Practice News

For more than 50 years, the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA) has conducted a Judicial Advisory Poll of attorneys to provide Illinois’ legal community and voting public with information on judicial candidates. The poll, which is supervised by the ISBA’s Standing Committee on Judicial Advisory Polls, represents one of the most important and publicly visible functions that the ISBA performs. In their 2021 February Illinois Bar Journal article, “The ISBA Judicial Advisory Poll: Myths and Misconceptions,” members of the ISBA’s Standing Committee on Judiciary Advisory Polls examine common issues raised regarding the ISBA poll. The authors explain the committee’s work and how it arrives at its findings and positions. The article also describes the committee’s use of expertise in statistics and research methodology to help guide its decision making and evaluation of its procedures.

America’s fight against its invisible opponent, COVID-19, is ongoing. In response to COVID-19, communities, state, and local officials continue to issue, extend, and modify emergency orders to stop the spread. These authorities are exercised in a variety of measures, including mask mandates and stay-at-home orders. These orders, often incorporating the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, include such terms and phrases as “quarantine,” “social distancing,” “six feet apart,” and “work from home.” In her February Illinois Bar Journal article, “Liberties and Lockdowns,” Deanna Shahnami  examines how Illinois courts and the Seventh Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals have slowly established precedent for injunctive relief and how they have weighed executive emergency orders responding to COVID-19 against First Amendment rights. Shahnami’s article is this year’s Illinois Bar Journal Lincoln Award Legal Writing Contest winner.

Attorneys’ Title Guaranty Fund, Inc. (ATG®) announces it has signed a definitive agreement to sell the business of its subsidiary, ATG Trust Company, to Midland Trust Company (MTC), a subsidiary of Midland States Bancorp, Inc., of Effingham.

After more than four decades of practice in estate planning, estate administration, and real estate law, Gary Gehlbach (also, a member of the Illinois Bar Journal Editorial Board) shares a plethora of tips he has accrued over the years and that came to him during restless nights and in half-conscious streams, usually around 5 a.m. The 17 tips--all easily digestible and highly practical--include “address all contingencies,” “don’t use a legal life estate,” “avoid absolutes,” and “consider potential beneficiaries with special needs.” With nearly every tip, Gehlbach provides good reasons for it and an example or two from his practice.