IBF elects officers, announces 2016 one-year legal fellowships

The Illinois Bar Foundation, the charitable arm of the ISBA, has elected its officers for the 2016-17 fiscal year. They are Elizabeth A. Kaveny of Chicago, partner, Burke, Wise, Morrissey & Kaveny, president; Perry J. Browder of Alton, shareholder, Simmons Hanly Conroy, first vice president; and Timothy W. Kelly of Bloomington, principal, Kelly Law Offices, second vice president. Deane Beth Brown of Chicago, partner, Hughes Socol Piers Resnik Dym, was elected third vice president.

The IBF also recently awarded its 2016 Post Graduate Legal Fellowship Program grants to law school clinics at DePaul University College of Law, Loyola University Chicago School of Law, and Northern Illinois University College of Law. Each school selected a 2016 graduate for the one-year fellowship, designed to increase access to civil legal aid, help new attorneys develop practical legal skills and build a network, and encourage the participants to use their skills to serve those in need throughout their career through public interest jobs or pro bono work. Patricia Zimmerman will serve at NIU Law's Zeke Giorgi Clinic in Rockford, Caitlin M. Duane will work at DePaul's Poverty Law Clinic, and Victoria E. Dempsey will be located at the Community Law Center Clinic at Loyola University Chicago. The IBF and law schools share the cost of the fellowships.

ISBA supports rule change to limit shackling of juveniles

ISBA President Vincent F. Cornelius testified before the Illinois Supreme Court Rules Committee last month in support of Proposal 15-05, which would create guidelines for when restraints can be used on a minor in delinquency proceedings arising under the Juvenile Court Act. "The shackling of these minors that is automatic, routine, presumptive," President Cornelius said, "is unnecessary, inappropriate, and I dare say something less than Third World." Ending the automatic shackling of juveniles is a nationwide initiative, according to the Campaign Against Indiscriminate Juvenile Shackling. Half of all states have changed their rules in response to the effort, the group reports.

Proposal 15-05 is available at www.illinoiscourts.gov/SupremeCourt/Public_Hearings/Rules/2016/070816_Proposal_15-05.pdf.