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  • March 20, 2017 | People
    Paul Stone 1915-2017

    Paul Stone, 101, passed away February 11, 2017 at his home in Sullivan. Paul was born September 21, 1915, in rural Jasper County Illinois, the oldest of eight children of Claude and Ruth Stewart Stone. His family moved to Moultrie County in 1916 where his father farmed. Paul attended numerous one room country schools until entering Sullivan Township High School and graduating in 1933. Following graduation he worked three years in Sullivan at the Brown Shoe Company for 12¢ per hour, ten hours per day, six days per week. In 1936 he entered the University of Illinois where he met the love of his life, Thelma Jones, who he married February 5, 1939, in Benton, IL. In 1940 he received a B.S. in General Business, the first in his family to earn a college degree. In 1942 he received his law degree from the University of Illinois. He was honored by the UI Law School as its February 1973 Alumni of the Month.

    He was admitted to the practice of law September 14, 1942, and practiced law in Sullivan for 55 years until he retired as senior partner of Stone, Stone and Hanson in 1998 at age 82. Paul was a past president of the Sullivan Kiwanis Club and the Moultrie County Bar Association.In 1950 he was elected as a State Representative to the 67th General Assembly from the 24th District [Moultrie, Champaign and Piatt counties] and served one term.

    In 1961 he was appointed by Governor Otto Kerner to the Teacher’s College Board for Eastern Illinois, Northern Illinois, Western Illinois and Illinois State Universities. He served as Chairman in 1965-1966.

  • March 20, 2017 | People
    Richard Rassmussen 1935-2017

    Richard "Dick" Rasmussen, 81, of LaHarpe, died Feb. 15, 2017, at Memorial Hospital, Carthage. He attended the University of Iowa College of Law and began his career as a lawyer in LaHarpe in 1963, where he practiced for decades. He served as LaHarpe City Attorney for more than 40 years. Services have been held. 

  • March 15, 2017 | People
    Mary L. Sfasciotti 1941-2017

    Prominent Chicago immigration attorney Mary L. Sfasciotti died February 26 after a long illness. The daughter of Joseph and Lilia Sfasciotti, Attorney Sfasciotti was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin on November 5, 1941. She earned her law degree in 1965 from Northwestern. She started her legal career as an attorney for the Immigrant's Service League, a non-profit in Chicago. She then went on to work for the US Board of Immigration Appeals for several years. Thereafter, she was trial counsel with the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Illinois, and then Assistant Regional Counsel for EEOC. From the early 1980s, until she was forced to retire due to illness, she was in private practice in the Chicago area where she specialized in immigration law. She was a published author in the field of immigration law and taught immigration law at John Marshall Law School. She was active in the Illinois State Bar Association, the Chicago Bar Association and the Alumni Associations of both Ripon College and Northwestern Law School. She is survived by her brother, Robert Sfasciotti, and her sister, Ginevra Cuira. Services have been held.

  • March 15, 2017 | People
    Roger Benson 1932-2017

    Former Kankakee County Associate Judge Roger Benson, 84, died February 10 at his Bourbonnais home. He had been battling health problems for a few months. Last June, he received the Illinois State Bar Association's John C. McAndrews Pro Bono Service Award in the outstanding individual attorney category. 

    Benson practiced law for 58 years. He studied pre-law at Northwestern University and received his law degree in 1958 from DePaul University. He is survived by his wife, Nancy, a son, two daughters, a stepson and two stepdaughters. He was preceded in death by a son. Services have been held.

  • March 15, 2017 | People
    Allen Landmeier 1942-2017

    Allen Landmeier, 74, died on Saturday, February 25 after a long illness. He is survived by his wife Charlotte, sons; Matthew (Megan), Mark (Karen), and Michael (Anna), and granddaughters Eleanor, Caroline, and Charlotte Landmeier. The son of Vernon and Eleanor Landmeier, Allen was born on November 24, 1942 in Elmhurst. On July 8, 1978 he married Charlotte (nee Ekern) at the Geneva United Methodist Church. He was a graduate of St. Charles High School and received his bachelors and law degrees from Valparaiso University. An active member of and contributor to the ISBA, he was editor of the State and Local Taxation Section newsletter for more than 20 years. He won the Austin Fleming Newsletter Editor Award in 1997, the newsletter program's highest honor. He was Lieutenant in the US Navy Judge Advocate General Corps, city attorney of St. Charles, and senior partner at Smith, Landmeier, and Elders, PC in Geneva until his retirement. He was a past president of the Kane County Bar Association. Services have been held.

  • March 15, 2017 | People
    Roy Claybourn Palmer 1935-2017

    Roy Claybourn Palmer died February 27, 2017. He was born in Kearney, Missouri on August 9, 1935 and moved to Chicago shortly after his birth. After serving in Korea with the US Army 7th Cavalry, he married his first wife, Nancy Barclay and had three children, Claybourn John Palmer, Heather Ann Palmer Roberts and Allyson Lynn Palmer. He started his professional life with the Federal Trade Commission then followed into the private sector, eventually starting his own firm. Focusing on business law, among others practice areas, he represented the Visiting Nurses Association and the Illinois State Savings and Loan Association. He attended Chicago's Lake View HS, Lake Forest College and Chicago-Kent College of Law, where he earned his Juris Doctorate with Honors. He established and endowed the Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize at Chicago-Kent College of Law for writings that explore the tension between our civil liberties and national security in contemporary American society. In 1983 he married Susan Marie Kelly. Shortly thereafter they embarked on an adventure that would change the world of many Native American tribes. As a pioneer in the Native American Gaming Industry, he was said to have "found a loophole in the law and drove a mack truck through it". He worked most notably for the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin who awarded him their highest honor by presenting him with an Eagle Feather. From California to Florida he fought many legal battles to gain the tribes their gaming rights.

  • March 15, 2017 | People
    Mirabella, Kincaid, Frederick & Mirabella, LLC opens Kane County office

    Mirabella, Kincaid, Frederick & Mirabella, LLC has opened a Kane County office, located at 309 Walnut Street, Unit B, in St. Charles. The firm also has an office in Wheaton. The new location is designed to "better serve clients in DeKalb, Kendall, and Kane Counties," according to a firm press release.

  • March 8, 2017 | People
    Freeborn & Peters LLP and Hargraves, McConnell & Costigan P.C. announce combination

    Freeborn & Peters LLP reports that it has combined with the New York City firm of Hargraves, McConnell & Costigan P.C. The move establishes Freeborn’s first office in New York and represents a further geographic expansion for the Chicago-headquartered Freeborn, which last year combined with the Richmond, Va.-based Brenner, Evans & Millman P.C. 

    "The combination with Hargraves, McConnell & Costigan P.C. advances Freeborn’s strategy of geographically expanding its strongest practice areas...through Hargraves’ strong reputation in the insurance and reinsurance industries in litigating and arbitrating disputes arising out of both domestic and international contracts," according to a Freeborn press release. 

    The combination was complete on March 1, 2017, and gives Freeborn four offices: Chicago; Springfield, Ill.; Richmond, Va.; and New York. 

  • March 8, 2017 | People
    Hanson names Hollahan in-house legal counsel

    Hanson Professional Services Inc. has selected Dennis Hollahan, who works at the firm’s Springfield headquarters, to become the company’s first internal legal counsel. He will lead corporate strategic and tactical legal initiatives, provide senior management with advice on company strategies and implementation and obtain and oversee the work of outside counsel. 

    “Dennis is a natural choice for us,” said Sergio “Satch” Pecori, P.E., Hanson’s chairman and CEO. “His experience from private practice, the military and our in-house land acquisition management will serve us well.”

    Hollahan was a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps and served as a helicopter pilot during Desert Storm and later as a judge advocate general for the Illinois Army National Guard. Prior to joining Hanson in 2008, he was the section chief for land acquisition and property management and a special assistant chief counsel for the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT). He has been a land acquisition project manager for Hanson, working on projects for clients including IDOT, the Illinois Tollway and Illinois county and municipal highway departments.

    Hollahan earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from Yale University and a Juris Doctor from Notre Dame Law School. He is an Illinois licensed attorney at law and a member of the Illinois State Bar Association. 

    Hanson is a national, employee-owned consulting firm providing engineering, planning and allied services.

  • February 28, 2017 | People
    Supreme Court appoints Bradford A. Rau, Sr. to fill Moultrie County vacancy

    The Illinois Supreme Court has appointed Bradford A. Rau, Sr., a former Macon County assistant state's attorney, as resident circuit judge of Moultrie County in Sixth Judicial Circuit. Rau fills the vacancy created by the retirement of the Honorable Dan L. Flannell. The appointment takes effect April 3, 2017, and terminates December 3, 2018,