his legal career and devoted his considerable intellect and legal acumen to meeting the basic needs of residents of Northern Illinois in his role as attorney, mentor, advocate, trainer, and Director of Litigation at Prairie State Legal Services (Prairie State). 

In her nomination letter, Sarah Megan, who also serves as Director of Litigation at Prairie State, writes that Bernie is “the lynchpin of our legal aid program,” “the soul of our organization,” and “a role model for not only all our staff, but for all legal aid staff.” Ms. Megan explains that Bernie’s fellow attorneys “rely on his superb legal analysis and strategy as well as his pragmatic problem solving skill.  We learn from his example of excellence; always focused on achieving our clients’ goals, providing our clients the highest caliber legal services in a most compassionate and respectful way.”