Tim Storm reveals the dark and dirty truth in the first paragraph of his column in the latest General Practice, Solo & Small Firm newsletter.

"I remember a moment during a session of my bar review course many years ago. The instructor paused in the midst of his lecture, turned to the audience of recent law school graduates and asked: 'Don’t you hope that new doctors know more about practicing medicine than you know about practicing law?' The wave of nervous laughter sweeping the room showed that the others were thinking just what I was."

Law schools -- most of them -- teach graduates how to "think like lawyers" but not how to be lawyers. Immediately after law school comes the bar review, closely followed by the bar exam. "Most everyone else in the [review course] knew that they, too, had no business being unleashed on the public as full-fledged attorneys," Storm writes. "And yet that was exactly what was about to happen for the 80 percent or so of us who would pass the bar."

We've lived with this approach for decades. What's different now? "The proportion of new graduates who will hang out their own shingles continues to grow," Storm writes. He sympathizes with them, and with the "judges, other attorneys, and clients who may encounter those who hold the same license to practice as the rest of us, but who have never been fully socialized into the practice of the learned profession."

What is to be done? Read Storm's insights and suggestions.

The Chicago Blackhawks have made tickets available to ISBA members for Monday, Oct. 31, when the Hawks face off against the Nashville Predators.

Click Here for Tickets

Offer Code: Hawks

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

Q. As the administrator of our 17 attorney law firm, I am charged with the responsbility of managing and controlling costs. Our management committee is always complaining about our overhead - and then looking to me for solutions - with the focus usually on cost reduction. Do you have any recommendations?

A. I am often asked to help law firms design and implement profitability improvement programs. In most of my engagements the real problem is insufficient gross income and lack of sufficient investment (spending and time) on marketing and initiatives designed to stimulate client and revenue growth. For most firms increasing revenues is the most effective way of impacting the bottom line. However, we do find that there is waste and unnecessary overhead that eats away at profits and a cost control program is also recommended and implemented. During recessionary times such as we are currently facing – drastic cost controls are often the only option. Reducing overhead can immediately and effectively improve a firm’s bottom line.

The first step in an expense control program is to identify those areas where potential savings exist. Review your profit and loss statement. Resist the temptation to arbitrarily cutting costs which could cut the muscle with the fat and result in revenue loss as well. You have to spend money to make money – so if cost cutting is the appropriate strategy – cut the right costs. Think strategically about cost reduction.

After you have identified areas where savings can be made prioritize and develop specific strategies and implement action plans to achieve the savings.

 Here are a few ideas:

The ISBA Environmental Law Section Council is pleased to invite all Springfield-area attorneys practicing in the area of Environmental Law to a FREE networking lunch for ISBA members and non-members alike.

When: October 21, 2011; Noon – 1:00 p.m.

Where: Illinois Attorney General Office, Helen Radigan Hall, 500 South Second Street, Springfield, IL 62706

John Kim, Chief Legal Counsel for the Illinois EPA, will present on the new Section 31 process, including compliance agreement (“CCA”) administrative enforcement.

Kyle Rominger, Deputy Chief Counsel for the Illinois EPA will be speaking on permit streamlining and clean construction demolition debris (“CCDD”).

Please join us for these brief informative presentations, a light lunch and the opportunity to visit with fellow practitioners in a relaxed setting.

Please RSVP with Jane McBride, jmcbride@atg.state.il.us by Oct. 18.

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 September 2011, ISBA helped people in need of legal services find lawyers in the following areas:

• Administrative Law – 15
• Animal Law - 1
• Bankruptcy - 14
• Business Law -     16        
• Civil Disputes - 53        
• Civil Rights - 27   
• Collection - 28
• Consumer Protection - 16
• Contracts - 14
• Criminal Law -     54
• Education Law -13
• Elder law - 4
• Employment Law - 64
• Estate/Probate Law - 18
• Family - 112        
• Government Benefits -14
• Health Law - 12
• Immigration - 5
• Insurance Disputes - 7
• Intellectual Property - 7
• Miscellaneous - 2    
• Municipal Law - 7        
• Personal Injury - 88        
• Real Estate - 73
• Social Security - 25            
• Tax - 3
• Workers Compensation - 8

These numbers do not include additional referrals made through the online Lawyer Finder service.

Want to be part of the ISBA Lawyer Finder Service?  Call (800) 252-8908 and ask for the Legal Department, or visit www.illinoislawyerfinder.com
Clients should call (800) 922-8757.
 

Our panel of leading appellate attorneys review Thursday's Illinois Supreme Court opinions in the civil case City of Chicago v. StubHub and criminal case People v. Taylor.

CIVIL

City of Chicago v. StubHub

By Karen Kies DeGrand, Donohue Brown Mathewson & Smyth LLC

Citing the state’s long history of protecting consumers, including the regulation of ticket resellers and “internet auctioneers,” the Illinois Supreme Court found that the City of Chicago overstepped its home rule authority in trying to collect “amusement taxes” on StubHub resales.  StubHub, a state-registered “internet auction listing service,” describes itself as “the world’s largest online ticket marketplace”; there, for a service fee, a user can buy and sell tickets to events throughout the country.  

The city notified StubHub that it might be a “reseller’s agent” subject to a local tax, and asked StubHub for information regarding its sales for Chicago events.  When StubHub refused, the city sued to obtain that information and for back taxes and penalties.  A federal district judge dismissed the case, and the city appealed.  Under Supreme Court Rule 20, the Illinois Supreme Court agreed to answer a question posed by the Seventh Circuit:  “[W]hether municipalities may require electronic intermediators to collect and remit amusement taxes on resold tickets.”  The answer is no.

Attorney Brent Holmes was presented with the Land of Lincoln Joseph R. Bartylak Pro Bono Award.  This Award was created in 2011 in memory of Joseph R. Bartylak who was Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation's Executive Director from 1976 to 2003.  It honors a volunteer attorney who has directly achieved outstanding results for low income clients or who has supported Land of Lincoln staff in their delivery of high quality legal services to the poor and elderly.

The Honorable Matt Sullivan presented the award to Mr. Holmes during a meeting of the Coles-Cumberland Bar Association. Mr. Holmes is a long-time volunteer through the Coles-Cumberland Bar Association who has consistently accepted referrals for eligible clients for over fifteen years.  He has devoted over 55 hours for the three cases he has closed in just the past two years, and he has donated more than 215 hours since he joined the pro bono panel after its formation in 1996.  He accepts contested family law cases in Cumberland County and Coles County.  He obtains divorce judgments, child custody orders, child support orders, QDROs, and other appropriate relief for clients who are unable to afford to hire attorneys.

“Brent is a model of what the term pro bono lawyer means,” states Clare McCulla, Senior Supervisory Attorney with the Charleston satellite office.  “These are deserving people with meritorious cases who might not have been able to resolve their problems without his help.”

Got a DUI client with blood test results that seem to prove intoxication? Don't be intimidated, and don't assume the state has a slam-dunk case, assistant public defender Erica Nichols of Cook County says. Find out more in the October Illinois Bar Journal.