The Illinois Supreme Court has approved the appointment of Regina Ann Scannicchio as a Circuit Judge of Cook County, Fourteenth Subcircuit. This appointment fills the vacancy created by the retirement of the Hon. Lawrence O'Gara. It is effective July 5 and terminates on Dec. 3, 2012.
Practice News
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June 24, 2011 |
Practice News
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June 23, 2011 |
Practice News
[caption id="attachment_20566" align="alignright" width="300" caption="The MacBook Air comes with either an 11" or 13" display."][/caption] By Peter LaSorsa So you are in the market for a new laptop. I won’t devote much space in this article on whether to purchase a Windows-based laptop or Mac because the Mac is superior—end of discussion. Mac’s have better technology, are pretty much virus free and are the leaders in innovation.
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June 22, 2011 |
Practice News
The latest issue of ISBA's Senior Lawyers newsletter is available now, with articles by Leonard Amari on what ISBA has to offer senior lawyers, John Maville on how to ease into retirement, Farmer John Damisch on why you shouldn't retire, Gary Rafool on how retired lawyers can avoid bankruptcy and protect their assets, and more. Read it now.
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June 22, 2011 |
Practice News
Asked and Answered By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. Our firm used to have weekly firm meetings to discuss management and operational issues. We discontinued them due to the excessive time being spent and questionable results and value. Now we are finding that we are totally unfocused and having problems with poor accountability and things falling through the cracks. We are now considering starting up weekly meetings again but want to insure that we do a better job of managing meetings than we did in the past. What are your thoughts? A. Before scheduling a meeting consider the purpose of the meeting. In general there are the following four types of meetings: 1. Strategy Meetings are rich group discussions involving strategy and planning sessions, brainstorming, group budgeting, marketing, or financial planning. These meetings are effective when everyone understands the purpose and the ground rules. 2. Reporting Meetings consist of one person informing the others in the room and sharing of information. These meetings are valuable only if the news is meaningful to most of the attendees. There may be Q&A and discussion, and different people may report out during the same meeting. These meetings should be structured. 3. Status Meetings are often low in value and you should keep them sort. Attorneys and other team members need to share information and brief sessions are effective at keeping the team on the same page. Consider stand-up meetings - where literally, everyone is standing. It keeps the meetings short. Require agendas. 4. Dilemma or Issue Meetings where just a few of the participants engage in detailed problem solving, are inefficient. Don't drag the whole group into dilemma or issue meetings. If your meeting is headed this direction deflect it for one-on-one time. Meetings work best when they have:
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June 16, 2011 |
Practice News
Our panel of leading appellate attorney's review Thursday's Illinois Supreme Court in civil opinions Studt v. Sherman Health Systems, Sheffler v. Commonwealth Edison, Snyder v. Heidelberger, Genius v. County of Cook and criminal opinions People v. Ward, People v. White and People v. Hawkins.
CIVIL
Studt v. Sherman Health Systems
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June 16, 2011 |
Practice News
By Peter LaSorsa One word most people like to hear is free. There is a program on the Internet that will give you a free analysis of your web site. The program is called Webmastercoffee and it is available at Webmastercoffee.com/en/. So why should you go to this web site and have your URL checked? Well the web site not only provides feedback on important items it also gives recommendations on how to improve your web site—read that as improve your web site for increased rankings. It is very easy to get started; you just go to the web site and type in your URL. Here are a list of the important items this website will check and why the items are important to you. I am leaving out some of what will be checked and if you go to the website you can read additional information on what I left off. First it gives a summary of the analysis and then it provides details of the analysis. A major category it analyzes is Search Engine Optimization (“SEO”) Keywords. The keyword analysis examines the frequency of the words on a web page together with their location. This is important because when a person does a search the search engine will return search results based on many things (the algorithm) and SEO Keywords are a major piece of the algorithm. Second, it will tell you about the SEO onsite information. This is important because it gets information about the onsite structure of the web site and gives you valuable knowledge to optimize the structure of a web site to be better found by the search engines.
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June 15, 2011 |
Practice News
The Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts announced Wednesday that Karen C. Eiten, received a majority of the votes cast by the circuit judges in the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit and is declared to be appointed to the office of associate judge. Ms. Eiten received her undergraduate degree in 1980 from Western Illinois University in Macomb and her Juris Doctor in 1983 from DePaul University in Chicago. Ms. Eiten is currently engaged in solo practice in LaSalle.
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June 14, 2011 |
Practice News
[caption id="attachment_20091" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Kilbride, Justice Rita Garman, ISBA Board member Jennifer Walsh Hammer, ISBA President Mark D. Hasskis, Supreme Court Professionalism Chair Jayne Reardon and U. of I. College of Law Dean Bruce Smith at the Supreme Court's ceremonial courtroom."][/caption] Chief Justice Thomas L. Kilbride announced Monday that the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism is teaming up with the University of Illinois College of Law and the Illinois State Bar Association to stimulate a mentoring program for newly admitted attorneys. The announcement is part of a statewide initiative by the Commission on Professionalism to urge attorney groups, law schools and individual lawyers to take an active hand in ensuring that new attorneys get practical professional guidance after the rigors of law school. Earlier, the Chief Justice appeared at a news conference in Peoria with local bar leaders announcing their cooperation with the Commission in implementing a mentoring program in Peoria County. The early years of legal practice are among the most challenging for most attorneys. Recent law school graduates generally receive limited practical and clinical experience while in law school, and the months leading up to their admission to the bar are spent in extensive preparation for the two-day bar exam, which consists of essay and multiple choice questions with no gauge of clinical or practical experience. In such an environment, experienced attorney mentors can prove invaluable in helping recent bar admittees learn the actual practice of law, and get a meaningful start in their legal careers. “My first years working as a lawyer were spent with Prairie State Legal Services, and while there was no formal legal mentoring program, the practical learning that I received from more experienced attorneys with Prairie State could not have been more valuable,” said Chief Justice Kilbride. “Not only did it help me, but it served justice by helping me help my clients better. “It can be difficult for a new attorney, no matter in what environment he or she serves, to seek and find the practical help they need. The Supreme Court and the Commission on Professionalism are thankful to the University of Illinois College of Law and the Illinois State Bar Association for bringing their prestige and influence to help bridge the gap between the academic and the practical experience relied on in everyday law practice.”
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June 10, 2011 |
Practice News
Cynthia Y. Cobbs, Director of the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, has announced that 378 Illinois associate judges who filed requests for reappointment to their office for a new four-year term have been retained. Having certified the results of the more than 450 total ballots cast in Illinois’ twenty-three circuit courts, Director Cobbs informed that each successful candidate received votes that tallied three-fifths or greater in favor of their reappointment. One associate judge in the Third Judicial Circuit did not receive the requisite number of votes for reappointment. The new term of office for each reappointed associate judge will begin on July 1, 2011 and terminate on June 30, 2015. In the Circuit Court of Cook County the following associate judges have been reappointed:
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June 9, 2011 |
Practice News
By Peter LaSorsa Usually when the government gets involved two things happen. First, the process slows down with the bureaucracy and second the process slows down with the….you get the point. Well for those of us that travel outside the United States the government hit a home run with its Global Entry program. I lecture on a regular basis for four major cruise ship companies and left the United States a dozen times last year lecturing. The return to the United States is always dreaded because of long lines at passport control. Well the no more with the new Global Entry program. Here is how the program works. You pay a $100 application fee, go to the airport and get your picture and fingerprints taken. These are then kept on file and unless you have a real problem in your background ( in which case you probably didn’t pass the character and fitness application process), you can move to the head of the line at passport control when you arrive back in the country. In essence you will go in front of a kiosk and swipe your passport, put your hands in the fingerprint reader and the camera will take your picture. The information is compared to what is on file and you can declare any items brought into the country at the kiosk and be on your way. The great thing about the program is there isn’t a minimum amount of travel required to submit the application. For $100 you can save countless time at passport control, which means more time to bill clients. Click on the hyperlink to get to the Global Entry program website. For those of you who travel outside the United States, this program should be given serious consideration. Peter LaSorsa can be reached at lasorsalaw.com.
