The Civil Union Act represents a movement away from Illinois’ public policy of encouraging only traditional heterosexual married couple relationships, prompting the question: Should Illinois join 47 other states and recognize unmarried couples’ cohabitation agreements, too? Natalie T. Lorenz of Mathis, Marifian and Richter in Belleville makes the case in the June Illinois Bar Journal.
Asked and Answered
By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC
Q. Our firm has 24 attorneys. We are managed by a management team consisting of a managing partner (25% of his time), a full-time office administrator, controller, and marketing director. I am currently serving as the managing partner. Recently we have been having conflict between various members of the management team. Our team meetings are stressful and I fear that our effectiveness is being compromised. Do you have any suggestions?
A. I suggest you start by identifying some of the causes. Poor communications are often the root cause of such problems. Interview each of your team members individually and probe. What do they think? Is communications a problem? Are roles, duties, and responsibilities clarified? Lack of clarity in these areas can lead to turf wars. You may want to design a team charter as well as job descriptions for each employee and clarify roles, duties, and responsibilities for each team member. Conduct short weekly team meetings to enhance communications. Use agendas. Take minutes of the meetings. Advise each team member of your expectations including all members working together as team members. Let them know that working together as a team is a performance factor that will be considered in performance evaluations and reviews. Conduct periodic performance reviews. Counsel and take action against problem team members.
Take stock of your performance as well. Are you micro managing the team or second guessing team members? Have you honed your leadership skills? If not - work on your management and leadership skills as well and consider coaching and leadership training if necessary.
The Illinois Supreme Court announced Tuesday an increase in the annual registration fee for attorneys practicing in Illinois to fund an important goal — providing legal services in non-criminal cases to those below or near the poverty line.
The Supreme Court also announced that retired judges who wish to remain active on the state roll of attorneys will no longer be exempt from paying the attorney license registration fee.
Under amended Supreme Court rules, the annual registration fee will increase from $289 to $342 — an increase of 14½ cents per day. The entire $53 increase will be remitted to the Lawyers Trust Fund, which contributes to agencies in Illinois that provide legal services to the poor.
“Since its inception, the Lawyers Trust Fund has been integral in providing access to our system of justice to those who can least afford it,” said Chief Justice Thomas L. Kilbride. “It is a very important goal and even more so in these economic times. It demonstrates a clear commitment by the full Court to continue to encourage attorneys in Illinois to assume responsibility for those unable to afford legal services.”
Even with the increase in fees, Illinois will rank in the bottom half of the states and the District of Columbia in the amount it assesses in licensing fees and dues. Connecticut is the highest with a total fee of $675 annually; Indiana and Maryland are the lowest with an annual fee of $145.
The Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois (LTF) receives its revenue from two sources: a portion of the licensing fee and the interest on pooled funds that attorneys are required to hold for clients while matters are pending. Under the rules changes, the amount remitted to the LTF will increase from $42 to $95.
The legal community struggles to figure out how to best deal with social media evidence, such as Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Pinterest. Fortunately, bloggers have posted helpful articles, such as The Four Corners of Social Media and eDiscovery, How Hard is Authenticating Social Media?, The No Fly Zone of Producing An Entire Facebook Profile and Published cases involving social media evidence.For employment lawyers is Hot Off The Press - Today's New NLRB Social Media Guidance, from the Social Media Employment Law Blog.Tort and media lawyers will find How Should We Measure Damages for Defamation Over Social Media? from Citizen Media Law Projectthought provoking.
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 May 2012, ISBA helped people in need of legal services find lawyers in the following areas:
The Board of Directors of the Illinois Bar Foundation cordially invites you to a reception honoring ISBA President John G. Locallo. This event will take place on Wednesday, June 20, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at Moe's Cantina, 155 W. Kinzie, Chicago.
Please RSVP by June 15 to to kkossart@isba.org or mburkholder@isba.org. You can also call the IBF directly at (312) 726-6072.
No matter what area of law you practice, animals are increasingly the subject of legislation and litigation. Join us in Chicago on June 8th for an opportunity to discuss the existing regulation of exotic animals in Illinois and neighboring states (especially in light of recent events in Zanesville, Ohio); recent developments in farm animal welfare; enforcing Illinois’ neglect/cruelty provisions in equine cases; estate planning for companion animals; procedural and substantive due process in animal regulation matters; and much more! Ethical considerations for animal law practitioners are also included. Attorneys working in the animal law, environmental law, agricultural law, and commercial transaction areas (with all levels of practice experience) will benefit from attending this full-day seminar. Can’t attend the live, on-site program in Chicago? Then join us on the web! This program will be broadcast live via the Internet so that attorneys can attend remotely.
The program is presented by the ISBA Animal Law Section and qualifies for 7.5 hours MCLE credit, including 1.0 hour Professional Responsibility MCLE credit.
Click here for more information and to register for the program in CHICAGO.
Chief Justice Thomas L. Kilbride and the Illinois Supreme Court announced Thursday that two counties in the Second Judicial District will be added to a pilot project allowing the filing of the trial record on appeal electronically.
The Supreme Court Order authorized the Illinois Appellate Court in the Second Judicial District to begin an e-project that will allow attorneys, parties and appellate justices to view, access and work electronically from the official record of cases on appeal from DeKalb and McHenry counties for appeals filed after August 1, 2012.
DeKalb and McHenry will join DuPage and Ogle counties in the Second Judicial District to electronically transfer the official court record of cases on appeal. Other Illinois counties in the pilot project include Clinton County in the Fifth Judicial District, Rock Island County in the Third Judicial District and Adams County in the Fourth Judicial District.
In addition, the Court announced in January a pilot project for the electronic filing of motions, briefs and related documents with the Illinois Supreme Court Clerk's office. That project involves the Illinois Attorney General, the State Appellate Defender's Office and the Office of the Illinois State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor.
Chief Justice Kilbride has said making the records on appeal available electronically will bring the courts closer to eventually making e-business universal throughout the Illinois court system. Justice Kilbride has pledged to make Illinois court operations more efficient by implementing improvements in technology since becoming Chief Justice in October 2010.
Are you putting the power of membership to use?The ISBA Member MarkSMand Member Firm MarkSMcan be used by ISBA active members to denote their membership in the association and distinguish themselves from other lawyers when advertising their services to the public. Though not a certification of quality, membership in a professional association shows your commitment to a higher level of standards and practices.
Who can use the ISBA Member MarkSMand/or Member Firm MarkSM?
The ISBA Member MarkSMcan be used by ISBA active members* who have completed the ISBA Member Mark License Agreement process. The ISBA Member Firm MarkSMmay be used by law firms upon certification by the firm that all lawyers in the firm are active members* of the ISBA. (See FAQs on website for definition of active member status.)
Where can you use the ISBA Member MarkSMand/or Member Firm MarkSM?
ISBA President John G. Locallo uses his latest Tech Minute to discuss HootSuite, an online dashboard that manages your social media accounts. Check it out in the video below: