Chicago Area

Please join us at the 15th Annual Holiday Party and show your support for the IBF/ YLD Children’s Assistance Fund. Initially created to assist with the opening of children’s waiting rooms in courthouses across the State of Illinois, the IBF/YLD Children’s Assistance Fund has since grown, and now provides funding to organizations across the State of Illinois that provide legal assistance to children, maintain children’s waiting rooms in courthouses, work to reduce recidivism of juveniles, and/or work to reduce the incidents of domestic violence in families with children. The YLD has raised more than $350,000.00 for the Children’s Assistance Fund over the past 14, due, in large part, to the widespread support and participation in our annual Holiday Party. We hope that you will help us continue this worthy tradition by joining us in person or, if you cannot attend, by contributing to the cause.

WHEN: Friday, Dec. 7, 2012, 6 p.m.-10 p.m.

WHERE: Cubby Bear Lounge, 1059 W. Addison, Chicago, Illinois

WHAT: Open Bar, Warm Appetizers, and Live Music by Rod Tuffcurls & the Bench Press!

COST: $40 per person

Alternatively, please consider participating in our “Friends of the Children” sponsorship campaign. All participants will be thanked, with logos displayed, both during and after the Holiday Party.

Wayne R. Luepker, 63, of Oak Park died of heart failure on July 1, 2012. Born in 1949 in Chicago, he graduated from Grinnell College in 1971 and from the University of Chicago Law School (JD) in 1979. In 1980, he joined Mayer Brown in the Employee and Benefits Group and was named a partner in 1986. While there, he actively mentored many associates, sharing his knowledge readily and selflessly throughout his career.

He was appreciated by his colleagues and clients for his thoughtfulness, generosity and intelligence. His expertise was recognized by the American Bar Association, for which he chaired the Executive Compensation Subcommittee (Section of Taxation Employee Benefits Committee) from 1999 to 2009. He was also a member of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel, was recognized by Chambers as one of the top lawyers in his field, and authored a number of professional publications.

In his personal life, he served as a member of the Board of Advisors for Catholic Charities, an organization whose mission to provide compassionate services to those in need expressed his own values.

Wayne Luepker is survived by his wife, Doreen Berger; his children, Daniel and Sarah; his brother, Russell; and his nephews, Ian and Carl. His family will remember him as a gentle man of great intelligence and grace, who was a gracious and generous friend and a loving partner and father.

Bryan Stevenson, a widely-acclaimed public interest lawyer who is perhaps best known for winning a U.S. Supreme Court case which held that mandatory life-without-parole sentences for all children 17 or younger is unconstitutional, will speak about his experiences fighting for the rights of the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned at a noon luncheon during the Midyear Meeting of the Illinois Judges Association (IJA) and Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA) at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers on Friday, Dec. 14.

Stevenson, the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, in Montgomery, Alabama, has dedicated his life to helping the underserved population receive justice. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he has been awarded 13 honorary doctorate degrees and has received numerous awards including the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship Award.

The Illinois Supreme Court announced Monday that the Twelfth Judicial Circuit judges voted to select Chrystel L. Gavlin as an associate judge of the Twelfth Judicial Circuit.

Ms. Gavlin received her undergraduate degree in 1990 from College of St. Francis in Joliet, and her Juris Doctor in 1996 from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. Ms. Gavlin is currently engaged in solo practice in Joliet.