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  • March 6, 2012 | ISBA News | Member Services
    Illinois Lawyer Finder service makes nearly 700 referrals in February

    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 February 2012, ISBA helped people in need of legal services find lawyers in the following areas:

    • Administrative Law – 14
    • Animal Law - 5
    • Bankruptcy - 18
    • Business Law - 19                   
    • Civil Disputes - 43
    • Civil Rights - 15          
    • Collection – 27
    • Consumer Protection - 32
    • Contracts – 5
    • Criminal Law - 61
    • Education Law - 11
    • Employment Law - 61
    • Estate/Probate Law - 28
    • Family - 128               
    • Government Benefits - 15
    • Health Law - 2
    • Immigration - 7
    • Insurance Disputes - 9
    • Intellectual Property - 5 
    • Miscellaneous - 4        
    • Municipal Law - 7                  
    • Personal Injury - 75
    • Real Estate - 56
    • Social Security - 13
    • Tax - 8
    • 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.

  • March 1, 2012 | ISBA News
    ISBA provides Lincoln photo to Beecher City High School

    The Illinois State Bar Association helped provide a special photograph of Abraham Lincoln to Beecher City High School. The photograph, made by Alexander Hesler in 1860, was reproduced from glass plates and made available through the Illinois State Historical Society.

    The ISBA and Beecher City Merchants Association purchased the photo for the school. At the school assembly presentation of the photo, photographer PJ Ryan talked about the photographic significance of the image; area Lincoln buff and businessman Jerry White told the students about Lincoln, the poet and leader, and attorney William Austin of Effingham, representing the Illinois Bar Association, talked about Lincoln, the self-educated lawyer. Posing with the photo are (from left) Jerry White, student council officers Mitch Kline, Mitchell Zacha and Breeanna Strauch, William Austin and PJ Ryan.

  • February 24, 2012 | ISBA News
    ISBA seeks "Ask A Lawyer Day" volunteers

    The Illinois State Bar Association is seeking “Ask A Lawyer Day” volunteers for two shifts on Saturday, April 28, at the Illinois Bar Center in Springfield, 424 S. Second Street. The first shift runs from 9 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. and the second shift runs from 11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m.

    Please consider volunteering to help the public with their legal questions and, at the same time, enhance the image of the profession.

    Each year, to recognize and celebrate Law Day, the Illinois State Bar Association sponsors “Ask A Lawyer Day,” a day during which volunteers respond to telephone calls from the public and answer general legal questions free of charge. This is a state-wide public relations effort that receives considerable attention from the public and the media.

    If you are interested in volunteering, please complete and return the form provided below to Tracy Potter.  You can send it any of the following ways:

  • February 17, 2012 | ISBA News | Practice News
    Programs on home construction, foreclosure to air on Illinois Law

    "Legal Issues with Single Family Home Construction" and "Dealing with Foreclosures" will air on Chicago Access Network Television, Channel 21 in Chicago, at 10 p.m. on Tuesdays in February and March. These half-hour programs are presented by “Illinois Law,” a cable production of the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA). Both programs are available for online viewing below.

    "Legal Issues with Single Family Home Construction" will air at 10 p.m. on Tuesdays, Feb. 28 and March 13. Program moderator Martin A. Dolan, of Dolan Law Offices, Chicago, discusses the topic with guests Adam B. Whiteman, of Whiteman Law Offices, Chicago; Jennifer Nielsen, of Lyman & Nielsen, LLC, Oak Brook; and Myles L. Jacobs, a partner in Brumund, Jacobs, Hammel, Davidson & Andreano, LLC, with offices in Joliet, Channahon and Yorkville.

  • February 16, 2012 | Practice News | ISBA News
    ISBA Statehouse Review for the week of Feb. 16

    ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers House Bill 4676 (consumer contracts), House Bill 4665 (radon and home construction), Senate Bill 3757 (admissibility of photographs), House Bill 5198 (contractual litigation) and Senate Bill 2953 (conveyances act). More information on each bill is available below the video.

  • February 13, 2012 | ISBA News | People
    Granite City's Orsey reminds lawyers about ISBA public information brochures
    Granite City lawyer Dennis Orsey has been supplying ISBA public information brochures to the Circuit Clerk's offices in Madison County since the early 1990s when he was president of the Madison County Bar Association and a member of ISBA's Public Relations Committee. Orsey, also a former member of the ISBA Board of Governors, is shown presenting brochures recently to Sarah Betz, deputy clerk in Circuit Clerk Matt Melucci's office. ISBA client brochures and booklets are available on 26 topics of common interest in printed form or downloadable from ISBA's website. Brochures are free for noncommercial uses and for sale to law firms and others in business. Details about available brochure titles is at http://www.isba.org/store/clientbrochures or contact Janice Ishmael at ISBA - 800.252.8908, jishmael@isba.org.
  • February 9, 2012 | ISBA News | Practice News
    ISBA-drafted eavesdropping bill advances out of House committee

    House Bill 3944, which was drafted by the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA), advanced out of a House committee on Wednesday by a vote of 9-2. The bill would allow citizens to record audio of police officers in public places. Video recording is already allowed in Illinois.

    State law currently requires the consent of all parties before a conversation can be legally recorded. Violators face a Class 1 felony and up to a 15-year prison sentence.

    ISBA members Bob Loeb of Chicago and John Rekowski of Edwardsville and ISBA first assistant counsel Melinda Bentley testified before the committee in favor of the bill.

    The bill is being sponsored by Rep. Elaine Nekritz (D-Northbrook).

    2 comments (Most recent March 15, 2012)
  • February 7, 2012 | ISBA News
    Book now to join ISBA President-elect John E. Thies on his President's Trip to China

    Book by April 27 and save $500 per couple!

    Dear ISBA members,
    We invite you to join us on our Fall 2012 ISBA President’s Trip – a magnificent tour of China!

    Take a moment away from your busy day, close your eyes and picture yourself in a land steeped in thousands of years of history. Picture a place where the echoes of distant empires can still be heard above the urban roar of modern technology, where natural landscapes stand in stark and beautiful contrast to contemporary cityscapes. You are in a land rich in tradition and ripe with possibility.

  • February 6, 2012 | ISBA News | Member Services
    Illinois Lawyer Finder makes nearly 700 referrals in January

    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 January 2012, ISBA helped people in need of legal services find lawyers in the following areas:

  • February 6, 2012 | ISBA News
    Umberto Davi elected as Illinois State Bar Association’s 3rd Vice President

    Umberto S. Davi, of Willowbrook, a principal in the Western Springs law firm of Davi and Associates, has been elected third vice president of the Illinois State Bar Association. He will serve one year in each of three vice presidential offices and become president in 2015.

    Davi, whose law practice concentrates in family law and real estate, was first elected to the ISBA Board of Governors in 1998 and was re-elected in 2004, 2008 and again in 2011. He has served on the ISBA’s 201-member Assembly and has been active on numerous committees.

    A past president of the Justinian Society of Lawyers, Davi has served as president of the Willowbrook Police Pension Board for more than 10 years and is a Willowbrook Village trustee. He also is a member of the Board of Trustees of The John Marshall Law School. A native of Italy, he helped establish the Sicilian American Cultural Association.

    Davi received his law degree from The John Marshall Law School, with Distinction, in 1982. A member of its alumni board, he was its president in 2005-06. He received his undergraduate degree in 1976 from Western Illinois University, in Macomb, where he was a member of the National Honor Society.

    9 comments (Most recent February 10, 2012)