In his March 2021 Illinois Bar Journal article, “A Promise of Clear Title,” Philip J. Vacco asks whether the term “warranty deed” must be interpreted as imposing upon the seller an obligation to provide a general warranty deed. In the author’s opinion, the answer is “no.” If we give the language used in these contracts its plain meaning, Vacco writes, the seller is obligated to provide a warranty deed but, without further specification, the seller is left to his own accord as to what type of warranty deed he will deliver to meet this obligation. Given these options, Vacco asks why anyone would allow their client to provide a general warranty deed when the use of a special warranty deed meets the seller’s contract obligations.

Launching and running a law firm in “normal” times is difficult enough. But doing so during a pandemic creates additional challenges on top of the usual ones, say attorneys who participated in the ISBA’s February CLE program, “Starting and Running Your Own Law Practice.” The presenters’ expertise formed the basis of the 2021 March Illinois Bar Journal cover story, “The COVID-19-Era Firm.” The IBJ spoke with the program’s presenters, who outlined their pandemic-minded advice for solo and small-firm attorneys who are either starting out or rethinking the ways they conduct business. Their main takeaways: Plan to add extra measures of flexibility, networking, and a focus on well-being to the typical to-do list of establishing technology, billing and finance practices, incorporation paperwork and tax filings, a library of forms and documents, and policies that guide employee-related decisions.

America’s fight against its invisible opponent, COVID-19, is ongoing. In response to COVID-19, communities, state, and local officials continue to issue, extend, and modify emergency orders to stop the spread. These authorities are exercised in a variety of measures, including mask mandates and stay-at-home orders. These orders, often incorporating the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, include such terms and phrases as “quarantine,” “social distancing,” “six feet apart,” and “work from home.” In her February Illinois Bar Journal article, “Liberties and Lockdowns,” Deanna Shahnami  examines how Illinois courts and the Seventh Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals have slowly established precedent for injunctive relief and how they have weighed executive emergency orders responding to COVID-19 against First Amendment rights. Shahnami’s article is this year’s Illinois Bar Journal Lincoln Award Legal Writing Contest winner.

The Illinois Bar Journal’s February 2021 cover story, “Small Town Law,” introduces the Illinois State Bar Association’s Rural Practice Initiative (RPI), an innovate effort designed to incentivize practicing law in less-populated areas of Illinois as one way to address access-to-justice challenges in more rural parts of the state. The program will provide funding to young lawyers who are willing to move to rural Illinois. The program also will provide subsidies to firms willing to take them on. The RPI is the brainchild of ISBA president Dennis Orsey, who says of the dearth of legal services in rural Illinois, “I look at this as an access-to-justice issue. If we don’t take affirmative action now to address this problem, in a few years those aging attorneys will retire and there will be no one left to serve these residents.”