Please join us at the 15th Annual Holiday Party and show your support for the IBF/ YLD Children’s Assistance Fund. 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. The YLD has raised more than $350,000.00 for the Children’s Assistance Fund over the past 14, due, in large part, to the widespread support and participation in our annual Holiday Party. We hope that you will help us continue this worthy tradition by joining us in person or, if you cannot attend, by contributing to the cause.

WHEN: Friday, Dec. 7, 2012, 6 p.m.-10 p.m.

WHERE: Cubby Bear Lounge, 1059 W. Addison, Chicago, Illinois

WHAT: Open Bar, Warm Appetizers, and Live Music by Rod Tuffcurls & the Bench Press!

COST: $35 per person, for tickets purchased on or before Nov. 26, 2012;  Discount rate: $30 for law students, for tickets purchased on or before November 26, 2012; $40 per person, for tickets purchased after November 26, 2012

Join your fellow antitrust practitioners in Chicago on November 2^nd to view a real-time/live webcast of the Fourth Annual Great Lakes Antitrust Institute! The program uses remote access technology to stream live via the Internet from the Ohio State Bar Association to the ISBA Regional Office in Chicago!

The program is presented by the ISBA Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Section and co-sponsored by the Ohio State Bar Association and the Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum. It qualifies for 6.75 hours MCLE credit, including 1.0 hour PMCLE credit (subject to approval).

Click here for more information and to register.

Chief Justice Thomas L. Kilbride and the Illinois Supreme Court announced on Wednesday new statewide standards and new and amended Supreme Court rules that will allow all courts in Illinois to begin electronic filing of court documents in civil cases.

The budget problems in Illinois can never be fixed by slashing the already modest court budget, Illinois' chief justice says. While courts must be frugal, the other branches of government have a responsibility to fund our justice system adequately. Read more in the November Illinois Bar Journal.

The ISBA Board of Governors voted to support the Special Committee on Judicial Disqualification Standards proposed rule and special commentary at its meeting on Oct. 19. The special committee was organized by ISBA President John E. Thies in response to increasing public and professional attention to campaign contributions in judicial elections and the perception that such contributions may influence judicial decision making.

“I want to compliment the special committee’s hard work. I’d also like to thank the ISBA Board of Governors for unanimously passing the recommendation,” President Thies said. “If adopted by our Supreme Court, the new rule – which would amend the Code of Judicial Conduct – would be an important step toward enhancing public confidence in the judiciary.”

Asked and Answered

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

Q. We are an 8 attorney law firm in Evansville, Indiana. We have five members and three associates. We started our firm four years ago. Each member has an equal share for both ownership and compensation purposes. We cut the pie equally. After four years some of the members feel that the equal sharing approach is no longer working and we need to consider a different approach to compensation. I would appreciate your thoughts on how we might get started on modifying our approach.

The Illinois State Bar Association's Special Committee on Law School Debt, formed by President John E. Thies, hosted its first two meeting this week in Wheaton and Peoria (remaining schedule below). ISBA members are encouraged to attend these meetings to discuss how increasing law school debt is impacting the delivery of legal services.

ISBA President John E. Thies discusses the importance of using ISBA ratings when voting for judges in the upcoming election. Ratings can be found at isba.org/voteforjudges

Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas L. Kilbride will welcome a stellar group of attendees to the first ever Supreme Court Access to Justice Commission conference on Wednesday, October 24. The conference is scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. and will be held in Room C-500 in the Bilandic Building, located at 160 N. LaSalle Street, Chicago.

The purpose of Wednesday afternoon's conference is to explore some of the fundamental issues relating to access to justice, and to begin developing an agenda to increase and enhance access to justice in Illinois. More than 125 persons from different arenas of the legal profession have replied to the invitation.