This edition of the newsletter of the Standing Committee on Government Lawyers reflects the diversity of the interests, goals, experiences and practice areas of the committee's constituency. First, we invite you to meet long-time government attorney Madalyn Maxwell and join in the celebration of her 50th anniversary of bar admission. Assistant Professor Sheila Simon of the Southern Illinois University School of Law then discusses the use of senior law students and law graduates by government agencies pursuant to the provisions of Supreme Court Rule 711.

Looking for a new position? Peg Tanner outlines the ISBA's CareerNet service that provides government lawyers with a means of searching for other government employment opportunities from the privacy of their own computer. We also debut the recurring column "First person," wherein various lawyers employed by units of government describe their positions and the duties related thereto.

The In-sites article in this issue of the newsletter focuses on obtaining information from State government agencies. Moreover, we provide the second part of Judge Nancy J. Katz' "Ethics corner" column initiated in the November 2000 newsletter, and a review of the committee's own strategic planning efforts. The newsletter then concludes with updates on pending legislation, recently issued court and Attorney General opinions and upcoming continuing legal education programs.

As always, we invite our readers to share their thoughts and ideas with the committee by submitting articles and letters to the editor for publication in the newsletter or by suggesting a topic that you would like to see addressed in a future issue of the newsletter. We look forward to hearing from you. Please send any comments or suggestions to our ISBA staff liaison at Teri@isba.org.