This May, we're celebrating you during Member Appreciation Month. We have a full calendar of prizes, discounts and giveaways, so stay tuned to ISBA communications for detailed announcements with instructions for how you can get in on the fun. You can look forward to a bookstore sale, free live CLE webcasts, member renewal incentives, social media contests, and more. View our Member Appreciation Month page for additional details.
The polls for the ISBA election closed on April 30 at 4:30 p.m. Results will be made available on May 4.
Only attorney members who paid their dues by March 1, 2020 were eligible to vote.
For additional information, view past posts on The Bar News covering this year's election.
Get fast-breaking new information to advise client employers and employees with the ISBA's informative hot-topic online seminar held from 1-2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 12.
Civil litigators, business counselors, human rights attorneys, and labor/employment practitioners with basic to intermediate practice experience who attend this seminar will better understand: pandemic preparedness in the workplace and the American Disabilities Act; coronavirus and the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act; new FMLA rules, including who is covered and what is available; concerted actions by angry employees; discrimination claims with selective stay-at-home orders and layoffs; employee healthcare privacy for workplace notices and statements; unemployment compensation benefits from a COVID-19 layoff or furlough; False Claims Act cases on the horizon; FLSA/IMWL wage issues; employer obligations to reimburse employees for necessary expenditures; First Amendment free speech rights under 42 USC §1983; workplace torts not covered by the Illinois Workers’ Compensation comparison of the Illinois and federal administrative processes; federal and state court venue options; federal court removal and arbitration considerations; and remedies available under the state and federal acts
The Illinois Supreme Court has entered an order temporarily amending Supreme Court Rule 206 to ease the requirements for remote depositions.
The amended Rule is effective immediately.
In this Quick Takes for Your Practice video, attorney Rory Weiler discusses how to manage client relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic.
By Clarissa Gaff, Land of Lincoln Legal Aid Executive Director
The nation’s largest legal nonprofit funder, the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), wants attorneys outside of legal aid organizations to have opportunities to provide free legal services to low income community members. To ensure that attorneys have a variety of options for pro bono service, LSC awards Pro Bono Innovation Grants to civil legal aid providers around the country to create new and diverse programs for other attorneys, like ISBA members, to provide legal services to those individuals with civil legal needs who cannot afford an attorney.
Attorneys and their firms operate on both sides of the online consumer and data-collecting divide. We interact with all manner of websites and services, and therefore care that private information is safely managed. We also operate websites and services where consumers and our clients expect the same. Government regulation of personal information at state, national, and supranational levels is just beginning and cannot be ignored. Since websites know no geographic boundaries, attorneys—particularly those with firms that operate in multiple states or internationally—must educate themselves about these issues. In April’s Illinois Bar Journal’s Practice HQ column, “Don’t Be a Cookie Monster,” Affinity Consulting Group’s Jeffrey Schoenberger summarizes how website cookies work and an attorney’s obligation to be aware of the internet’s data-collecting nature.
The Illinois Supreme Court announced today an emergency order which limits freezes on personal bank accounts during the COVID-19 pandemic. This order temporarily relieves debtors of the burden of asset freezes, up to the $4,000 exemption provided by law, at a time when they have limited recourse to the courts.
The order is available on the court website.
Effective Jan. 1, 2020, Illinois’ Workplace Transparency Act requires employers to make changes to anti-harassment policies, incorporate an annual training program, make changes to employment and severance agreements, and report annually to the Illinois Department of Human Rights.
Join us online from noon until 2 p.m. on Wednesday, May 6 for this introductory look at the rights of employees and the new obligations of employers; how to identify harassing behaviors as defined by federal, state, and local laws; the venues, remedies, and damages available to current and former employees; and how to advise your clients on employee handbook revisions.
Voting is now underway in the 2020 ISBA Election. ISBA's election provider Election America distributed ballots on March 26. All members of the Association (except non-lawyer members) with dues paid by March 1, 2020 are eligible to vote.
The deadline for voting is Thursday, April 30, 2020 at 4:30 p.m. Central Time for all voting methods: e-ballot, paper or internet.