"If you’re a solo or small firm practitioner, chances are you do a fair amount of your own document production," Trent L. Bush writes in the latest ISBA Standing Committee on Legal Technology newsletter. "Even if you never touch a keyboard, someone on your staff spends a fair amount of his or her time generating those documents."

So shouldn't you be looking for ways to automate the process of document creation? Especially documents you draft again and again? "The traditional approach for handling these documents has been to save them somewhere on the computer system and customize them for each particular client, either by cutting and pasting, searching and replacing text, saving over forms, or some combination thereof," Bush writes. "While this is certainly a much better approach than busting out the old typewriter, it still has its problems."

That's where document assembly software comes in. It's much more powerful than garden variety search and replace and holds the promise of greater productivity and higher profits. But it comes at a cost and with a learning curve, and there are several options to choose from. Read Trent's article and learn the basics.

The Illinois State Bar Association invites members of the Young Lawyers Division to enter the Lincoln Award Legal Writing Contest and take aim at the $2,000 First Place Prize!

You're out in the trenches... you know the hot topics in your field...the legal developments you and your colleagues grapple with in the real world of lawyering.  We invite you to share your hard-won knowledge and maybe win $2,000 in prize money by entering the 2013 Lincoln Award Legal Writing Contest.
 
Get the details at www.isba.org/ibj/lincolnwritingaward. And don't delay – the deadline for filing a notice to enter the contest is July 16. Good luck!

Noted trial lawyer Philip H. Corboy, a Laureate in the ISBA Academy of Illinois Lawyers, died Tuesday morning at his Chicago home. He was 87 years old. 

Corboy graduated first in his class from Loyola University School of Law and was sworn into the Illinois bar on January 17, 1949. He later founded the law firm of Corboy & Demetrio -- often referred to as the Corboy College of Law for serving as a training ground for a generation of trial lawyers.

A nationally-acclaimed trial lawyer, Philip H. Corboy was a champion of the injured, a pioneer in the area of personal injury law and a relentless lobbyist against tort reform.  He was as generous as he was successful and he was very successful. In fact, Philip Corboy lost only one case during his entire career, which spanned more than 50 years, and the case was reversed on appeal.

The funeral for Philip Harnett Corboy will be held at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago on Saturday, June 16, 2012 at 10a.m. 

Read the full obituary in the Chicago Sun-Times

Join us in Chicago on June 28, 2012 for this one-day only opportunity to learn advanced negotiation skills from a national expert and renowned instructor!

Learn to approach negotiations with a strategic mindset and become a more effective lawyer. Topics include: the five golden rules of negotiation; strategies to get past “no”; gaining leverage; emotionally-charged techniques; generating creative solutions; sharing information; dealing with untrustworthy adversaries; building future relationships; deadlines and time tips; and much more. 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 seminar is taught by Martin Latz, one of the nation’s leading experts and instructors on negotiating techniques. As the founder of the Latz Negotiation Institute, he has trained over 70,000 lawyers and business professionals around the world. Each registrant will receive a copy of Martin Latz’s book, Gain the Edge! Negotiating to Get What You Want.

Click here for more information and to register for the program in CHICAGO.

Click here for more information and to register for the live WEBCAST.

President John G. Locallo (left) presents the Illinois State Bar Association's John C. McAndrews Pro Bono Service Award to Patrick M. Kinnally at a dinner meeting of the Kane County Bar Association Wednesday evening at Two Brothers Roundhouse in Aurora.

Kinnally is a partner with Kinnally Flaherty Krentz & Loran PC in Aurora. He received the ISBA's Tradition of Excellence Award in 2003.

Intellectual Property law changes dynamically from month-to-month, particularly in those areas related to the Internet and cyberspace matters. Join us in Chicago on June 21^st for the 2012 Cyberlaw Symposium where you will learn to more effectively advise your clients on a number of intellectual property topics, including employee avatars in virtual worlds; open source software; Creative Commons licensing; cyberbullying; litigation trends involving patent, trademarks, and copyright “trolls”; politics and intellectual property; hosting information on the Internet; cloud computing; and much more! 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 Intellectual Property Law Section and qualifies for 6.5 hours MCLE credit, including 1.0 hour PMCLE credit.

Click here for more information and to register for the program in CHICAGO.

Click here for more information and to register for the live WEBCAST.

Illinois State Bar Association President John G. Locallo invites you to the 136th Annual Meeting on the banks of Lake Geneva. The festivities will occur from June 14-June 16 in Fontana, Wis. Find out more at www.isba.org/annual

ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers House Bill 6192 (Rewrite of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act), House Bill 6191 (Rewrite of the Parentage Act), Senate Bill 3823 (Sanctions for visitation violations), Senate Bill 2569 (Dissipation claims and child support), Senate Bill 3849 (Child support enforcement), House Bill 3960 (Calculation of child support) and Senate Bill 2488 (Cell phones in construction and school zones). More information on each bill is available below the video.

Please note that the General Assembly must send to the Governor passed legislation within 30 days from the date both chambers passed it. The Governor must sign, veto, or amendatorily veto a bill within 60 days of his receipt of it. The "drop date" is the 60-day deadline for each bill and is the date by which the Governor must take action.

If you're interested in what action he has taken on a specific bill or want to view the full text, visit the General Assembly's excellent website at http://www.ilga.gov.

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.