For its September 2020 cover article, the Illinois Bar Journal spoke with a handful of speakers who will be presenting at the Illinois State Bar Association’s Solo and Small Firm Conference on Oct. 29-30. The conference, offered virtually this year, will present advice and perspectives on how to set priorities, manage one’s time, and keep in close touch with clients all while exploiting the nimble advantages of being a solo or small firm. Another prominent theme will reframe success during the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn and set the foundation for long-term success. Among key takeaways: Solo practitioners and small-firm attorneys would be wise to redouble their focus on communication and problem solving.

Join us online from noon until 1 p.m. on Tuesday, September 22 to learn how to use Outlook’s feature set to efficiently store, organize email and attachments, and successfully deal with high email volume. We'll also show you how to fix Outlook’s default settings for email, calendar, contacts, and tasks. Finally, we’ll explain many amazing and useful Outlook features which most users don't even know are there.

The Illinois Supreme Court, in cooperation with the State Justice Institute (SJI) and the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), has announced it will hold a Virtual Summit Series (Summit) this fall. This Summit, a mixture of plenary sessions and interactive panel presentations, is part of the National Judicial Task Force initiative to examine how to improve state courts and community response to mental illness.

The ISBA is seeking input from attorneys whose practices include rural areas and small towns in Illinois.  Many areas of Illinois outside of urban areas are experiencing a shortage of attorneys to meet the needs of their residents. Experienced practitioners have sometimes struggled to connect with newer attorneys to expand or transition their practices.  The ISBA is asking our affiliated bar associations to forward a short survey to their members and request that they complete the survey by Friday, August 28. The goal of the survey is to understand what issues prevent newer attorneys from moving to rural areas, and how best the ISBA can address those issues.