Enhance your competence as an attorney by learning the intricacies of proper e-discovery procedures with this full-day seminar in Chicago on May 19, 2016. Learn how to avoid the consequences of expensive and improperly conducted e-discovery, particularly for your smaller cases. Because most discovery documents and information are now in electronic format – whether medical, financial or corporate records – it is essential to understand the complexities of e-discovery and to obtain accurate and complete documents. Attorneys with all levels of practice experience who attend this seminar will better understand: how technology is changing the way we practice; how technological incompetence can affect your practice; when you are allowed to search someone’s computer; best practices for document retention and destruction; how to obtain medical records; using e-discovery in employment law cases; how to use social media as evidence; how to obtain mobile device discovery; what metadata is and how to get it; which affordable e-discovery software you should be using in your practice; and much more!

ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews legislation in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers The Parentage Act of 2015 (House Bill 4447), Income shares and child support (House Bill 3982), New filing fee (Senate Bill 3162), IMDMA cleanup (House Bill 1190), Trust law (Senate Bill 2842), Personal guardian (House Bill 5924), Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (House Bill 4648) and Land Trust Beneficiary Rights Act (House Bill 4697). More information on each bill is available below the video.

On April 6, the Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee passed SB 2842, which is now up for consideration in the state Senate. The bill seeks to overrule the second district's holding in In re Estate of Mendelson, 2015 IL App (2d) 150084 ("Mendelson I"), which held that real property could be conveyed into a trust without a deed. The bill, which is sponsored by Sen. Ira Silverstein, would amend the Trusts and Trustees Act to require that all transfers of property into a trust be evidenced by a written conveyance and acceptance by the trustee. It would also require that any transfer of real property into a trust be recorded with the proper county recorder of deeds. Find out what real estate practitioners and other subject-matter authorities are saying about the bill in the May Illinois Bar Journal.

Asked and Answered By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. I am the managing partner of a 12-lawyer insurance defense firm in Oklahoma City. We have four partners and eight associates. While we have grown over the last five or six years by adding associates, our profitability has remained flat. We feel that we are not getting the billable hours that we should out of our associates. What are other firms like ours getting out of their associates in terms of billable hours?