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  • May 26, 2011 | Practice News
    Legal Tech: Small Business Administration makes free iPhone app available
    By Peter LaSorsa The government comes under fire often for being slow, over bloated and the enemy of small businesses.  Well here is good news for small business owners, which would include many solo practitioners and small firms.  Now business owners may receive updates, tips and other ideas about starting their company or just improving it thanks to a new smart phone app.  The Small Business Administration (“SBA”) along with Palo Alto Software created this special free app called SBA mobile and it is available at: www.sba.gov/content/sba-mobile-app The app provides owners with business news, and features tailored for small businesses and are designed to help increase business.  App users will also have access to SBA video content, social media alerts and live updates from Twitter and YouTube.  The app has a built-in startup cost calculator—custom designed to help estimate the expenses needed to start a business (useful for yourself and clients who may hire you as part of their desire to start a business).  The app also has a feature that allows you to find any SBA office nationwide and allows direct access to SBA district office staff for easier assistance. The final feature of the app is access to the Small Business Development Centers, Women’s Business Centers and SCORE. The SCORE Association “Counselors to America’s Small Business” is a nonprofit association comprised of 11,500 volunteer business counselors throughout the U.S.
  • May 25, 2011 | Practice News
    How to be a winning residential real estate closer
    In baseball and residential real estate practice, it often comes down to the last inning when a lights-out closer can make the difference. Check out the June Illinois Bar Journal for tips from veteran lawyers about what you might encounter at a real estate closing and how to handle it.
  • May 25, 2011 | Practice News
    Best Practice: Improving law firm profitability through cost reduction
    Asked and Answered By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. As the managing partner of a 12 attorney firm, I have been asked to see what the firm can do to improve profitability by reducing costs. Do you have ideas or recommendations in this area? A. In most law firms the real problem is insufficient gross income and lack of sufficient investment (spending and time) on marketing and initiatives designed to stimulate client and revenue growth. For most firms increasing revenues is the most effective way of impacting the bottom line. However, we do find that there is waste and unnecessary overhead that eats away at profits and a cost control program is also recommended and implemented. During recessionary times such as we are currently facing – drastic cost control are often the only option. Reducing overhead can immediately and effectively improve a firm’s bottom line. The first step in an expense control program is to identify those areas where potential savings exist. Review your profit and loss statement. Resist the temptation to arbitrarily cutting costs which could cut the muscle with the fat and result in revenue loss as well. You have to spend money to make money – so if cost cutting is the appropriate strategy – cut the right costs. Think strategically about cost reduction. After you have identified areas where savings can be made prioritize and develop specific strategies and implement action plans to achieve the savings. Here are a few ideas: STRATEGY #1: Reduce Headcount This is the largest area for potential savings. Downsizing is a strategy that has been used by many firms this past year. However, it can have long term negative consequences for revenue and talent management. Consider all levels – non-productive partners, associates, paralegals, and staff. Be prudent and sensitive in implementation. STRATEGY #2:  Reduce Compensation Obviously one way is to cut salaries – a strategy to be used as a last resort. A better approach is to reduce fixed salary (paying people for showing up) and add a variable pay component which will allow employees to earn additional compensation in the form of bonus for results achieved. Another approach is to freeze salary increases. STRATEGY #3:  Benefits A major area for cost savings – especially health insurance. Determine which programs are most important to employees. Do your best to protect those and reduce or eliminate programs that are less important. Consider offering more than one health insurance plan. Pay the premium for the lowest cost plan and provide options for employees to “opt up” to the better plans by paying the additional premiums. Consider increasing deductibles and requiring employees to pay a portion of the base premiums. STRATEGY #4:  Outsource Examine potential for outsourcing – from copy services – IT management – to your legal team.
  • May 21, 2011 | Practice News
    Briefs too long
    It's the one thing all of the Supreme Court justices agree on -- briefs are too long. Bryan A. Garner has published the transcripts of his interviews with eight of the nine justices (Justice Souter did not participate). Garner has put the videos of the interviews on his website for several years as a public service. This New York Times article by Adam Liptak is a nice summary of some the justices' thoughts on legal writing.
  • May 20, 2011 | Practice News
    ISBA releases judicial advisory polls for associate judges outside of Cook
    All associate judges in Illinois are subject to re-appointment in June 2011. The associate judges are elected by the full circuit judges in each circuit. The Illinois State Bar Association has conducted a poll among its members on associate judges outside of Cook County. Click here to view the results.
  • May 20, 2011 | ISBA News | Practice News
    Raise your profile, earn MCLE credit — write for the Illinois Bar Journal
    There's no better way to stand out from the crowd and establish yourself as an authority than to write for a peer-reviewed publication like the Illinois Bar Journal. (And IBJ authors can earn MCLE credit to boot.) We're not a law review, so you needn't -- shouldn't -- take a highly formal approach. We're looking for how-to articles that give practical advice to our members, written in a clear, easy-to-digest, conversational style. Interested? Read the IBJ manuscript guidesheet and find out more.
  • May 19, 2011 | Practice News
    Quick takes from Thursday's Illinois Supreme Court opinions
    Our panel of leading appellate attorneys review Thursday’s Supreme Court opinions from Civil cases General Motors v. Pappas, Auburn v. IDOR and Bell v. Hutsell and Criminal cases People v. Absher and People v. Marshall.

    CIVIL

    General Motors v. Pappas

  • May 18, 2011 | Practice News
    Illinois Supreme Court disbars 10, suspends 10, censures 3
    The Illinois Supreme Court has announced the filing of disciplinary orders involving a number of licensed lawyers. Sanctions were imposed because the lawyers engaged in professional misconduct by violating state ethics law. More information on each case is available at the ARDC website.

    DISBARRED

    • Robert Bruce Becker, Peoria
    Mr. Becker, who was licensed in 1993, was disbarred on consent. He was convicted of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and criminal sexual assault. He was suspended on an interim basis and until further order of the Court on November 27, 2007.
    • Susan Grace Castagnoli, Zion
    Ms. Castagnoli, who was licensed in 1979, was disbarred. She exerted undue influence over clients, charged excessive fees without authorization from the bankruptcy court and, in some cases, without her clients’ knowledge or consent, and engaged in dishonest conduct. She was suspended on an interim basis and until further order of the Court on April 27, 2010.
    • Charles August Conner, Jr., Chicago
    Mr. Conner, who was licensed in 1987, was disbarred. He misappropriated more than $137,000 in funds relating to 37 different clients and/or their creditors. Further, on multiple occasions, he submitted false bank records to the ARDC in order to conceal those conversions. He was suspended on an interim basis and until further order of the Court on December 22, 2010.
    • Kenneth Glen Mason, Wilmette
    Mr. Mason, who was licensed in 1976, was disbarred on consent. He was convicted in a federal court of aiding and abetting securities fraud in connection with his participation in an investment fraud scheme.
    • Erwin Mayer, Winnetka
    Mr. Mayer, who was licensed in Illinois in 1987, was disbarred on consent. He pled guilty in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to charges of tax evasion and conspiracy to defraud the United States. His conduct involved the marketing and use of fraudulent income tax shelters.
    • Mahendra R. Mehta, Chicago
    Mr. Mehta, who was admitted in 1970, was disbarred. He misappropriated over $100,000 in real estate escrow funds and used most of those funds to pay sanctions entered against him by a bankruptcy court in Houston, Texas. He later falsely testified in court proceedings that he had been authorized by the parties to the real estate transaction to take the escrow funds, and that his client told him to take the funds as payment for attorney’s fees. He was suspended on an interim basis and until further order of the Court on December 29, 2010.
    • George Angelo Palivos, Chicago
    Mr. Palivos, who was licensed in 1987, was disbarred. He participated in a scheme to defraud the United States Small Business Administration. He was suspended on an interim basis and until further order of the Court on August 29, 2005.
    • L. Tod Schlosser, Chicago
    Mr. Schlosser, who was licensed in 1993, was disbarred. He neglected eight different immigration matters, did not respond to client requests for information, and failed to return unearned fees totaling $31,025. He did not participate in his own disciplinary proceeding.
    • Peter Raymond Vogel, Sugar Grove
    Mr. Vogel, who was licensed in 1972, was disbarred. He misappropriated approximately $3,850 in funds belonging to a client and engaged in the unauthorized practice of law in Wisconsin. He failed to appear at his disciplinary hearing.
    • Adalbert Paul Wojewnik, Chicago
    Mr. Wojewnik, who was licensed in 1992, was disbarred. He misappropriated approximately $5,000 in escrow funds that he had agreed to hold in connection with a client’s real estate transaction and failed to comply with a subpoena from the ARDC. He also failed to appear at his disciplinary hearing.

    SUSPENDED

  • May 18, 2011 | Practice News
    Revocation despite acquittal: new summary suspension law takes effect July 1
    Beginning July 1, drivers who are 1) arrested for DUI after 2) being in an accident that causes personal injury or death but 3) won't submit to a chemical test will have their driving privileges revoked. So Edward M. Maloney reports in the latest ISBA Traffic Laws & Courts newsletter. This is a big deal, Ed says. "Currently, if you are arrested for a DUI and there is a personal injury or death, upon a conviction for the DUI arrest, the Secretary of State has the authority to revoke your driving privileges." But, he emphasizes, you have to be convicted first. "As of July 1, 2011 this will no longer be the case," he writes. "People who are found not guilty of the reckless homicide or the DUI offense where there was an injury...will be punished anyway. The person’s license will be revoked for one year with no opportunity to obtain driving relief for the entire year." Read his article.
  • May 18, 2011 | Practice News
    Best Practice: Law firm strategic plan vs. business plan
    Asked and Answered By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. I am the firm administrator in our firm. We have 24 attorneys and are just transitioning to the 2nd generation of partners. I have been charged with obtaining information on strategic/business planning. Currently the firm does not have a strategic or business plan. What is the difference between a strategic plan vs. a business plan? Do you have a recommendation as to whether we should consider implementing a business plan or a strategic plan? A. Often the term strategic plan and business plan are used to mean the same thing. The general planning process is similar. However, I believe there is a difference. I consider a business plan to be the primary tool of choice when starting a new business or venture. Typically the audience is external - bankers, investors, prospective partners, etc. Due to the external nature of the audience the business plan document needs to be detailed with supporting narrative, company history, market analysis, marketing strategies, personnel plan, management biographies, and pro-forma financial statements. A strategic plan is typically the tool of choice for a going concern business or firm - such as an existing law firm such as yours. The intended audience is internal and its primary purpose is to focus the efforts of firm members and employees. Much less narrative and supporting detail is required. A strategic plan uses more of an outline format with bullet points and much less narrative and supporting detail.