ISBA President Paula H. Holderman asks Illinois Supreme Court Justice and former ISBA Board member Mary Jane Theis about how the court selects its cases, the justices living together in Springfield and the court's move to Chicago for this term.
Practice News
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October 3, 2013 |
Practice News | ISBA News
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October 3, 2013 |
Member Services | Practice News
Fastcase has enhanced its Authority Check feature to show you where courts have noted that a case has been treated negatively (i.e., reversed or overruled on any grounds). The new feature, "Bad Law Bot," uses algorithms to find negative citation history. Bad Law Bot then flags those cases that have negative citation history and provides you with the links to those cases. Keep in mind that Bad Law Bot is not intended to be a complete replacement for a full editorial citator or for reading all later-citing cases. A red flag means that there's likely negative treatment, since a court has said as much by their use of a negative citation, but no red flag does not necessarily mean that a case is still good law. If a case has been overturned but no court opinion has cited to it yet, Bad Law Bot won't be able to find any citation signal information.
Bad Law Bot is a part of Fastcase’s Authority Check, which means it’s free to you as a member of the Illinois State Bar Association. For more information, visit www.fastcase.com/badlawbot.
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October 3, 2013 |
Practice News
A recent and groundbreaking Illinois Appellate Court case, Fifield and Enterprise Finance Group, Inc. v. Premier Dealer Services, Inc., 2013 IL App (1st) 120327, holds that "a noncompetition agreement is not valid and enforceable if an employee is fired or resigns within two years,” Ayla N. Ellison writes in the September issue of ISBA’s Labor & Employment Law newsletter.
2 comments (Most recent October 5, 2013) -
October 2, 2013 |
Practice News
Asked and Answered
By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC
Q. We are an 8-attorney firm in Fort Worth, Texas. We have two partners - myself and my partner. Our approach to compensation has been based upon our ownership interest percentages which have been adjusted over time based upon working attorney (personal) collections. We have been discussing implementing a formula using working attorney collections and also bringing client origination credit into the equation as well - weighing each equally. Our ownership percentages would be adjusted based upon the fee credit ratio between the two of us. I would appreciate your thoughts on the matter.
A. My first thought is whether you are trying to build a firm-first firm or a group of separate practitioners. How will you incorporate other factors such as firm management, business development, mentoring and training associates, etc? If both of you are making roughly equal contributions in these areas your approach might have merit but be careful that you do not head down the path of separate practices - and become a lone ranger firm. My other concern is with client origination - this often gets tricky. With only two partners you don't have anyone to serve in the capacity of attribution police when and if there are disagreements as to origination credit. (attribution committee) So you will have to be able to discuss this subject openly and hopefully upfront. Share origination credit when appropriate, allocate to firm when it appears that a client came to the firm based upon firm brand or name recognition, and consider a 5-year sunset provision whereby the credit reverts to firm or responsible attorneys.
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October 1, 2013 |
Practice News
Michael J. Tardy, Director of the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, announced today that the 10th Judicial Circuit judges voted to select Kirk D. Schoenbein as an associate judge of the 10th Judicial Circuit.
Mr. Schoenbein received his undergraduate degree in 1984 from Western Illinois University in Macomb and his Juris Doctor in 1987 from the University of Illinois College of Law. Mr. Schoenbein is currently affiliated with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Peoria.
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October 1, 2013 |
Practice News
Michael J. Tardy, Director of the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, announced today that the Second Judicial Circuit judges voted to select Jerry E. Crisel as an associate judge of the Second Judicial Circuit.
Mr. Crisel received his undergraduate degree in 1970 from the University of Illinois and his Juris Doctor in 1973 from the University of Illinois College of Law. Mr. Crisel is currently engaged in solo practice in Albion, Illinois.
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September 30, 2013 |
Practice News
By Grant Nyhammer, ISBA Delivery of Legal Services Committee
Most of us look forward to retirement as we envision ourselves having unlimited time and resources to do what we love most. Most of us, however, do not anticipate that we all become more vulnerable with the inevitable physical and mental decline in our abilities as we age. We also may not realize that retirement presents a bevy of new legal issues such as:
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September 25, 2013 |
Practice News
The Supreme Court of Illinois announced the filing of lawyer disciplinary orders on September 25, 2013, during the September Term of Court. Sanctions were imposed because the lawyers engaged in professional misconduct by violating state ethics law.
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September 25, 2013 |
Practice News
Asked and Answered
By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC
Q. We are a 8 attorney firm located in downtown Chicago. We have just hired our first administrator/business manager and he starts in two weeks. We are concerned that we get started on the right foot so our experience is successful. Any thoughts?
A. Relationship With Partners
On the first day of employment with the firm, the administrator must begin to develop a relationship with the firm’s partners that is based upon need, understanding, credibility and trust.
Governance Plan
Business management in many law firms suffers from decision-making paralysis — in other words, helpless inactivity and the inability to act decisively. Lack of effective implementation of decisions is also evident. The result: missed opportunities and a deteriorating competitive position in the legal marketplace. Administrators who can be proactive and turn this situation around will be off to a good start to solidifying their positions in their firms.
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September 19, 2013 |
Practice News
Our panel of leading appellate attorneys review Thursday's Illinois Supreme Court opinions in the criminal cases People v. Johnson and In re Shelby R.
People v. Johnson
By Kerry J. Bryson, Office of the State Appellate Defender
At issue was whether Section 4-2002.1(a) of the Counties Code allows for imposition of a $50 State’s Attorney fee for hearing a 2-1401 petition. The statute refers only to imposition of the fee for habeas corpus proceedings.
The Court rejected the argument that “habeas corpus” was meant to refer, generically, to any collateral proceedings, noting that habeas corpus has a specific meaning. Considering the plain language of the statute as the best indication of legislative intent, the Court concluded that the reference to “habeas corpus” was meant to encompass the various types of habeas corpus proceedings (e.g., habeas corpus ad prosequendum, habeas corpus ad respondendum, habeas corpus ad testificandum), and nothing more. Inclusion of any other collateral proceedings would have to come from the
legislature.
While this decision is not particularly broad-reaching, it does demonstrate the Court’s adherence to long-standing principles of statutory construction, beginning with looking first to the plain language of the statute. Where the plain language is clear, the Court will go no further in interpreting a statute’s meaning.