Southern Illinois

[caption id="attachment_2393" align="alignright" width="300" caption="IBF Grants Committee Member Judge James Wexstten of Mt. Vernon presents a $20,000 grant to Linda Zazove, Deputy Director, and Christopher Dain, Director of Development, of Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation. "][/caption] The Illinois Bar Foundation Board of Directors is pleased to announce a $20,000 grant to Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation in East St. Louis, one of 32 grants awarded this year totaling $304,965. Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation provides free civil legal assistance to low-income persons and senior citizens in 65 counties in central and southern Illinois through five regional offices and a centralized Legal Advice and Referral Center. The $20,000 grant was made to support the new Education Advocacy Project, a collaboration of Land of Lincoln's East St. Louis Office and the Griffin Center. The purpose of the project is to advocate for the educational rights of children in District 189 (East St. Louis) and to support and empower parents and teachers in their efforts to provide children with a quality education and strong academic foundation. Five hundred elementary age children, who participate in after school programs with Griffin Center, are represented by the program.

The Illinois State Bar Association's Young Lawyers Division will hold its 5th Annual Golf Classic on Tuesday, Sept. 1 at the Odyssey Golf Club in Tinley Park. This event will benefit the Illinois Bar Foundation YLD's Children's Assistance Fund. Schedule:

• Registration: 10:30 a.m.
• PMCLE program: 11 a.m.
• Shotgun start: 12:30 p.m.
• Cocktails, dinner, silent auction: 4 p.m.

Sponsorship opportunities are available. Click here for more information Click here to register

Judging by the traffic on ISBA's criminal-law listserver, few topics are more important to day-to-day criminal defense practice than expungements. And on that topic, Coles County lawyer Jeremy J. Richey has some advice for his peers -- don't put them off. In a recent post to his excellent East Central Illinois Criminal Law & DUI Weblog, he says this: "Since expungement is a slow process, a person should seek expungement the first day he is eligible for it and not when he needs it later down the road." Read the whole thing. And if you're an ISBA member, sign up for the criminal-DUI-traffic listserver and other e-mail discussion groups here.

Watch for Helen Gunnarsson's LawPulse item in the not-yet-published August Illinois Bar Journal about a scam e-mail solicitation that's making the rounds. Helen will have details, but in the meantime you can read a year-old California Bar Journal article describing this "request for Legal assistance," purportedly from a Chinese textile company. Thanks to Springfield paralegal Caren Mansfield, who alerted ISBA to the scam and the CBJ article.