Discovery is the most important part of the litigation process because it is used as evidence for or against your client. Learn how to get the written discovery that you need to win your next case with this two-hour online seminar on December 1, 2016. Topics include: how to get the discovery you need; knowing what interrogatories and document requests you must propound; knowing how to phrase your discovery request for the best results; the best way to get the compliance you need; knowing when to make (and when not to make) a motion to compel; and how to phrase your motion to compel.

An ISBA task force has concluded that licensing nonlawyer legal technicians is not a good way to improve the delivery of legal services. Instead, the group recommends creating a consumer-oriented lawyer directory for ISBA members, providing more technology and practice-management education and resources to members, and establishing an ISBA standing committee on the future of legal services, among other initiatives. The ISBA Board of Governors is recommending that the ISBA Assembly adopt the report and recommendations of the Task Force on the Future of Legal Services. The Board approved the report in October and the Assembly will consider it at its December 10 meeting in Chicago. Read the report here. The task force grew out of concern about the move to create court-licensed nonlawyer legal service providers, also know as LLLTs, in Washington and other states (for more, see the September 2015 Illinois Bar Journal cover story). However, the group examined many other, and likely more significant, issues reshaping the practice of law. They include the rise of internet-based legal service providers, the broader impact of technology on the practice of law, and the increasing number of self-represented litigants. With this report, the ISBA joins a growing number of bar associations across the country seeking to address the transformation underway in the legal services industry. The report and recommendations will be the subject of an article in the January 2017 Illinois Bar Journal.

A federal district court found that Avvo did not run afoul of the Illinois Right of Publicity Act by creating attorney profile pages without plaintiffs' consent and using them to sell advertising to competing attorneys. Plaintiff John Vrdolyak relied heavily on the seventh circuit's opinion in Jordan v. Jewel Food Stores, Inc., 743 F.3d 509, 515 (7th Cir. 2014), which set forth a multi-prong test to help determine whether speech is commercial or noncommercial. Vrdolyak argued that, like the advertisement in Jordan, Avvo's advertising is inextricably linked to its attorney profiles, meaning the entire directory is commercial speech and thus protected at a lower level under the First Amendment than noncommercial speech. The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois court disagreed. It found that because not every profile contains an advertisement, and because none of the advertisements used the plaintiff's name, "the court views what defendant does as more akin to the yellow pages directory, which receives First Amendment protection, than the advertisement that Jewel placed in Jordan."

Justices of the Illinois Supreme Court administered the attorney’s oath to 1,374 new attorneys on Thursday, November 10, at five separate locations across the state. The largest group, 1,121, was admitted in the First Judicial District during two ceremonies at Arie Crown Theater, 2301 S. Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. The ceremonies were at 9:45 a.m. and 12:45 p.m.  All of the candidates sworn in have passed the Illinois State Bar Examination and a required ethics examination and were certified by the Supreme Court Committee on Character and Fitness. They bring the total number of licensed attorneys in Illinois to approximately 96,300.