The Illinois State Bar Associaiton's Lawyer Finder service connects consumers to Illinois lawyers - by phone Mondays through Fridays, and around the clock at illinoislawyerfinder.com.

Here are the results for March 2013:

• 626 phone referrals made by Lawyer Finder staff
• Most requested areas of law: Family (118), Employment Law (74), Personal Injury (68), Criminal Law (57), Real Estate (55), Civil Disputes (50)

• 23,713 visits to IllinoisLawyerFinder.com (21,251 unique visitors)
• 693 clicks to Find a Lawyer (from campaign landing pages only)
• 895 unique calls to Find a Lawyer
• Top 3 online topics: Employment Law, Divorce, General/Find a Lawyer

Want to be part of the ISBA Lawyer Finder Service? Call (800) 252-8908 and ask for the Legal Department, or visit www.illinoislawyerfinder.com

Clients should call (800) 922-8757.

Northern Illinois University College of Law will open a free legal clinic this fall in Aurora, focusing on legal issues that may contribute to health problems in the area’s indigent population. NIU Law will partner with both Hesed House - a comprehensive homeless resource center in Aurora that will house the clinic - and Aunt Martha’s Health Center.

You can find clients on Facebook and LinkedIn. Or, more to the point, they can find you. But only if you go about it the right way. The good news? That usually means following your interests and passions and being yourself. Find out more in the April Illinois Bar Journal.

ISBA President John E. Thies participated in a discussion on law school debt Tuesday on the WILL-AM 580 program Focus. Thies was joined in the discussion by Northwestern Professor Steven Harper, author of the new book "The Lawyer Bubble."

Listen to the discussion at will.illinois.edu/focus/player/the-lawyer-bubble
 
Read the report and recommendations of the ISBA's Special Committee on the Impact of Law School Debt on the Delivery of Legal Services at www.isba.org/committees/impactoflawschooldebtondeliveryofle

Illinois Judges Association President Hon. Rita M. Novak presented the organization’s Distinguished Service Award to Judge Carole Kamin Bellows on March 28 at the Richard J. Daley Center in Chicago.

The Distinguished Service Award is intended to recognize judges who have demonstrated exemplary service to citizens, bench, and bar as shown by devotion to the law, efforts to improve the legal and judicial communities, reputation for honor, integrity, legal knowledge and diligent service, and otherwise distinguishing him or herself as an Illinois judicial officer.

Judge Bellows was first appointed to serve as a judge of the Circuit Court, Domestic Relations Division, by the Illinois Supreme Court in 1986. By being successfully retained by the voters, she continued to serve on the bench for 26 years. Prior to becoming a judge, she was an attorney for 26 years.

Join us in Monmouth on April 19^th for an opportunity to update your knowledge on creating, perfecting and liquidating Uniform Commercial Code security interests! Attorneys with basic practice experience working in the commercial litigation, banking, collections, and/or bankruptcy environment who attend this seminar will better understand: how to create and perfect liens; how to fix defective Uniform Commercial Code liens; how to conduct traditional Uniform Commercial Code sales; how to seize and liquidate personal property under the Uniform Commercial Code; how to handle competing lien claims; and much more.

The program is presented by the ISBA Commercial Banking, Collections and Bankruptcy Section and qualifies for 6.0 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 is a 26 attorney firm in Louisville, Kentucky. We are considering merging/acquiring a 12 attorney firm in the local area. This is virgin territory for us as we have not done this before. We would be interested in your thoughts as to where we should start and the process we should use to minimize the risk of making a mistake.

A. While mergers can be a valid option making them work is often another matter. Research indicates that one third to one half of all mergers fail to meet expectations due to cultural misalignment and personnel problems. Don't try to use a merger or acquisition as a life raft, for the wrong reasons and as your sole strategy. Successful mergers are based upon a sound integrated business strategy that creates synergy and a combined firm that produces greater client value than either firm can produced alone.

There can be a whole list of reasons for failure including poor financial performance, attorney defections, loss of key clients, and leadership and management issues. However, it has been our experience that most failures have been the result of poor cultural fit. The merging firms - after they have moved past conflict checks and excitement about new client potential - jump immediately to an examination of practice economics and the financials. They fail to perform proper due diligence on the people. It is critical that firms insure that cultural due diligence is a key component of the merger assessment process. Philosophies, personalities, and life styles should be generally compatible. The partners should like each other and the deal should make sense.

The first of five Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Access to Justice Listening Conferences will be held at Bradley University on April 29. The conference will take place from 1:30-4 p.m. at the Westlake Building, Room 116, 814 N Tobias Lane, Peoria.

Space is limited! To secure your seat, RSVP to IlSupCtATJ@isba.org

Here's the full schedule of listening conferences:

• April 29: Bradley University, Peoria, 1:30–4 p.m.
• May 1: NIU, DeKalb, 1:30–4 p.m.
• May 30: U. of I., Urbana, 1:30–4 p.m.
• June 5: SIU, Edwardsville, 1:30–4 p.m.
• June 13th: The John Marshall Law School, Chicago, 1:30–4 p.m.
   

VR Election Services, ISBA’s election provider, has e-mailed e-ballots to members with valid email addresses and mailed paper ballots to members without email addresses. If you haven’t received your e-ballot, please check your email spam under the suffix vres.us. If your e-ballot is not in your spam folder, or if you received an electronic ballot and want to vote by paper ballot, please contact VRES at (800) 218-4026 or by email at custserv@vres.us. The last day to request a paper ballot is Tuesday, April 16, 2013.

Online voting ends at 4:30 p.m. CT on Tuesday, April 30th. Paper ballots must be received at VR Election Services in Texas by 4:30 p.m. CT on Monday, April 30, 2013  in order to be counted.

The Tellers of the Election will complete the Canvass of the Election no later than May 6, 2013 .

All members with their dues paid by March 1st are eligible to vote if there is a contested race in their area. The contested races in the 2013 Election are: 3rd Vice President; Board of Governors: Cook County, Area 2, Under 37 Cook County; Assembly: Circuits 7 and 16.

View candidate bios at www.isba.org/elections/bios