The Illinois Office of Comptroller has named Debjani Desai as its general counsel to serve as the office’s main attorney and advise the comptroller on matters affecting the office.
Desai served as assistant general counsel in the Litigation and Eligibility group for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, where she managed state and federal litigation and provided counsel to staff throughout Illinois.
Hanging out one’s shingle today requires leaving no stone left unturned and an open mind. Among the many important variables to consider are new billing models; how to brand, market, and develop one’s professional “voice”; and how to create a productive office space. Last December, several of the ISBA’s younger entrepreneurial members participated in a CLE event presented by the Standing Committee on Racial and Ethnic Minorities and shared what they learned as they set out on their own. The Illinois Bar Journal caught up with some of the presenters and recapped their wisdom in the IBJ’s February 2020 cover story, “Setting up Shop.”
Joseph A. Power Jr., managing partner at Power Rogers & Smith and co-founding partner Todd A. Smith have announced that Todd has withdrawn as a partner in the firm.
Until April 30, Smith will remain at the firm while he transitions his practice and his clients to his new offices. Until then, Smith can be reached at the firm through his assistant Kathy Beardsley at 312-827-6107 and via his direct line 312-827-6108.
Update your knowledge on a number of important workers’ compensation issues with this full-day seminar held from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 17 in Chicago or O'Fallon. Labor and employment attorneys and workers’ compensation practitioners attending this seminar will better understand: how hip and back injuries can affect workers’ compensation; how spinal injuries are diagnosed and treated; the case law updates affecting your clients; how to use information mined from social media sources; how to prepare your case for arbitration; how to coordinate Medicare and CMS benefits with workers’ compensation claims; and how workers’ compensation benefits and the Public Employee Disability Act (PEDA) can offset (and interact with) each other.
The Special Committee on Assembly Governance is interested in your thoughts and comments as it continues the work of examining the operation of the ISBA Assembly.
The ISBA has announced the next steps in the process of potentially offering members an Association Health Plan later this year.
Mercer, the national employee benefit consulting firm that the ISBA has partnered with, is in the process of soliciting competitive offerings from multiple health insurance carriers. Mercer anticipates providing ISBA leadership with viable options by early spring, and that ISBA members will be able to enroll in an Association Health Plan by this summer.
Peoria attorney Tim Bertschy, who has championed many important causes during his long and distinguished legal career, will receive the prestigious Lincoln the Lawyer Award from The Abraham Lincoln Association during the organization's annual Lincoln's Birthday Banquet on February 12 in Springfield.
Bertschy will be the 13th person to receive the Lincoln the Lawyer Award, which recognizes individuals whose legal careers reflect the character and ideals of Abraham Lincoln.
Aiming to continue reducing the backlogs at our forensics laboratories and deliver proper justice, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has named 15 members to the Governor’s Task Force on Forensic Science, which he created last August through Executive Order 19-13.
The group is tasked with analyzing the operations and oversight of critical laboratories, ensuring they use the latest forensic technologies to solve crimes and protect the public, and make recommendations to the legislature and other stakeholders as forensic science continues to evolve.
Although Illinois caselaw appears to suggest there is no duty to defend an insured (including an additional insured) before a suit, an insurer has a good-faith duty to its insured to respond to a demand made before suit and will often rely on two “black letter” rules to determine their responsibility. One rule is that they have no obligation to pay defense costs incurred before the insured tenders the claim to the insurer; the other rule is that the insurer owes no duties to the insured until the insured is sued. In his January 2020 Illinois Bar Journal article, “Tender-Hearted Insurers,” Scott O. Reed explains that while both rules are a rough approximation of the limits Illinois courts have placed on a liability insurer’s early-stage duties in a claim, caselaw contains exceptions and qualifications to those rules. Reed suggests that knowing the contours of these guides to an insurer’s early-stage duties will allow counsel for insureds and insurers to make informed recommendations to their respective clients about how to resolve conflicts over early-stage costs and settlements.
