Q. I would like to join the Board of Governors for my local Bar Association. Are there any rules I should be aware of before joining?
Practice News
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April 9, 2015 |
Practice News
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April 8, 2015 |
Practice News
Two tech-savvy ISBA members, one a litigator and the other a transactional lawyer, describe some of their favorite iPad apps in the April Illinois Bar Journal.
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April 8, 2015 |
Practice News
Asked and Answered
By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC
April 21, 2015 Google Update May Impact Your Google Ranking
Q. I am the managing partner with a 14 attorney firm in Cleveland. A friend of my just advised me that Google was coming out with a change to their search engine that might impact our website. Have you heard anything?
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April 7, 2015 |
Practice News
Chief Justice Rita B. Garman and the Illinois Supreme Court on Tuesday announced amendments to a rule that will help lawyers properly dispose of unidentified funds in their trust accounts and generate revenue to support legal aid in the process. The changes to Rule 1.15 of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct, which regulates the safe-keeping of client property, creates a mechanism for lawyers to remove unidentified fund balances from their Interest on Lawyers Trust (IOLTA) Accounts. The amended rule takes effect July 1, 2015. A copy of the changes can be found at http://www.state.il.us/court/SupremeCourt/Rules/Art_VIII/ArtVIII_NEW.htm#1.15.
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April 2, 2015 |
Practice News
Attorney Nerino Petro shows how to secure online document storage for popular Cloud services like Dropbox, iCloud, and Google Drive. Popular cloud tools such as boxcryptor, cloudfogger, and sookasa are also explained in this instructional video.
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April 2, 2015 |
Practice News
Q. I mentioned to a client that I was delegating a portion of her matter to a lawyer outside of my firm and she didn’t respond one way or the other. Do I need something more from her?
A. IRPC 1.2 allows delegation of client work outside of the retained lawyer’s firm with the client’s informed consent. Informed consent is defined in RPC 1.0, Comment [7] as requiring an affirmative response from the client and that a lawyer may not assume consent from a client’s silence (although the Comment also notes that client consent can be inferred from the client’s conduct).ISBA members can browse past ISBA Ethics Opinions, access our Ethics Hotline, and other resources on the ISBA Ethics Page.
[Disclaimer. These questions are representative of calls received on the ISBA’s ethics hotline. The information provided below is meant as an educational tool to highlight potentially applicable Illinois RPC or other ethics resources that might help the lawyer answer the question posed. The information provided isn’t legal advice. Because every situation is different, often complex, and the law is constantly evolving, you shouldn’t rely upon this general information without conducting your own research.]
1 comment (Most recent April 3, 2015) -
April 1, 2015 |
Practice News
Chief Justice Rita B. Garman, the Illinois Supreme Court and the chief judges of the 24 Circuits in Illinois have announced the distribution of a detailed court user survey designed to measure public perceptions and experiences with the Illinois courts.
The Strategic Planning Committee of the Illinois Judicial Conference, in coordination with the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, developed the survey that will ask court users to give input on their personal experiences with their local court system in all 24 Circuits across the 102 counties in Illinois. It will seek input from all courthouse users including attorneys, visitors, litigants, students, media, and the general public.
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March 27, 2015 |
Practice News
Passing score raised to 266 for July 2015 exam
On March 16, 2015, representatives of the Deans ofthe Illinois Law Schools ("Deans") and Board of Admissions to the Bar ("Board") met with the Illinois Supreme Court Justices ("Court") to discuss the raising of the minimum passing score on the Illinois bar examination. The Deans and the Board expressed their respective concerns regarding the process, rationale, and timing involved in raising the passing score. After considering these concerns, the Court approved a revision to both the number of points and the schedule previously adopted for raising this score.
Effective for the July 2015 bar examination, the minimum passing score is set at 266 (out of a possible 400) - a 2-point increase from the February 2015 bar examination. This passing score will remain in effect through the February 2017 bar examination. Effective for the July
2017 bar examination, the passing score is provisionally set at 268. Prior to that examination, the Deans and Board will review the results of the examinations with the 266 passing score and will make their recommendations to the Court.In addition, the Court will appoint a dean of an Illinois law school to serve as an ex officio member of the Board to establish a formal tie between the Deans and the Board.
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March 26, 2015 |
Practice News
ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews legislation in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers Presumptions in probate (Senate Bill 90), Guardianships for minors (Senate Bill 786), Temporary guardianships (House Bill 2505), Unfounded reports (Senate Bill 1335), Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (House Bill 4131) and Presumptively Void Transfers (House Bill 3325). More information on each bill is available below the video.
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March 26, 2015 |
Practice News
One plank of Governor Rauner's campaign platform was criminal justice reform. On February 11, he issued Executive Order 15-14, which establishes the Illinois State Commission on Criminal Justice and Sentencing Reform.
The order notes that Illinois' prison system is at 150 percent capacity; the prison population has increased 700 percent over the last 40 years, while the crime rate has decreased 20 percent over the same period. It also observes that overcrowding in our prisons threatens the safety of staff and inmates, thwarting efforts to rehabilitate prisoners for their return to society.
In an effort to address these problems, the newly formed Commission on Criminal Justice and Sentencing Reform has been tasked with researching and suggesting bipartisan, data-driven reforms to decrease crime and recidivism while maintaining public safety. The Commission's goal is to increase public safety and reduce Illinois's prison population by 25 percent over the next 10 years. Its first report is due July 1 and its final report is due December 31 of this year. Find out more in the April Illinois Bar Journal.
1 comment (Most recent March 26, 2015)