Illinois Bar Journal

Every August, the Illinois Bar Journal publishes its annual Legislative Roundup of bills pass by the General Assembly and signed by (or awaiting the signature of) the governor. Take a few minutes to scan through the list of new laws curated by Jim Covington, the ISBA’s director of legislative affairs. The online version of the Legislative Roundup is updated as Gov. Pritzker signs each bill as it becomes a public act. Covington pays special attention throughout the year to legislation affecting lawyers and the practice of law, not least regarding trusts, estate planning, real estate, family law, civil litigation, business law, criminal justice, and juvenile law.  

In his August Illinois Bar Journal article, “Are Mindfulness & Meditation Relevant for Lawyers?”, retired attorney Jeffrey H. Bunn asks what exactly are mindfulness and meditation? How can they impact the daily practice of law? When and where do we meditate? How long do we need to meditate? And how often do we need to do it? His answers to these and other questions make the case that mindfulness and meditation can help attorneys better manage their thoughts and emotions in a variety of situations that lawyers encounter every day involving difficult clients; unpleasant work peers; contentious opposing counsel; or challenging judges, arbitrators, and mediators.

Law firms are not immune from the controversies surrounding sexual misconduct in the workplace. Managing in the #MeToo environment has changed the dynamic of the employment relationship. In his July Illinois Bar Journal article, “At What Cost?” retired U.S. Equal Employee Opportunity Commission investigator William S. Hubbartt offers advice for preventing and responding to incidents of sexual harassment in the law office. Unfortunately, as Hubbartt explains, even though the spotlight of the #MeToo movement has faded from daily news and has been replaced by other issues, multiple stories continue to appear in the legal and mainstream media reporting allegations by law firm employees against employer law firms.

In their July 2021 Illinois Bar Journal column, The Resolution, Dr. Mary L. Milano and Kenya A. Jenkins-Wright, provide an update on the ISBA’s Steering Committee on Racial Inequality, which seeks to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion based on the ISBA’s equal justice resolution and to move collaboratively toward the resolution’s goals through a variety of means. To date, Milano and Jenkins-Wright note, the committee has undertaken public education in areas such as: claim rights in our property tax system; standards of nursing homes, particularly in minority areas; lending practices; and disciplinary practices in education that impact students of color disproportionately. The committee also spearheaded continuing legal education programming on addressing areas of unequal justice and practices resulting from bias, whether conscious or unconscious. “Our education for the public subcommittee continues to educate the public on how issues of diversity, bias, and equity affect all communities in various social, economic, and ethnic ways,” the authors say. “The future is beckoning. Lawyers need to be at the forefront of its framing and its becoming. It is all worth the risk and it all demands our commitment.”