At its meeting on Friday, December 9, 2022, the ISBA Assembly formally adopted the following statement, which was originally drafted and adopted by the ISBA International and Immigration Law Section Council:

Lawyers, more so than other professionals, have a duty to support and defend the rule of law. With that duty comes the responsibility to identify actions and or persons who threaten to violate and or violate the rule of law, regardless of locale.

Therefore, the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA) denounces Vladimir Putin and his regime for their actions against Ukraine, the Ukrainian people, and the Russian people. Those actions did not commence in February of this year nor March of 2014. Vladimir Putin and his regime violated and continue to violate each attribute that defines basic principles of decency.

The Illinois Supreme Court Pretrial Implementation Task Force (Task Force) will host in-person regional education seminars in Carterville on December 13th at John A. Logan Community College and Champaign on December 14th at the I Hotel and Conference Center to overview pretrial justice and the implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act (PFA), which is scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2023. The seminars will also address the Legislature’s recent amendments to the PFA. 

The Illinois Supreme Court Pretrial Implementation Task Force (Task Force) will host a town hall meeting on December 16 at noon via Zoom. This town hall meeting will address the Legislature’s recent amendments to the Pretrial Fairness Act (PFA) as found in Public Act 102-1104. 

The Illinois Supreme Court announced today the creation of the Supreme Court Committee on Domestic Violence (the Committee). 

“The Supreme Court wants to know how our state courts can better serve the needs of survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking,” Chief Justice Mary Jane Theis said. “Changing technology, the upcoming SAFE-T Act and other legislative changes necessitate the need for a committee dedicated to these issues.” 

The amount of data amassed on the internet is astronomically large and growing each day. Search engines and archives regularly scrape data on the internet to provide useful indexing and search capabilities to users, while other businesses scrape data from websites, sometimes for the repackaging and resale of information. Don’t miss this comprehensive look at the types of scraping on the internet, the legal perils associated with scraping data from websites, and the risks associated with using scraped data.

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA), Division of Legal Counsel (DLC), is seeking to hire a Technical Advisor II to serve in the area of Bureau of Water (BOW)-Regulatory Development & Appeals. This position performs technical legal work of a general nature, involving the promulgation of rules for, and providing legal counsel to, the IEPA’s BOW. The ideal candidate will have experience in conducting administrative hearings, legal hearings, and litigating matters before judicial and administrative tribunals.

On behalf of the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA) Special Committee on Serving Lawyers in Rural Practices, I invite you all to help with our important work by completing a brief survey. The survey is less than 20 questions and should take no longer than ten minutes to complete.