"Need an Adult Guardianship for Someone Close?" and "Seeking an Adult Guardianship: What's Next?" aired on the Illinois Law cable program in June and July. These programs were moderated by the Hon. Cheryl Cesario and featured Margaret Benson, Nancy Spain and Gregg Garofalo. "Seeking an Adult Guardianship: What's Next?" begins at 26:23 in the video.
ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers House Bill 5221 (Child-support enforcement), House Bill 4665 (Residential construction and radon), House Bill 5314 (Security deposit and email), Senate Bill 1691 (Business law cleanup) and HJRCA 49 (Constitutional amendment for pension increase). More information on each bill is available below the video.
Asked and Answered
By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC
Q. Three years ago our firm merged. The merger involved three solo attorneys and their staff merging into one firm. Now the firm consists of three partners and six staff members - a firm of nine people. While the firm is doing well financially and we are on a growth track we are having issues involving conflict among the partners and staff. In some ways we are still operating as three law firms. Staff are not working well together and they refer to old firm and new firm. They are resistant to change and they have created personal fiefdoms. We merged to create one firm - not three - but we fear that we are still functioning as three law firms. Do you have any suggestions?
John E. Thies, a shareholder at Webber & Thies, P.C., in Urbana, will be installed Friday as the 136th president of the Illinois State Bar Association at the Annual Meeting at The Abbey Resort in Fontana, Wis. His installation marks the first time both a father and son have led the Association. Thies’ father, Richard L. Thies, was ISBA president from 1986-87.
“It’s a great responsibility and opportunity. As the largest state-wide organization of Illinois lawyers and judges, the ISBA has an enormous capacity to champion the core values of our system of justice, and the lawyers who serve it,” John Thies said. “As ISBA President, it is my top priority to make the most of this capacity for the benefit of our membership and the public our members serve.”
During his term as president, Thies will place special emphasis on four major projects that derive from his own experiences in life and the law. A Law School Debt task force will examine the heavy educational debt burden faced by new lawyers as they begin their careers and how that impacts the delivery of legal services. A Committee on Fair and Impartial Courts will coordinate the ISBA’s efforts to identify and publicize threats to fair and impartial courts due to lack of funding.
The Illinois State Bar Association will present Board of Governors Awards to Oak Forest attorney Edward J. Burt, 4th District Appellate Justice M. Carol Pope and Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Julie Ann Sebastian on Friday at the Annual Awards Luncheon during the 136th Annual Meeting at the Abbey Resort on Lake Geneva. 
Board of Governors Awards are given to ISBA members for significant service to the profession and the public.
Burt is partner with the law firm of Urban & Burt, Ltd. He is a past member of the ISBA Assembly and a current member of the ISBA Family Law Section. He also currently serves as a Board member of the Illinois Bar Foundation.
He is a 1970 graduate of the University of Notre Dame and received his J.D. from DePaul University College of Law in 1973.
Pope, of Petersburg, is a Justice with the 4th District Appellate Court in Springfield. She recently finished her term as president of the Illinois Judges Association. Pope was elected Menard County State’s Attorney in 1984 and 1988. In 1991, she was appointed a resident circuit judge of Menard County by the Supreme Court of Illinois and was elected to that position in 1992 and retained in 1998, 2004, and 2010. She was assigned to the Appellate Court in 2008.
