Woodstock attorney Michael Cortina offers tips for documenting commercial construction loans.
Woodstock attorney Michael Cortina offers tips for documenting commercial construction loans.
Consumers go online to rate restaurants, hotels, retail businesses, and home services. Specialized sites have sprung up to rate teachers, professors, doctors, and other professionals. So why should lawyers be an exception?
In fact they're not, and for that reason they need to promote - and defend - their reputation online much as they do in physical space, although the specific concerns and methods may differ. To begin with, attorneys need to claim and populate their page on the legal website Avvo, while promoting themselves elsewhere on other social media, says Stephen Fairley, CEO of The Rainmaker Institute.
"It's better to play offense than defense," he says. "It is not a matter of if you will get a negative review, it is a matter of when. Eventually, someone is not going to like what you did. It's better to take a proactive approach. We are in the consumer review economy. You can't get away from it. It is what it is. Let's deal with it." Find out how to respond to negative reviews in the February Illinois Bar Journal.
Our panel of leading appellate attorneys reviews the Illinois Supreme Court opinions handed down Friday, January 20. The cases are The Hertz Corporation v. City of Chicago, Board of Education of Springfield School Dist. No. 186 v. Attorney General of Illinois, Village of Bartonville v. Lopez, and People v. Johnson.
In this Agreed Final Order, Mr. Sam Barlow was found guilty of minor indirect criminal contempt for engaging in the unauthorized practice of law in connection with the settlement of sic personal injury claims during an 18 month period. Mr. Barlow was ordered to pay $500 in court costs and sentenced to one year of probation. ARDC v. Barlow, Cook County No. 16 MC1-600147 (January 19, 2017).
ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews legislation in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers the Illinois Vehicle Code, Landlord and Tenant Act, Value After Rehabilitation Appraisal Act, domestic violence, and mortgage foreclosure
More information on each bill is available below the video.
Michael J. Tardy, Director of the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, announced that the First Judicial Circuit judges voted to select Michael A. Fiello as an associate judge of the First Judicial Circuit.
Michael J. Tardy, Director of the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, announced today that the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit judges voted to select Charles E. Petersen as an associate judge of the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit.
Illinois attorney Kurt Lloyd of Lloyd Law Group, Ltd., shares tips about using standards and medical literature when presenting expert witness testimony.
The Supreme Court of Illinois announced the filing of lawyer disciplinary orders on January 13, 2017, during the January Term of Court. Sanctions were imposed because the lawyers engaged in professional misconduct by violating state ethics law.
Asked and Answered
By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC
Q. I am the owner of an eight-attorney insurance defense firm in San Antonio, Texas. I have been practicing fifteen years. I am forty-five years old. Many of my peers in firms my size are in partnerships. Is my situation unusual? Should I consider having partners?