ISBA Development Site
This website is for ISBA staff use only. All visitors should return to the main ISBA website.
This website is for ISBA staff use only. All visitors should return to the main ISBA website.
An Illinois lawyer acting as local counsel for an out-of-state lawyer shares the same duties to the client as the lawyer acting as lead counsel. While local counsel and the client may agree to limit the role of local counsel upon informed consent, that lawyer remains subject to the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct. A lawyer may only enter a general appearance in an Illinois state court criminal matter and is subject to the rules and orders of the court, including any orders requiring local counsel’s appearance at any or all court proceedings.
An Illinois lawyer may provide services to a client on legal matters generated by the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act.
A lawyer who mediated a divorce settlement between unrepresented husband and wife may not prepare a proposed judgment of dissolution of marriage, a marriage separation agreement and joint parenting agreement for husband and wife and allow husband and wife to file said documents as pro se litigants.
A lawyer may prepare a trust document for a client that at the client's request directs the trustee to engage that lawyer to provide legal services for the trust. The lawyer may do so, however, only if the client consents after the lawyer fully communicates and discloses the economic interest of the lawyer in including such provision and indicates that such provision might not be enforceable.
A lawyer aids in the unauthorized practice of law, and may violate rules pertaining to confidentiality, conflicts, and the duty to communicate with and explain matters to a client, by limiting his role in a real estate transaction to the drafting of documents and delegating the gathering and dissemination of information, the resolution of problems arising from the documents drafted, and other problems which may arise at the closing, to the real estate broker.
An attorney may be retained to render services for a client by a third party. The party must be authorized to retain the attorney and the attorney's judgment must not be directed or regulated by the third party. The third party must be paid on either an hourly or contingent fee basis by the client and the attorney must not share fees with a non-attorney third party.
Lawyer must be satisfied that an agent has authority to retain lawyer to perform legal services on behalf of another.