Illinois Bar Journal

Joe Schomberg, an associate at the Chicago office of Sidley Austin LLP, is winner of first place and $2,000 in the ISBA’s 2020 Lincoln Award Legal Writing Contest. His article, “Major Buzzkill: The Relationship (or Lack Thereof) Between State Legalized Cannabis and the Bankruptcy Code,” will appear in the February issue of the Illinois Bar Journal.

Are the thousands of residents leaving Illinois extricating themselves correctly from their former home state? Have they properly moved their trusts to avoid Illinois taxation? In his December Illinois Bar Journal article, “When Is a Person or Trust an Illinois Resident?,” Richard Sugar examines these questions in the context of Illinois estate and income taxes and considers a few special situations impacted by Illinois law. He also takes a look at the present state-level tax environment in light of recent U.S. Supreme Court pronouncements pertaining to states’ ability to tax their subjects.

During the past half-century or so, Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Anne M. Burke has written the original grant that launched the Special Olympics, led the national review board that investigated the Catholic Church’s pedophilia scandal, spearheaded an effort to renovate the Illinois Supreme Court building in Springfield, and worked to unclog the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services backlog of cases at the request of then-Gov. Jim Edgar. Now, after her long and distinguished career that began as a Chicago Park District educator and includes more than three decades on the bench, Anne Burke has reached the pinnacle of the Illinois judiciary as the Illinois Supreme Court’s new chief justice. To learn more about Chief Justice Burke and her impressive career, read the December 2019 Illinois Bar Journal cover story.

You have represented ABC Company for many years and seen it grow from a mom-and-pop operation to having more than $200 million in annual revenues and more than 300 employees. You are of that increasingly rare breed—a corporate generalist—and have represented ABC on its day-to-day contractual matters and during occasional acquisitions. But now, the first-generation owners have told you that they wish to sell the business. Of course, they want you to represent them in this once-in-a-lifetime transaction. The investment banker they have engaged to conduct the sale process has recommended that the buyer be required to obtain a representations and warranties (rep & warranty) insurance policy as part of the transaction. While you have heard about rep & warranty insurance, you have never come across it on a transaction before. Dykema attorneys Stephen Sayre and Brendan Cahill, in their November 2019 Illinois Bar Journal article, “Coming to a Deal Near You,” walk you through the steps of a deal requiring rep & warranty insurance.