Chief Justice Rita B. Garman and the Illinois Supreme Court on Tuesday announced amendments to a rule that will help lawyers properly dispose of unidentified funds in their trust accounts and generate revenue to support legal aid in the process. The changes to Rule 1.15 of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct, which regulates the safe-keeping of client property, creates a mechanism for lawyers to remove unidentified fund balances from their Interest on Lawyers Trust (IOLTA) Accounts. The amended rule takes effect July 1, 2015. A copy of the changes can be found at http://www.state.il.us/court/SupremeCourt/Rules/Art_VIII/ArtVIII_NEW.htm#1.15.

Attorney Nerino Petro shows how to secure online document storage for popular Cloud services like Dropbox, iCloud, and Google Drive. Popular cloud tools such as boxcryptor, cloudfogger, and sookasa are also explained in this instructional video.

It all started with an email from the post office. At least, that's what it looked like. It came from an email address ending with "usps.gov" and it invited the recipient -- a California lawyer -- to click on an attachment to find instructions for rescheduling a package delivery. "I wanted to see what the package was, so I clicked on [it]."Later that day, the lawyer tried to access his firm's bank account. He entered his ID, but then was directed to a page asking for his PIN, rather than the usual password. Then he got a call from a bank employee -- at least, that's what the caller said -- who noticed that he was having trouble and offered to help. The caller told him to enter his PIN, along with a token number -- a code for wire transfers. Then the lawyer found himself at a site saying the page was down for maintenance.Two days later, the employee called the lawyer and had him enter the information again. After several tries, the employee said it wasn't working, and told him he was locked out of his account for 24 hours.That, says the lawyer, is "when alarm bells started to go off." Within hours, the lawyer discovered that $289,000 had been transferred from his account to a Chinese bank. "I never thought it would happen to me," he said, claiming that he felt like a "dummy."Find out more from Karen Erger's article in the April Illinois Bar Journal.

The next ISBA Solo & Small Firm Practice Institute will be held in East Peoria on April 16. The focus of this seminar is Building Your Practice and Preparing for the Future. The program runs from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and provides 6.50 MCLE hours, including 6.50 Professional Responsibility MCLE credit hours (PMCLE credit subject to approval).Get the best practice tips and practical tools you need to run your office efficiently and profitably with this full-day seminar! As an attendee, you will: