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  • October 7, 2019 | ISBA News
    What Do You Think About Our Redesigned Website?
    The ISBA recently launched an updated website designed to improve the user experience. It features a streamlined and simplified navigation structure to help you find the resources you need. Now we want to hear from you. Tell us what you think about the redesign by taking a brief survey. Survey responses from ISBA members received before October 17 with a name and email will be entered in a drawing for a $100 Visa gift card!* Take the survey!
    1 comment (Most recent October 10, 2019)
  • October 7, 2019 | Practice News
    Transfers, EJJs, and Defense Attorneys, Oh My!
    Minors have no common-law or constitutional right to be tried in juvenile court. Accordingly, there are a number of statutory options the state has under the Adult Code of Corrections to either try or sentence minors as adults. But all is not lost, according to veteran Cook County Public Defender Kathy Roller. In her October Illinois Bar Journal article, “Transfers, EJJs, and Defense Attorneys, Oh My!,” Roller leads a master class in fighting for a juvenile client who is facing the possibility of adult prison. "There is a lot of work to be done in a short period of time and a child’s life hangs in the balance,” Roller writes. “The pressure and stress can be significant. Give this work the respect it deserves. So, panic once. And then let it go. Focus all of your energy on winning the case.”
    1 comment (Most recent October 10, 2019)
  • October 4, 2019 | Practice News
    Spotlight on Pro Bono: Celebrate Pro Bono Week October 20-26
    By Michael G. Bergmann Coordinated by the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service, Pro Bono Week is intended to inspire even greater pro bono participation by lawyers throughout the nation. This initiative provides an opportunity for legal organizations across the country to collaboratively commemorate the vitally important contributions of America’s lawyers and to recruit and train the many additional volunteers required to meet the growing demand. The Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service undertook this initiative to provide a format for showcasing the incredible difference that pro bono lawyers make to our nation, to our system of justice, to our communities and, most of all, to the clients they serve. For more information, visit www.celebrateprobono.org.
  • October 4, 2019 | Member Services
    Lawyer Referral Service Makes More than 700 Referrals in September
    The Illinois State Bar Association’s Lawyer Finder Service provides referrals to local lawyers Mondays through Fridays. The Service makes referrals in a number of areas of law. For the month of September 2019 there were more than 700 referrals given. Here are the results for September 2019:
  • October 3, 2019 | CLE
    CLE: Mediation—Bridging the Chasm
    Join us from 1 until 3 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 22, for a live webcast focused on mediation. Most cases settle and many settle through mediation. But it's not always easy and, at times, the parties can be very far apart—so far apart that it feels like an impasse. Don’t give up hope. A skilled mediator can often bridge that chasm between the parties. What are the strategies for bridging that chasm? Hear from two highly successful professional mediators as they discuss their strategies for closing the divide between parties. And consider settling the next case you think is at an impasse.
  • October 2, 2019 | Practice News
    Illinois Judicial Conference Releases Three-Year Strategic Plan
    The Illinois Judicial Conference (IJC) has announced its three-year strategic agenda for the Illinois judicial branch. The IJC has created a mission statement, vision statement, and core values for the branch, along with strategic goals and strategies designed to achieve them. The agenda will serve as a guide for the future of the branch as it begins the implementation phase.
  • October 1, 2019 | ISBA News
    Campaign Season for ISBA Election Underway
    Campaign season for the 2020 Illinois State Bar Association election begins today, October 1, for open leadership seats of third vice president and one seat each for the following Board of Governors seats: Area 3 (Circuits 12, 13, 16, 21, and 23), Area 4 (Circuits 10, 14 and 15), Under Age 37 – Cook County, and Under Age 37 Outside Cook County (Circuits 1-23).
  • September 30, 2019 | Practice News
    Illinois Supreme Court Rule Amendments Issued on September 26, 2019
    The Illinois Supreme Court on Sept. 26 amended Rules 206, 212, 306, 308, 315, and 342. All changes go into effect Oct. 1. Amended Rule 206 makes it explicitly clear that a “party has the right to use the video recording of a deposition or any part thereof in lieu of reading from a stenographic transcript of the deposition.” Amended Rule 212 states that discovery depositions may be used “as a former statement, pursuant to Illinois Rule of Evidence 801(d)(2).”
  • September 30, 2019 | CLE
    CLE: Copyright of Architectural Drawings
    Join us online from noon until 1 p.m. on Oct. 17 for “Copyright of Architectural Drawings.” Get the background knowledge you need regarding how the Copyright Act was changed to include protection for architectural designs. Intellectual property lawyers, construction law attorneys, and new lawyers with basic practice experience who may have clients in need of copyright advice won’t want to miss this online program that explores the history of the Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act of 1990 and examines a number of important cases that followed the Copyright Act amendment.
  • September 30, 2019 | Practice News
    The State of the Profession
    ISBA members believe the greatest threat to the legal profession is competition from nonlawyer legal services. But when asked to identify the biggest threat to their own practice, members said the unwillingness or inability of clients to pay. The two assertions are arguably correlated: Clients who struggle to pay may look for cheaper alternatives next time. The findings are among many thought-provoking results from the 2019 Economic, Marketing, and Business Health Survey conducted this spring by Readex Research on behalf of the ISBA’s Standing Committee on the Future of Legal Services. The purpose of the survey is to “better understand the current economic climate [and] marketing and business practices among ISBA members … in private practice.” More than 800 private-practicing members completed the survey, which is summarized in October’s Illinois Bar Journal.