Cook County Circuit Clerk Dorothy Brown will host an Expungement Summit will be held on Saturday, June 8 at the New Faith Baptist Church International, 25 S. Central, Matteson. This is a full service expungement summit serving both adults and juveniles.

Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. and doors close at 6 p.m. Call (312) 603-5200 for additional information or visit www.cookcountyclerkofcourt.org.

Volunteer attorneys will be on site to help with expungement and sealing applications. Attorneys interested in volunteering must attend an MCLE training course on May 15 or May 22 from 3-5:30 p.m. at the County Building, 69 W. Washingon, 17th floor. RSVP for the training to mrnoel@cookcountycourt.com

Volunteer attorneys will receive 2.5 General MCLE credits.

Asked and Answered

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

Q. Our firm is a relatively new firm. Several of us left a large firm in Dallas and started the firm last year. We have 17 attorneys - 10 of us are partners. When we started the firm we each put in a little cash and obtained a line of credit which we have used extensively and we are at our limit. Is this a good practice? Should the partners contribute more capital? How much? I would appreciate your ideas.

The Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC), the administrative agency that regulates licensed Illinois lawyers, has filed its year 2012 Annual Report with the Supreme Court of Illinois. The report was released to the public this morning when a copy was posted on the ARDC website: www.iardc.org.

A summary of the annual report entitled Highlights from the Annual Report is available below. Click here for the full report.

Be a part of the conversation. Join us on Law Day – Wednesday, May 1 – as we host an open discussion on the challenges facing Illinois lawyers and the legal profession.

What are the issues facing you and your colleagues? Law school debt? Keeping up with technology? Finding work? Competition from DIY law? Maintaining a work/life balance?

Tweet to #IllinoisLawyers to share your thoughts and experiences.

Ground Rules: Keep it clean. Keep it constructive. Keep it on topic.

Visit us on Twitter @ISBAlawyer and @ISBAmembership.

Learn more about the Town Hall Meeting via Twitter at www.isba.org/illinoislawyers.

ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. In this episode he covers Collaborative law for family law cases (Senate Bill 31), Collection changes (Senate Bill 1044), Access to Justice Act (House Bill 3111), Supreme Court Special Purposes Fund (Senate Bill 1768) and Sentencing hearings (Senate Bill 1528). More information on each bill is available below the video.

Collaborative law for family law cases. Senate Bill 31 (Noland, D-Elgin) codifies by statute the Uniform Law Commission’s proposed alternative dispute resolution for family law cases that is now being done by private agreement between litigants. It includes a variety of process requirements such as treatment of settlement communications as confidential, establishment of an evidentiary privilege for settlement discussions, lawyer disqualification if the process fails, and informal discovery procedures. Held in Senate Judiciary Committee.

Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas L. Kilbride and Justice Robert R. Thomas, McHenry County Chief Judge Michael J. Sullivan, and NIU Law Dean Jennifer L. Rosato cordially invite you to the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Access to Justice Listening Conference. The conference will be held on Wednesday, May 1, 2013 from 1:30-4:00 p.m. at the Northern Illinois University College of Law (DeKalb, IL) in the Riley Courtroom (Room #170). 

The purpose of this conference is to hear from people engaged in the judicial system about problems confronting the poor and vulnerable in our communities and to hear about possible solutions.

Additional speakers/panelists for the conference includeJustice Mary S. Schostok (2^nd Judicial District), Patrick M. Kinnally (MCLE Board/Kane County Bar Association), Michele Meyer (Mutual Ground), Mike O’Connor (Prairie State Legal Services), Professor David H. Taylor (NIU College of Law), and Michelle Rock (Director of Illinois Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health and Justice).

Studies have shown that achieving certain diversity benchmarks can generate greater volumes of business and enhanced professionalism. Join us in Chicago on May 13^th to get the tips and best practice advice you need to establish diversity within your law firm. Managing members, partners, and principles in medium to large law firms who attend this seminar will better understand: current diversity numbers and trends; client expectations; handling client demands; how to create diversity-driven initiatives within your firm; what works and what doesn’t when trying to create a diversity program; and much more!

The program qualifies for 4.25 hours MCLE credit, including 4.25 hours approved Professional Responsibility MCLE credit. It is presented by ISBA’s Standing Committee on Racial and Ethnic Minorities and the Law, and co-sponsored by the ISBA Business & Securities Law Section, the ISBA Standing Committee on Women & the Law, the ISBA Standing Committee on Disability Law, the ISBA Standing Committee on Sexual Orientation & General Identity, the ISBA Diversity Leadership Council, the Chicago Committee on Minorities in Large Law Firms, and the Chinese American Bar Association.

Click here for more information and to register.

Chief Justice Moses W. Harrison II was a judge and a gentleman. Most of all, he was a friend and a champion of ordinary people. Chief Justice Harrison passed away Thursday, April 25, after a long illness. He was 81.

"My former colleague, friend and mentor Chief Justice Harrison will be remembered as a prominent judge in Illinois legal history not because he was a great man, but because he never lost sight of the common man," said Chief Justice Thomas L. Kilbride "His commitment to equality and fairness went well beyond his simple, succinct, yet superlative opinions. He treated all people in all stations in life with the same kindness, dignity and respect. That fundamental decency guided his work as a judge, and his work guided Illinois law.

"Illinois is a sadder place today because of his death, but it will forever be a better place because of his life."

Justice Harrison was a member of the Illinois judiciary for 29 years; a member of the Illinois Supreme Court for 10 years; and Chief Justice from Jan. 1, 2000 to September 5, 2002, when he retired. His legacy is quite larger.

A Chicago Tribune profile in 1999 described him as "a gentleman rebel, a distinctly gracious man whose convictions are firm and manners mild."

During his tenure on the Supreme Court, he was most known and honored for demonstrating a commitment to justice and human welfare, writing—either for the majority or in dissent—to defend the poor, the weak, the young and the elderly against corporate or government policies which went against their interests.