Lawyers in Illinois took a big bite out of the state’s hunger problem by surpassing a goal to raise one million meals during a two-week food and fundraising drive from February 18-March 1.

Lawyers Feeding Illinois, an initiative of the ISBA, has raised $211,474, enough for 1,057,370 meals, and the dollars and non-perishable food supplies are still flowing in, according to ISBA President John E. Thies, of Urbana.

“This effort, supported by hundreds of lawyers, will significantly impact the lives of an estimated 1.9 million Illinoisans who are considered food insecure,” said Thies, who created the initiative as part of his presidency. Lawyers Feeding Illinois is supported by Feeding Illinois and the Office of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. Thies’ wife Terry chaired the campaign.

The Illinois State Bar Association’s Lawyer Finder Service provides referrals to local lawyers Mondays through Fridays. The Service makes referrals in a number of areas of law. For the month of February 2013, ISBA helped people in need of legal services find lawyers in the following areas:

• Administrative Law – 10
• Animal Law - 4
• Bankruptcy - 11
• Business Law - 9
• Civil Disputes - 37
• Civil Rights - 21
• Collection – 23

ISBA President John E. Thies urges members interested in becoming an association leader to attend the upcoming Bar Leadership Conference May 3-4 at the ISBA's Chicago Regional Office. This conference is open to all members, but is targeted for up and coming leaders within our nearly 100 affiliated bar associations.

The Lawyers Feeding Illinois campaign cleared its goal of 1 million meals this afternoon. Those meals will help Illinois food banks feed hungry families. Campaign chair Terry Thies and ISBA President John Thies would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this a succesful effort. Contribute and see which teams are leading the competition at crowdrise.com/LawyersFeedingIllinois

Entering the last day of the campaign, Lawyers Feeding Illinois has raised 913,000 meals and counting! Final figures will be available next week. Contributions can be made at www.lawyersfeedingil.org. Please watch the video below as ISBA President John E. Thies discusses how hunger impacts children in our state.

The Illinois Supreme Court has delayed the effective date of new rules aimed at mitigating uncertainty in the foreclosure process.

The Supreme Court is delaying the effective date to give additional time to the Special Committee which drafted the rules to determine how the rules would be applied to cases currently pending, or if they would apply only to new cases.

New Supreme Court Rule 113 and new Supreme Court Rule 114 initially were to go into effect on Friday March 1. In an Order filed Thursday, the Supreme Court delayed the effective date to May 1.

ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. In this episode he covers Filing fee increase (House Bill 2327), Recording of documents (Senate Bill 1728), Collaborative law for family law cases (Senate Bill 31), Forcible entry and detainer (House Bill 2360), Circuit court fees (House Bill 2505) and Litigation funding (House Bill 2301). More information on the bill is available below the video.

In December, a federal appeals court in Chicago declared an Illinois ban on the concealed carrying of firearms outside the home to be unconstitutional.

Two months later, state court trial judges have not yet acquitted any defendants charged with simple possession under the law and, according to an Illinois criminal-defense attorney who is closely monitoring these kinds of prosecutions, local judges are unlikely to stop enforcing the unconstitutional law until this summer.

Find out more in the March Illinois Bar Journal.

Asked and Answered

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

Q. I am the chair of our three member executive committee. We are a 20 attorney firm in Atlanta. We have 5 partners and 15 associates. We have done a terrible job of mentoring our associates and we need to do better. Do you have any ideas?

"Affordable Housing Development and Management" and "Tenant Rights in Subsidized Housing" will air on Illinois Law on Tuesdays in March. Both half hour programs will air on Chicago Access Network Television, Channel 21 in Chicago, at 10 p.m.

"Affordable Housing Development and Management" will air on March 5 and 19. Appearing on it will be (top photo, from left) Dilia Camacho-Saeedi, vice president of property management, Hispanic Housing Development Corporation, in Chicago; program moderator Nancy K. McKenna, of Provena Health, in Chicago; and Britt Shawver, chief executive officer, Housing Opportunities for Women, in Chicago.

"Tenant Rights in Subsidized Housing" will air on on March 12 and 26. Appearing on it will be (bottom photo, from left) Jeremy P. Bergstrom, staff attorney/Housing Justice, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, in Chicago; Beverly Yang, Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation, Inc., in Alton; program moderator Nancy K. McKenna, of Provena Health, in Chicago; and J. Damian Ortiz, a clinical professor for the Housing Clinic at The John Marshall Law School, in Chicago.