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ISBA News
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May 21, 2014 |
Member Services | ISBA News
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May 13, 2014 |
ISBA News
Election also determines 5 Board seats
Hon. Russell W. Hartigan, of Western Springs, a judge in the Circuit Court of Cook County, has been elected third vice president of the Illinois State Bar Association. He will serve a one-year term in each of the three vice presidential offices and become president of the 32,000-member organization in June 2017.
Judge Hartigan, who will be the first sitting judge in at least 40 years to become ISBA president, previously served 12 years on the ISBA Board of Governors and held positions of board secretary and treasurer. An ISBA member since 1976, he served on its 203-member Assembly for nine years and has been active on numerous committees. He is active on the ISBA Civil Practice Committee where he speaks on and writes about topics in civil law. A Fellow and board member for 10 years of the Illinois Bar Foundation, he is a member of its Lawyers Care Fund.
Appointed to the bench by the Illinois Supreme Court in October 2010, Judge Hartigan was elected to a six-year term in March 2012 and currently serves in the Fifth Municipal District in Bridgeview. He was a founding partner in the Chicago law firm of Hartigan & O’Connor, P.C., which concentrates in civil litigation, municipal, personal injury and real estate. He is an elected member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, which requires a minimum of 30 trials for acceptance. -
May 8, 2014 |
ISBA News
The ISBA Task Force on New Lawyers hosted a Speed Networking Event on May 1 at the Chicago Office. The event borrowed from the concepts of speed dating to facilitate short, focused conversations between law students and distinguished ISBA members. Over 40 law students attended the program, which featured 10 breakout sessions of 7.5 minutes each. Topics included interviewing tips, courtroom tips, benefits of ISBA membership and judicial clerkships.
"Many students, like myself, truly rely on those types of conversations and interactions with experienced attorneys to help find our place within the legal community," said Tim Meloy, a student at The John Marshall Law School. "I look forward to becoming more involved as The John Marshall Law School's ISBA student representative, then recruiting many classmates to do the same."
The Task Force on New Lawyers, which was created by ISBA President Paula H. Holderman to identify and implement recommendations to attract and maintain new lawyer membership in the ISBA, is chaired by Marron Mahoney and Brian Monico.
A photo gallery from the speed networking event is available at iln.isba.org/gallery/755/new-lawyers-speed-networking-event
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May 5, 2014 |
ISBA News | Member Services
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 April 2014, ISBA helped people in need of legal services find lawyers in the following areas:
Here are the results for April 2014:
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May 2, 2014 |
ISBA News
Joseph Hudson, a prosecutor in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office, has received a Presidential Commendation from the Illinois State Bar Association for his extensive work on a complex case that involved a non-lawyer doing business on mechanics lien cases.
The award was presented by ISBA President Paula H. Holderman during the organization’s Board of Governors meeting in Chicago on May 2.
The case, which took five years to resolve, involved Steve Boucher, owner of Contractor’s Lien Services, who filed invalid liens against property owners and was charged with intimidating homeowners either to pay debts they didn’t owe or to overpay for debts incurred with contractors. Boucher hired lawyers to draft legal documents for the firm’s clients.
The matter was brought to the attention of the ISBA Committee on the Unauthorized Practice of Law, which in turn worked with the State’s Attorney’s office and the Illinois Attorney General's office who brought a lawsuit against Boucher and his company, and sought a permanent injunction to prevent the defendant from engaging in selling mechanics lien filing and collections services in Illinois.
A judge ruled that the case constituted the unauthorized practice of law and enjoined the plaintiff and his company from engaging in selling mechanics lien filing and collections services in Illinois.The text from Mr. Hudson's acceptance speech is available below:
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May 1, 2014 |
ISBA News
ISBA President Paula H. Holderman interviews ABA Past President Laurel Bellows in Part 2 of a two-part interview. In this interview this discuss the ABAs Gender Equity Task Force and how gender bias impedes a law firm's goals of growth, talent development and profitability.
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April 28, 2014 |
ISBA News
All ISBA members with their dues paid by March 1, 2014 are eligible to vote for contested races in their area. All eligible voting members may vote for Third Vice President; members with voting addresses in Cook County may also vote for Board of Governors, Under Age 37 Cook County.
Competing in this years contested races are Russell Hartigan and David Sosin for 3rd Vice President and Dennis Lynch and Anna Krolikowska for the Under 37 Board of Governors seat for Cook County.
Voting ends at 4:30 p.m. CT Wednesday, April 30th. Paper ballots must be received at VR Election Services in Texas by 4:30 p.m. CT on Wednesday, April 30 in order to be counted.
If you have not received your e-ballot, please check your email spam folder under the suffix "vres.us”. If your e-ballot is not in your spam folder, or if you received an electronic ballot and want to vote by paper ballot, please contact VRES at (800) 218-4026 or custserv@vres.us.
Election results will be provided by the Tellers of the Election no later than May 10, 2014.
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April 27, 2014 |
ISBA News
Nearly two dozen volunteer attorneys helped answer over 350 phone calls, emails and Skype calls at the 33rd Annual Ask A Lawyer Day on Saturday, April 26. Those calls helped members of the public resolve their legal issues or gave them the next steps toward resolving those issues. The endeavor also garnered much positive media coverage throughout Illinois.
On hand to answer calls in the Chicago office were (seated, left to right) Donald Young, Kristi Vetri, Timothy Travers, Pamela Menaker and Scott Blumenshine; (standing, left to right) Rhonda Sallee, Tejas Shah, Lawrence Karlin and Erik Gruber. Volunteers not pictured because they were still answering calls were Sam Cannizzaro, Joyce Wixson and Rebecca McDade. The ISBA would like to extend a hearty thank you to volunteers in the Chicago and Springfield offices and especially to Jim Reilly, who answered over 100 emails.
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April 22, 2014 |
ISBA News
During its Annual Meeting on April 18 at its Chicago headquarters, ISBA Mutual Insurance Company re-elected several board members to another three-year term. They are Jack Carey, David A. Decker, James J. DeSanto, Robert K. Downs, Christopher Mullen and John E. Thies.
The board also announced its newest member, Paula H. Holderman, president of the Illinois State Bar Association, who was elected to a three-year term.
In remarks at the meeting, Jon DeMoss, president and CEO of ISBA Mutual Insurance Company, stated that “the company has retained our “A” Excellent Rating from A.M. Best Rating Company and that the Board of Directors declared a 10 percent policyholder dividend for 2013 equaling $1.7 million.” The company has returned a total of $14.7 million to policyholders since 2000.
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April 17, 2014 |
ISBA News
ISBA President Paula H. Holderman speaks with ABA Past President Laurel Bellows on the importance of court funding.