Chicago Area

Chief Judge Stephen J. Culliton, Chief Judge Elect John T. Elsner and MICAP Programs Judge Jane H. Mitton and State's Attorney Robert B. Berlin announced recently that a Veteran's Track is being initiated as a cooperative effort between the 18th Judicial Circuit of Illinois Drug Court and Mental Illiness Court Alternative Programs (MICAP) and the Veteran's Administration.

The mission of the Veteran's Track is to reduce the number of incidence crimes committed by verteran with substance abuse, traumatic brain injury, post traumatic stress disorder and/or mental health issues as a results of their military service. This will be achieved by the operation of a highly structured judicial intervention process for these veterans that brings together Veteran Administraiton treatment services and intesnsive judicial monitoring through Drug Court or MICAP.

Participants will consist of those who served in the U.S. Armed Forces and who have received an honorable or general discharge from the military. For further information, please contact Jim Wojtas, Drug Court/MICAP Program Manager at (630) 407-8846 or james.wojtas@dupageco.org. The start date is Jan. 1, 2012.

ISBA 2nd Vice President and Winston & Strawn chief attorney development officer Paula H. Holderman will be honored by the Women's Bar Association of Illinois (WBAI) with the 2011 "Women with Vision" award. Ms. Holderman will be presented with the award at the WBAI's Joint Professional Dinner on Nov. 3, 2011 in Chicago.

The "Women with Vision" Awards were first presented in 1997 by the WBAI to honor and recognize women who have demonstrated visionary approaches in their professional endeavors and who have made a contribution to the well-being and empowerment of women.

Ms. Holderman will take office as ISBA president of the in 2013. Ms. Holderman is also a member of Winston & Strawn's diversity committee as well as a chair of the Women to Women (W2W) initiative.

Leo J. "Bear" Sullivan, a two-term member of the ISBA Assembly and past chair of the ISBA Mutual Insurance company, passed away on Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011. Mr. Sullivan was born on Aug. 16, 1934 in St. Louis, Missouri.

Reared in East St. Louis, he graduated from Central Catholic High School in 1952, and recently attended his graduating class's 50th reunion. While attending St. Louis University he clerked for two separate Police Magistrates in E. St. Louis. He graduated from St. Louis University Law School in 1958 with a J.D. degree and was admitted to the Illinois and Missouri Bars the same year.

The same year he joined the United States Navy and was commissioned in 1959 after completing OCS in Newport, Rhode Island. His first assignment as a Legal Officer was to the USNS Kodiak, Alaska where he served as the legal officer to that command and others.

In September of 1960 he was transferred to the Administrative Command at Great Lakes, where he was in charge of the Courts Martial Unit and later acted as the Appellate Review Officer. In late 1960 he worked part time, nights and weekends, for Snyder, Clarke, Dalziel, Holmquist and Johnson in Waukegan. When released from active duty in March of 1962 he became a member of the firm. In 1967 he was made a partner.

On November 1, 2011, two highly-regarded Park Ridge law firms, Owens, Owens & Rinn, Ltd. and Di Monte & Lizak, LLC will combine and form a single firm known as Di Monte & Lizak, LLC, practicing from one office, at 216 Higgins Road, Park Ridge, IL 60068. The main telephone number for the firm will be (847) 698-9600, and the firm’s website will be www.dimontelaw.com.

Owens, Owens and Rinn, Ltd. was founded by John E. Owens, Sr. in 1923.  John supported himself through law school selling plumbing supplies, and many of his former customers became clients of the newly founded firm.  John Sr. was joined in the practice by his brother, Thomas L. Owens, and his brother-in-law, Vincent G. Rinn. 

Like many hard-working attorneys, John Sr. made time for service to the profession, serving on the Board of Managers of the Chicago Bar Association, and the Committee on Character and Fitness of the Illinois Bar.  In the latter capacity, he was one of the members who successfully opposed the admission of an admitted member of the Communist Party to the Illinois Bar.  That case ultimately reached the United States Supreme court, where John Sr.’s position was upheld.

Thomas L. Owens entered public service by running for and being elected to the Congressional seat representing what was then the 7th Congressional District in Illinois (Park Ridge).  In Congress, having an interest in Labor Law, he served on the powerful House Labor Committee where he was a proponent of the Taft-Hartley Act.  While serving in Washington, Thomas was stricken with a fatal disease, and he died in the Bethesda Naval Hospital in 1948.