Chair’s column

Happy New Year to each of you! I pray you all have a healthy and productive 2016!

Welcome readers of this Newsletter for Senior Lawyers who have so much experience in life and the law. We encourage our readers to also become writers to share your experiences with others.  We all can learn so much from others if we talk or write or share in some way, whether it be old fashioned ways or using high tech like an e-newsletter.

I want to thank those who responded to our survey.  Our Strategic/Long Range Planning Committee is meeting and hopes to get a report out soon.  If any of you want to suggest any ideas on how our section can assist senior lawyers in any way, please email Frank Ariano fariano1430@gmail.com with a copy to me JudgeEdS@gmail.com and to Mary Grant mgrant@isba.org  as soon as you can.

This issue already has an excellent technology article by Frank Ariano on his new Apple iMac computer and many of its best features and how he benefits from them and how all of us can learn what to do and how to do it in our business life and seeing and communicating with our grandchildren.

Don Mateer has also written on technology. His article CRASH PLAN shares his recent experience with two PC computer crashes. His laptop became infected due to a lapse of protective software and his desk top became corrupted to the point of no return. His article explains how fortunate he was because everything from his computers was in the cloud waiting for him to download it to a new computer. We all need to learn how to use the cloud.

Leonard F. Amari taught me so much in his article “Of Counsel: What Does That Mean Anyway?” I always saw it as “senior partner who sort of retired, but still goes in.” I learned so much about what it really means. The purpose of his article is to educate us about another tool we can use as we plan our futures.

Gary Rafool has done it again. He has provided an excellent review of the book Super Storm: Nine Days Inside Hurricane Sandy, by Kathryn Miles. Gary has summarized Hurricane Sandy and what it did in such a huge area and the variety of impacts it had on so many people in the U.S. and beyond. The book is available electronically as well as in print.

I also want to highlight an article I read this morning by Rebecca Love Kourlis, a former justice of the Colorado Supreme Court, who is now executive director of the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System. 10 ways to reform the civil justice system by changing the culture of the courts. <http://maestro.abanet.org/trk/click?ref=zpqri74vj_4-2b006x335258x0127179&>.

She suggests that “culture is the collation of individual choices of members of the group. To that end, challenge yourselves to make different choices-and to change the culture.” I hope many of you will read her brief 10 Ways to Reform… It also has a link to a larger article that you will learn a lot from. Change the Culture, Change the System (PDF).

We also have information on the ISBA Mock Trial. Senior lawyers and judges can assist by volunteering in their regional or the state finals at the U of I Law School. See the informational article in this newsletter.

Please share your experience with others! 