Rural Law Practice in the NewsBy Sam Ellis & Cari Brett RinckerRural Practice, July 2026While Illinois Courts Access to Justice Improvement Grant Program has closed for the 2026-2027 application period, proposals are anticipated to open in June 2027 for the 2027-2028 cycle; Iowa leaders convene to address rural legal deserts; rural public defense shortages receive national attention; Indiana selects inaugural Rural Practice Academy class; New Mexico considers alternative licensing to address rural shortages; Tennessee Symposium examines rural justice gap and regulatory reform; and new national research reviews rural access to justice service design.
Rural Law Practice in the NewsBy Sam Ellis & Cari Brett RinckerRural Practice, June 2026Learn more about Illinois' expansion of Access to Justice funding and the Court Navigator Network; Indiana's Rural Practice Academy; Kansas's plan to offer financial incentives to entice attorneys to work in legal deserts; and collaborative and technology-based models have gained traction in rural communities.
Rural Law Practice in the NewsBy Sam Ellis & Cari Brett RinckerRural Practice, April 2026News updates relating to rural legal practice, including judicial branch targeting rural access to justice, ARDC updates attorney registration to map rural shortages, continued development of Illinois Community Justice Worker Program, and more!
Rural Law Practice in the News: August 2026By Sam Ellis & Cari Brett RinckerRural Practice, August 2026Learn more about the National Legal Deserts Report; New York's Landlord-Tenant Hub Court; statewide access training for Illinois Court Disability Coordinators; Indiana's inaugural Rural Practice Academy; law schools and national partners continuing to build rural practice pipelines; and New Mexico's alternative pathway to licensure.
Rural Law Practice in the News: October 2026By Sam Ellis & Cari Brett RinckerRural Practice, October 2026Learn more about LSAC and partners announce national convening on rural legal deserts; Legal Services Corporation highlights promising rural practices; NCSC continues to expand rural-justice and legal-desert resources; and more!
Rural Law Practice in the News—September 2026By Sam Ellis & Cari Brett RinckerRural Practice, September 2026LSAC continues rural access-to-justice webinar series; State Justice Institute report remains a national reference point for legal deserts; NCSC highlights mapping tools for rural legal deserts; and more.
Safety, Stigma, and the State: Savanna’s Law and Domestic Violence RegistriesBy Judge Megan GoldishWomen and the Law, February 2026Savanna’s Law raises questions of whether other states, including Illinois, could adopt a similar framework. Tennessee is the first state to implement a statewide public registry specifically for repeat DV offenders. While other jurisdictions maintain law-enforcement-only databases or protective-order registries, these differ significantly from a public criminal offender registry.
Save the Date for ISBA’s Solo & Small Firm Conference in PeoriaFederal Taxation, July 2026Join your fellow Federal Taxation Section members in Peoria on September 17–18, 2026, for the ISBA Solo & Small Firm Conference, From Log Cabin to Legacy: Growing and Sustaining a Solo or Small Firm in Illinois.
Save the Date for the Annual Meeting!Local Government Law, February 2026Don't miss the 2026 Annual Meeting, on June 11-12, 2026, at the Ritz-Carlton St. Louis!
Save the Date: The Human Right to Due Process in Immigration CourtHuman and Civil Rights, October 2026The Human and Civil Rights Section Council is teaming up with the International Human Rights Clinic at the University of Illinois Chicago to offer a CLE program on November 3, 2026, on due process in immigration courts.
SB 25 and the Surface–Mineral Relationship: Implications for Illinois Mineral Law PractitionersBy John H. HendersonMineral Law, June 2026Senate Bill 25 marks a significant shift in Illinois’ approach to grid reliability and energy infrastructure. SB 25’s framework emphasizes long-term utility planning through integrated resource planning and a “diverse portfolio” that may include storage resources and demand-side programs.
The “Scarlet-I”: When Indication Becomes a MarkBy Amanda VeselyChild Law, February 2026An analysis of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services’ Allegation #60: Branding parents or caregivers for what might have happened rather than what did. Child protection and due process can coexist, but only if risk is measured with restraint, evidence, and fairness.
Schedule A: Where Convenience & Civil Procedure ClashBy Christopher KeleherIntellectual Property, March 2026A Schedule A tactic to herd alleged infringers into a single action is testing the limits of civil procedure rules, prompting pushback from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
The SEC Says It Will No Longer Consider Mandatory Arbitration Clauses Potential Roadblocks to Acceleration of Effectiveness of Registration StatementsBy Andrew L. FranklinAlternative Dispute Resolution, February 2026Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul S. Atkins is on a mission to “Make IPOs Great Again.” In an Open Meeting Statement regarding the Policy Statement, Chairman Atkins acknowledged, “[t]he agency has, however, scrutinized registration statements filed by companies that have sought to include a mandatory arbitration provision in their governance documents—and injected uncertainty into whether these registration statements would be declared effective.” The September 2025 Policy Statement upends the SEC’s prior skepticism of mandatory arbitration provisions. The primary rationale for the policy shift is aligning SEC practices with recent Supreme Court case law.
The Second Circuit Builds a Wall Around China, Something Courts in the Seventh Circuit Should AvoidBy Jonathan L.A. PhillipsIntellectual Property, June 2026Schedule A patent and trademark litigation has become one of the most significant, and most contentious, areas of intellectual property practice. Serving foreign defendants is not a new problem. For years, courts addressed it with a practical solution: authorize electronic service through the very platforms the defendants use. Then came Smart Study...
Second Circuit Refuses To Compel Arbitration Under NFL Constitution, Which “Provides for Arbitration in Name Only”By Jay SchleppenbachAlternative Dispute Resolution, February 2026Arbitration agreements are generally enforceable even though they mean the parties give up certain procedural rights they would otherwise enjoy. Even though the standards for avoiding arbitration based on the design of the arbitration are high, they are not impossible to meet. The Second Circuit’s recent decision in Flores v. New York Football Giants, Inc. demonstrates where a court may refuse to compel arbitration when such procedure is “arbitration in name only.”
Securities RegulationsBy Christopher Barrett & Jordan Mulevicz McMathBusiness and Securities Law, February 2026On December 4, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Investor Advisory Committee published its recommendation that the SEC consider adopting Artificial Intelligence disclosure rules, noting the benefits of a standardized “materiality-informed” disclosure framework that reflects the impact of AI on a company’s growth and financial results, as well as the barriers to and risks of adoption.
Securities RegulationsBy Christopher Barrett & Jordan Mulevicz McMathIn-House Law Departments, February 2026On December 4, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Investor Advisory Committee published its recommendation that the SEC consider adopting Artificial Intelligence disclosure rules, noting the benefits of a standardized “materiality-informed” disclosure framework that reflects the impact of AI on a company’s growth and financial results, as well as the barriers to and risks of adoption.
Seeing the Humanity: Northern Illinois NAMIBy Susan M. GoldbergMental Health Law, May 2026Danielle Angilieri, the Executive Director of the Northern Illinois National Alliance for Mental Illness in Rockford, shares her career journey and offers words of wisdom when dealing with persons who may be suffering from mental illnesses.
Seeking Education Related Topics of Interest and ArticlesBy Nina M. HennessyEducation Law, October 2026The Education Law Section provides a valuable resource for attorneys practicing in the area of education, representing private and public educational institutions in primary, secondary, and higher education, school boards, districts, unions, parents and guardians, students, and taxpayers. If you are inclined to write an article for the newsletter or have ideas for topics to be covered in the newsletter or presented in a CLE, please let me know.
Selling U.S. Food Products in Peru: Key Legal Risks in Labeling, Distribution, and Trademark ProtectionBy Dr. Alberto MirandaFood Law, June 2026Peru is a meaningful market for U.S. food and agricultural exports, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA/FAS) continues to describe Peru as a relevant destination for consumer-oriented products and processed food ingredients. But a U.S. company entering Peru should not assume that the regulatory path will resemble the U.S. model.
Settling Cases by Consent JudgmentBy Hon. Alon SteinCommercial Banking, Collections, and Bankruptcy, February 2026Yes, you do have settlement authority and you are negotiating in good faith if the only thing your client can offer at a pretrial settlement conference is a consent judgment!
Seventh Circuit Reverses “Pizza Puff” InjunctionBy Steven L. Baron & Griffin TopelIntellectual Property, June 2026In January 2026, in Illinois Tamale Co., Inc. v. LC Trademarks, Inc. and Little Caesar Enterprises, Inc., the Seventh Circuit reversed a preliminary injunction against Little Caesars on the term “Pizza Puff” and affirmed the denial of injunctive relief for “Crazy Puffs” and “Puff.”The case is a useful reminder of the standards for genericness and descriptive fair use in trademark law.
Smaller Estates Are Not Always Simpler To AdministerBy Hayden R. EarlYoung Lawyers Division, March 2026For many attorneys who are new to estate administration, it may be tempting to gravitate towards working on smaller estates, under the guise that probate will be simpler. Though, at first, it may seem intuitive that an estate with a single, easily identifiable asset would be easy to administer, smaller does not always mean simpler.
Social Media Use and AbuseBy David C. BrezinaIntellectual Property, September 2026A few lessons can be learned from the recent 7th Circuit case, Wenzler v. United States Coast Guard: Do not put any one of (1) government organization membership; (2) government organization officer position; or (3) wearing a uniform on a social media profile or page on which you want to post critical opinions. Certainly not all three.
Solar Development, County Discretion, and Mineral Rights: Lessons From Equity Solar and Tate Road SolarBy John H. HendersonMineral Law, September 2026A county may approve a utility-scale solar project above a coal reserve, but the permit does not answer who may use the surface years later, who bears subsidence risk, whether future mining can proceed, or how conflicts between competing uses will be resolved. Two recent Illinois appellate decisions nevertheless make county review newly important by dividing over how much discretion counties retain when acting on commercial solar applications.
Sole Proximate Cause—Whose Burden Is It Anyway?By Judge Eileen Marie O’ConnorTort Law, May 2026Although a party may plead in the alternative and assert multiple theories of sole proximate cause, the trial court must serve as gatekeeper to ensure that this burden is met. Specifically, the court must ensure that the defendant presents competent evidence establishing that a third party, condition, or combination thereof constituted the sole—rather than a merely contributing—cause of the plaintiff’s injury. Absent such safeguards, the doctrine of sole proximate cause risks misapplication, inviting jury confusion and undermining the integrity of the verdict.
Southern Africa’s Customs Union: Dispute Resolution, Investment Exposure, and the U.S. PractitionerBy Jarrick HonnInternational and Immigration Law, August 2026Tension between SACU's ambitious legal architecture and its diplomatic reality is not merely an academic curiosity; it has direct consequences for attorneys in Illinois whose clients trade, invest, or otherwise conduct business in southern Africa. Illinois is the fifth-largest exporting state in the United States, and its manufacturers, agribusinesses, and multinational employers regularly transact with counterparties across the region governed by SACU's common external tariff.
Speaking Up Without Paying for It: Illinois’ New Protection Against Nursing Home RetaliationBy Lauren E. ParkYoung Lawyers Division, October 2026New section 2-120 of the Nursing Home Care Act defines retaliation, protects a far wider range of resident conduct, and creates a dedicated cause of action with its own causation standard and damages. The statute matters to lawyers on both sides. Attorneys who represent residents, and estate planning, elder law, and guardianship attorneys who advise families, will hear from clients who worry that complaining will make things worse for a parent or other loved one.
