The new overtime regulations issued by the U.S. Department of Labor, which take effect December 1, will impact many law-firm employers to the extent they have traditionally been paying, or not paying, employees with certain job responsibilities for hours worked in excess of 40 per week.

In general,  executive, administrative, and professional ("EAP") employees are exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act's overtime provisions. According to the DOL's fact sheet, the Department has historically required three tests to be met before the FLSA's EAP exemption applies. See https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/final2016/overtime-factsheet.htm.

To qualify for the exemption, employees must (1) be paid a fixed, predetermined salary; (2) the amount paid must meet a specific minimum salary level; and (3) the employee's job duties must primarily involve executive, administrative, or professional duties.

The new rule raises the minimum salary from a weekly amount of $455 ($23,660 annually) to $913 per week ($47,476 annually), doing away with the requirement that the rate be an annual salary as opposed to a fixed hourly rate. Teachers, lawyers, and doctors are considered bona fide professionals under the rule; whether they make $913 per week is irrelevant. Law firms need to audit positions within their ranks to determine both whether the weekly amount and the duties tests are met.

Attorney Robert Duncan discusses 4 things you need to know about pleadings when starting your legal career.

Asked and Answered

By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

Q. I am the managing partner of a 12-attorney firm in Providence, R.I. In our recent partner meetings we have been discussing ramping up marketing. How much should we be spending on marketing?

ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews legislation in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers Property crimes Public Act 99-631, FOIA Public Act 99-586, Creates the Local Government Travel Expense Control Act Public Act 99-604, Common Interest Community Association Act Public Act 99-627, Omnibus Juvenile justice changes Public Act 99-628, Cell site simulator device Public Act 99-622, Short-term guardian Public Act 99-599, Land Trust Beneficiary Rights Act Public Act 99-609 and Common Interest Community Association Act and the Condominium Property Act. Public Act 99-612.

More information on each bill is available below the video.

Chief Circuit Judge Kathryn E. Creswell is pleased to announce that following a tabulation of ballots by the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts in Springfield, the Circuit Judges of the Eighteenth Judicial Court, DuPage County, Illinois have appointed Bryan S. Chapman to the position of Associate Judge.

Mr. Chapman fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Associate Judge Jane Hird Mitton.

Former Police Chief Bradley Bloom, of the Village of Hinsdale, received a 2016 Law Enforcement Award from the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA) on Friday, July 22 during a ceremony at the Hinsdale Village Hall.

The ISBA’s Law Enforcement Award was created to recognize sworn law enforcement officers for conduct that promotes justice and to distinguish those individuals whose service to the public brings honor and respect to the criminal justice system. It recognizes those who excel in law enforcement.

Bloom was acknowledged for upholding high ethical standards, bringing people from diverse backgrounds together to pursue a common goal, and his strong work ethic. During his time as Chief of Police, Bloom improved the resident satisfaction rate, increased officer training hours, and implemented new programs that have focused on creating partnerships and improving community relationships. Bloom served as the Chief of Police for the Village of Hinsdale for the last 13 years and currently serves as the Village’s Director of Public Safety.

One program that Bloom helped implement was to allow police officers to carry the heroin antidote Narcan. This program involved training over 2,000 police officers in DuPage County and those officers have saved over 180 lives administering the antidote to heroin overdose victims.

The United States Attorney's Office (USAO), Central District of Illinois is seeking an experienced attorney to serve in the Civil Division and handle defensive cases where they will defend government agencies and employees of the government sued in an individual capacity in a wide variety of challenging cases and to represent the government in affirmative litigation when public funds have been wrongfully obtained by fraud. The Civil Division defends the interest of the United States from suits alleging statutory torts, constitutional torts, employment discrimination, and a myriad of other claims. The Civil Division also prosecutes cases for fraud and other violations of federal laws and is responsible for collecting monies owed to the government as a result of criminal fines, defaulted student loans, mortgage foreclosures, bond forfeitures and civil judgments. The division's civil rights enforcement program investigates and litigates cases involving discrimination in the areas of housing, public employment, disability, voting and education.

Job Description: 

Illinois Family Law Judge Kevin Busch outlines how to effectively try an allocation of parental responsibilities case.

During the past few decades, tens of thousands of companies have turned to the business process discipline of Six Sigma to streamline how they provide products and services, gaining efficiencies and saving money and time.

Led by BigLaw pioneers like Chicago-based SeyfarthShaw LLP, lawyers began exploring this territory about a decade ago and have ramped up their efforts since the Great Recession prompted their cost-cutting corporate clients to demand that they do so.

Lacking the same breadth and depth of staff infrastructure, smaller and midsized firms have not moved toward Six Sigma and business process improvement with the same alacrity. But if they can get past their initial hesitation and take on the guts of such initiatives, the step-by-step breakdowns of their business processes known as "process mapping," they stand to benefit at least as much, advocates say.

"Process mapping can work in all contexts, including a small firm, because what you're really trying to do is reduce inefficiency from a repetitive process," says Kim Fox of Seyfarth. "A small firm has plenty of processes that they do all the time - intake, conflicts checking, billing - all of those are things they do day in and day out that could definitely benefit from process mapping." Find out how to make it work for your firm in the August Illinois Bar Journal.