Board of Governors

The ISBA Board of Governors met on Friday, July 20. At the meeting, the Board filled the Area IV (Circuits 10, 14, and 15) and Under 37 in Cook County seats on the Board of Governors. The results of the elections to fill these leadership positions are below.

Board of Governors

• Area IV (Circuits 10, 14, & 15): Michael McCuskey, Lacon
• Under 37 in Cook County: Daniel Saeedi, Chicago

The ISBA Board of Governors met on May 11 at ISBA Headquarters, 424 S. 2nd St., in Springfield.

The ISBA president-elect will appoint a member to one of the under-represented seats of the Board of Governors at the May 2018 Board of Governors meeting. The member appointed to this position will serve with full Board member privileges for a three-year term beginning the first day of the 2018 Annual Meeting in Fontana, WI. 

Pursuant to the Association Bylaws, eligible candidates for the under-represented seat include members of the Association with a status of, but not limited to, age, race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, geography, areas and types of practice, and years of practice. 

The Diversity Leadership Council is responsible for recommending candidates for consideration by the president-elect. All interested members should submit a written self-nomination by email to mburkholder@isba.org no later than April 27, 2018. 

The ISBA Board of Governors voted at its July 21 meeting to ask the Illinois Supreme Court not to require self-represented litigants to use the e-filing system that launches in January until the impact of mandatory e-filing on nonlawyers can be studied and addressed. Speaking on behalf of the proposal, Board member Angelica Wawrzynek of Mattoon noted that no other mandatory e-filing state requires pro se litigants to file cases electronically and that two-thirds of civil cases filed outside Cook County in 2015 included at least one self-represented litigant.

In other action, the Board

● agreed to join the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers in filing an amicus brief in In re the Marriage of Goesel, 2017 IL App (3d) 150101. The ISBA/AAML brief will support the court’s ruling that earned and paid legal fees are not available for disgorgement as part of an interim fee award under the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act;

● approved an ethics opinion stating that an in-house lawyer may provide legal services to multiple subsidiaries of the same corporate parent as long as doing so doesn’t otherwise violate the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct;

● voted to support an ABA resolution that urges states and units of local government to adopt a policy of trapping, neutering, vaccinating, and returning stray cats to the community;