U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) has recommended Manish Shah of Chicago, Chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office and former Chief of its Appellate Division, for appointment to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

“I am proud to put forward the name of Manish Shah to be the next federal district court judge for Northern Illinois,” Senator Kirk said.  “He’s the most experienced prosecutor we have, and because of his stellar record in working with former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, I think he is the best one for the bench. I look forward to working with Senator Durbin to make sure we have highly-skilled candidates like Shah to help strengthen our courts and clean up Illinois.”

Asked and Answered

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

Q. I am a partner in a four partner law firm in Cleveland, Ohio. Our firm does class action cases and all are on a contingency fee basis. We do keep track of time expended on these cases even though we don't bill by time. One of our partners has announced that he will be withdrawing from the firm. We each have 25% ownership interests. How do we value the firm and determine his buyout? Our partnership agreement does not address this nor do we have any precedent. Do you have any suggestions?

A. The real value component is the value of your unsettled cases and it will be difficult - if not impossible - to determine the value of these cases until they are concluded in the future. Some firms payout the capital account and the value of the hard assets upon departure or over a relatively short payout period and they have a future payout formula for the cases in progress as the cases are concluded.

Join us from the comfort of your home or office for this live webcast on June 28^th that examines the recent developments and hot topics in Illinois’ insurance coverage law. Topics include: uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage; professional liability insurance coverage; insurance coverage issues relating to legal malpractice; and comprehensive general liability insurance.

The program is presented by the ISBA Insurance Law Section and qualifies for 2.25 hours MCLE credit.

Click here for more information and to register.

The Illinois Supreme Court issued an amended Rule 138 on June 3. Check out the changes at http://www.state.il.us/court/SupremeCourt/Rules/Amend/2013/060313.pdf

The Assembly meeting agenda has been posted at http://www.isba.org/leadership/assembly/minutes. This page is password protected and available only to ISBA members. The Assembly will next meet on Saturday, June 22 at the 137th Annual Meeting at the Grand Geneva Resort & Spa in Lake Geneva, Wis.

Lake County has become the twelfth county in Illinois to adopt procedural rules that expressly prohibit nonlawyers from representing parties before its tax appeals board of review.

The growing trend of counties banning the unauthorized practice of law ("UPL") in their tax appeal boards is in accord with Illinois Supreme Court precedent dating back at least as early as 1987. Lacking any state statute that addresses the issue, the implementation of local UPL rules for tax appeals boards has been officially supported by the ISBA Board of Governors since 1992. Find out more in the June IBJ.

Johnson & Bell received the highest state level award from the Illinois Committee of the Employer Support for the Guard and Reserve (“ESGR”) for its support for members of the United States military services.

Presenting the award to firm founder William V. Johnson and firm vice-president Joseph R. Marconi were US Navy Captain Mark T. Hunzeker, the chief of the Navy’s Midwest Region Legal Services Office, Great Lakes Naval Station; Renato Bacci, the incoming chairman of the Illinois ESGR Committee; and William C. Glynn, the Northern Illinois chair of ESGR.

Johnson & Bell was selected to receive the award at the recommendation of Frank M. Grenard, one of the firm attorneys.  Grenard is an ombudsman and military outreach volunteer with the Illinois ESGR Committee. He is also the Chairman of the Illinois State Bar Association’s Military Affairs Committee.

Join us from the comfort of your home or office on June 13^th for this two-hour live webcast that examines how Medicare impacts tort practitioners and those working toward the resolution of injury claims! Attorneys attending this seminar will better understand: the ins/outs and pitfalls involving the resolution of claims of Medicare eligible claimants; conditional payments, future medical allocations, and the need for a Medicare set-aside; the latest mandatory reporting requirements for lien resolution under the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Extension Act (MMSEA); how to effectively and efficiently communicate with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; how to protect your client and your client’s interests resolving cases for Medicare eligible – or soon to be Medicare eligible – individuals either for third party claims or worker’s compensation actions; and the important and necessary information to be included in any settlement/release documents.

The webcast is presented by the ISBA Tort Law Section and qualifies for 2.0 hours MCLE credit.

Click here for more information and to register.

Asked and Answered

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

Q. Our firm has been discussing how to handle one of our partners. We are a 12-attorney firm in Houston. One of our partners -- who is one of our highest fee producers and best business getter's -- simply won't follow firm policy or play by the rules. He won't turn in time-sheets in a timely manner, he is argumentative with others in the office, and not a team player. He is "me first" while the rest of the partners in the firm are mostly "firm first". We are trying to build a team based practice and this one partner is holding up our progress. Do you have any thoughts or suggestions on how we should handle this?

A. Dealing with "maverick partners" is always a challenge. Of course they seem to always be the heavy hitters and this makes it that much more difficult as often there are major clients and large sums of money at stake -- at least in the short term. This can also be major issues and large sums of money at stake in the long term if you don't deal with the maverick partner as well. In addition, you won't be able to achieve the vision and goals the firm is trying to achieve.