Attorneys’ Title Guaranty Fund, Inc. (ATG), the premier lawyer service company in the U.S., announced that Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Augie Butera, was recently installed as president of the Illinois Land Title Association (ILTA).  Also, ATG’s Arden Miner, senior manager – underwriting and escrow, was elected to ILTA’s board of directors for a three-year term.  
 
Both Butera and Miner were officially installed at a formal ceremony recently during ILTA’s 2011 annual convention in Springfield at the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel.
 
As a SVP and general counsel for ATG, Butera manages ATG’s legal and escrow departments, and handles title insurance claims and litigation.  He is also president of ATG subsidiary, The Judicial Sales Corporation.
 
Butera has served on ATG legal staff since 1986.  He has considerable background in title searching and closing problems.  Prior to joining ATG, Butera worked eight years for the Cook County Recorder of Deeds.  He earned his Bachelor’s of Science and law degrees from Chicago’s DePaul University in 1982 and 1985, respectively.

Serving a one-year term as president of ILTA, Butera essentially also serves as the organization’s CEO.  He now supervises the association’s business and affairs, and presides at all key meetings, including those of the board of directors.  Butera is also an ex-officio member of all committees, and, in most cases, appoints all association committees.
 
“With his extensive experience and commitment to the title industry, Augie is a huge asset as ILTA’s next president,” stated ILTA Executive Director Michael R. Lane.  “And Arden will be a great addition to our board of directors as we move our organization forward.”
 Miner will be responsible for helping to manage ILTA’s overall affairs in a variety of areas as a member of its board of directors.
 
A licensed attorney, Miner joined ATG’s legal department in 2001.  
 
Miner is responsible for preparing underwriting guidelines and procedures, assisting members with title clearance and underwriting questions, and issuing commitments.  She also manages ATG’s escrow department, where she oversees construction escrows, tax payments and title indemnities.
 
Miner is a member of the American Bar Association, the Illinois State Bar Association and the Chicago Bar Association.  She holds a state teaching certificate from Northeastern University, Chicago (1988) and an M.B.A. from the Keller Graduate School of Management, Chicago (1992).  Miner earned her law degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School, Lansing, Michigan (1995) and her Bachelor’s of Science degree from Loyola University, Chicago (1986).
 
“ATG’s employees have a long history of serving our industry by holding key leadership positions with the associations that represent the legal, title and real estate professions,” said ATG President and CEO Peter Birnbaum.  “I’m very proud to see Augie and Arden continue this tradition by assuming these important positions with ILTA.”

Founded more than 100 years ago, non-profit ILTA is the state trade association representing title agents, abstractors and underwriters in all 102 Illinois counties.
 
About Attorneys’ Title Guaranty Fund, Inc.

Through its nearly 4,000 member attorneys across Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana, ATG has presided more than 2.5 million home closings and provided homebuyers with competitively priced title insurance since 1964.  The only bar-related title insurance company based in Illinois, ATG has built a significant market share by providing excellent service at competitive prices.  It has been assigned a Financial Stability Rating® (FSR) of A′ (A Prime), Unsurpassed, by the independent ratings bureau, Demotech, Inc.