The Juvenile Justice Initiative honored Cook Couny Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Jenner & Block Partner Jeffrey D. Colman on Oct. 8 for their work ensuring individualized and proportionate justice for every child in conflict with the law. The event was held on at Jenner & Block LLP, 353 N. Clark, Chicago.

Initial training for volunteer judges and lawyers set for Oct. 24Through the initiatives of Illinois Judges Association President Michael Hyman and Illinois State Bar Association President Richard D. Felice, the two organizations have joined efforts to co-sponsor the IJA’s “Bringing the Courtroom to the Classroom” program. This innovative program is designed to bring civics education about the legal system and courts in Illinois to students throughout the State.Hyman and Felice have focused efforts to engage high school students with civics education about our legal system. “Each wants kids to know about our legal system from those who know best about it,” explains Judge Mike Chmiel, who chairs the ISBA’s Standing Committee on Law Related Education for the Public. “Our goal is to increase the knowledge of individuals on the mechanisms that are basic to our system,” wrote Felice in the Illinois Bar Journal in July 2014.The IJA program is being expanded to join a volunteer judge with a volunteer lawyer, who will each be trained to make presentations to high school students throughout Illinois. The first joint training for judges and lawyers will occur on October 24, 2014, at the Richard J. Daley Center in Chicago.Training is being required for the presenters, and will be provided by Judges Clare McWilliams, Eileen O'Neill Burke, and Chmiel. For more information about the program, or to reserve a spot at the training, please email khosty@ija.org or kfurr@isba.org.

In Montanez v. Simon, 755 F.3d 547 (7th Cir. 2014), a civil rights case, the plaintiff won a $2,000 verdict against a Chicago policeman for excessive use of force. The fee ultimately approved by the court for his lawyer? $109,000, reports Michael D. Bersani in the latest ISBA Local Government Law newsletter.An outrageous aberration? Not so much, Bersani writes. The case "reflects the accepted notion in the seventh circuit that there is no strict proportionality rule when it comes to the application of fee shifting statutes," he said. The court also called out the “scorched earth defense strategy” that drove up the price tag. “This simple civil rights claim, overlitigated by both sides, took on all the protracted complexity of high stakes commercial litigation, replete with hard fought discovery battles and a mock trial,” the seventh circuit opined. Read the article.

Asked and AnsweredBy John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMCQ. I am a solo practitioner in an estate planning firm in Carbondale, Illinois. I am the only attorney in the firm. I have one legal assistant that has worked for me for 10 years. I am 72 years old. I suppose it has always been my goal to practice forever as I have been in denial about my age. I have done nothing concerning the eventual transition of my practice and I don't even have anything in place in the event that I would become ill and out of the office due to illness. I am beginning to have more and more health problems and as a result I am coming to the realization that I must address the transition of my practice. Please share your thoughts.