The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois is accepting applications for an assistant United States attorney opening in its Criminal Division in Chicago. Applicants must possess a J.D. degree, be an active member of the bar (any jurisdiction), and have at least two years post-J.D. legal experience. U.S. citizenship is required. Preferred qualifications include excellent academics, significant litigation experience, criminal law experience, strong legal writing skills, and a demonstrated commitment to public service.

The Illinois Supreme Court handed down seven opinions on Thursday, September 20. The court unanimously upheld a state law that established rules for not-for-profit hospitals to avoid paying property taxes and ruled that law firms bringing qui tam actions against a corporation are entitled to attorney fees for outside counsel, but not fees for work done by the firm’s own attorneys. It also upheld the statutory summary suspension of a man’s driver’s license following his arrest for DUI drugs, dismissed a defendant’s appeal on procedural grounds, affirmed a modified appellate court judgment considering fee assessments, upheld an appellate court’s decision to not award a man additional days of credit against his prison sentence, and upheld a defendant’s conviction of drug-related homicide. Oswald v. Hamer  By Michael T. Reagan, The Law Offices of Michael T. Reagan Oswald v. Hamer, 2018 IL 122203, holds that Section 15-86(c) of the Property Tax Code, which provides for property tax exemptions for not-for-profit hospitals and their affiliates for specific property, is not unconstitutional on its face. More specifically described, Section 15-86(c) provides that such a hospital “satisfies the conditions for an exemption under this Section with respect to the subject property, and shall be issued a charitable exemption for that property, if the value of services or activities listed in subsection (e) for the hospital year equals or exceeds the relevant hospital entity’s estimated property tax liability....” Whether the word “shall” in the statute is to be regarded as mandatory or permissive was a key issue in the case.  

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals’ Committee on Federal Criminal Jury Instruction has updated the pattern criminal jury instructions.  The revised instructions are the product of more than three years of work by the judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and academics who served on the committee under the leadership of Judge Bill Bauer. The Judicial Conference authorized the publication of the revisions. 

Asked and Answered  By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. Our firm is a small firm of two shareholders and two associates based in Bakersfield, Calif. The firm was formed 15 years ago by the two existing shareholders. We have never added additional shareholders, but we believe that we owe it to our associates to have some guidelines as to what we are looking for in future shareholders. We’re considering a partner track program/document. Do you have any suggestions? A. I believe you should have at least a general set of guidelines laid out in writing. For example: Associates who have been in practice for seven years and employed by your firm for two or more years and who have consistently performed as outlined below should be eligible for equity shareholder-level review based on equity shareholder-level openings, competencies attained, performance, and behavior.