The opinion suggests that a judge's name on a uniform "does not appear to lessen public confidence in the integrity or impartiality of the judiciary, nor does it appear to detract from the dignity of the judge's office or interfere with the performance of the judge's judicial duties."
The committee concluded that such an activity "would not improperly convey the impression that team members are in a special position to influence the judge."
For complete texts of judicial advisory ethics opinions, call the Kathy McEnroe, executive director of the Illinois Judges Association, (312) 554-2057.
Newsletter editors keep ISBA members informed
Among the most appreciated benefits of ISBA membership are the substantive newsletters published by 41 section councils and committees. No other bar association in the country has a comparable record of communicating with practitioners in their specific areas of law.
Following are the names of the newsletter editors, assistants and associates for 2000 - 01. Many have achieved laudable records of service.
SECTION NEWSLETTERS
ADMINISTRATIVE LAW (469 members) Paul Freehling (editor) 29 years
AGRICULTURAL LAW (470 members) Thomas Hartzell (co-editor) 1st year, Barbara Stille (co-editor) 1 year
ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION (431 members) Thomas Cavenagh (editor) 4 years
ANTITRUST & UNFAIR COMPETITION LAW (435 members) John L. Conlon (co-editor) 1 year, Steven M. Kowal (co-editor) 1st year
BENCH & BAR (1239 members) Hon. Dennis Dohm (co-editor) 27 years, Hon. Michael Jordan (co-editor) 25 years, James Ayres (co-editor) 7 1/2 years
BUSINESS ADVICE & FINANCIAL PLANNING (1215 members) Malcolm L. Morris (editor) 9 years
CIVIL PRACTICE & PROCEDURE (9084 members) Joseph G. Bisceglia (co-editor) 9 years, Mary McDade (co-editor) 6 years, Mark Hansen (co-editor) 1 year, Jim Pfander (co-editor) 6 years
COMMERCIAL, BANKING & BANKRUPTCY (1530 members) Tom Sandquist (editor) 8 years, Karen White (assoc. editor) 1st year, Mike Chmiel (assoc. editor) 1st year
CORPORATE LAW DEPARTMENTS (834 members) Michael Scott (editor) 2 years
THE CORPORATION, SECURITIES & BUSINESS LAW FORUM (1504 members) Dave Doyle (co-editor) 1st year, Rob Knuepfer (co-editor) 2 years, Donna Cunningham (co-editor) previous editor for 1 year skipped a year before serving again this year
CRIMINAL JUSTICE (2292 members) has no editors at this time
EDUCATION LAW (492 members) Lawrence Weiner (editor) 7 years, Michael Hernandez (co-editor) 1 year, Frank Garrett (co-editor) 1 year, Julie Hughes (assoc. editor) 2 years
ELDER LAW (2450 members) Karl A. Menninger (co-editor) 4 years, John F. Erbes (co-editor) 1 year
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS (625 members) James H. Schultz (co-editor) 1 year, Daniel M. Slack (co-editor) 1st year
ENVIRONMENTAL LAW (715 members) Steve Hedinger (editor) 1 year, Phil Van Ness (co-editor) 1st year, Margaret Howard (co-editor) 1st year
FAMILY LAW (2049 members) Richard Zuckerman (co-editor) 1st year, Don C. Hammer (co-editor) 1st year
FEDERAL TAXATION (1221 members) Jim Zmuda (editor) 1st year
GENERAL PRACTICE, SOLO & SMALL FIRM (2610 members) John T. Phipps (co-editor) 1year, Hon. Edna Turkington-Viktora (co-editor) 1year
HEALTH CARE (819 members) W. Eugene Basanta (editor) 12 years, Keith Emmons (assoc. editor) 4 years, Ted LeBlang (assoc. editor) 8 years
INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS & RESPONSIBILITIES (372 members) Patrick J. Hughes (editor) 17 years
INSURANCE LAW (1480 members) Nancy Caron (assoc. editor) 1 year, Steven McMannon (co-editor) 6 years, Patricia Zimmer (co-editor) 1st year, Maria Doughty (co-editor) 1st year
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (795 members) Dan Kegan (editor) 13 years, Don Reynolds (co-editor) 2 years
INTERNATIONAL & IMMIGRATION LAW (423 members) Lewis Matuszewich (editor) 2 years, Mary Milano (co-editor) 1st year
JUVENILE JUSTICE (432 members ) Ellen Pauling (editor) 3 years, Robbin J. Stuckert (assoc. editor) 4 years, Anita Weinburg (assoc. editor) 1st year
LABOR & EMPLOYMENT LAW (1259 members) Michael R. Lied (editor) 12 years, Alan L. Hellman (assoc. editor) 3 years
LAW ECONOMICS (1720 members) Jeff Simon (editor) 8 years, Max Prusak (co-editor) 1 year
LOCAL GOVERNMENT LAW ( 926 members) John H. Brechin (editor) 20 years
MINERAL LAW (299 members) Christopher Weber (editor) 4 months
PUBLIC UTILITIES & TRANSPORTATION LAW (1613 members) William D. Brejcha (editor) 9 years
REAL ESTATE LAW (4070 members ) Sam Levine (co-editor) 14 years, Gary Gehlbach (co-editor) 15 years, Eleanor Sharpe (assoc. editor) 4 years, Barbara Bressler (assoc. editor) 1 year, Richard Kuhn (assoc. editor) 6 years, Jo Fortunato (assoc. editor) 1st year, Guerino J. Turan (assoc. editor) 1st year
STATE & LOCAL TAXATION (702 members) Allen Landmeier (co-editor) 18 years, Mary A. Connelly (co-editor) 1st year, Stanley Cichowski (assoc. editor) 1st year, Rodney Slutzky (assoc. editor) 1 year
TORT LAW (3771 members) John Nisivaco (co-editor) 1 year, Mark Karno (co-editor) 1 year
TRAFFIC LAWS & COURTS (813 members) Larry A. Davis (co-editor) 9 years, James J. Ahern (co-editor) 7 years
TRUSTS & ESTATES (3622 members) Paul Meints (co-editor) 1 year, Mark Zumdahl (co-editor) 1 year
WORKERS' COMPENSATION (1183 members) Paul W. Wiedner (co-editor) 36 years, Richard D. Hanningan (co-editor) 1st year
YOUNG LAWYERS DIVISION (9844 members) Sumner Bourne (co-editor) 3 years, Celia Gamrath (co-editor) 1st year
COMMITTEE NEWSLETTERS
GOVERNMENT LAWYERS Kate Kelly (editor) 1 year
LAW RELATED EDUCATION FOR THE PUBLIC (2671 members) Frank Kopecky (co-editor) 18 years, Mary Milano (co-editor) 2 years
STANDING COMMITTEE ON LEGAL TECHNOLOGY (622 members ) David M. Clark (editor) 2 years
MINORITY & WOMEN PARTICIPATION COMMITTEE (2237 members ) Richard Porter (editor) 9 months
WOMEN & THE LAW STANDING COMMITTEE (6533 members) Alice M. Noble-Allgire (editor) 1st year
LAW STUDENT COMMITTEE (1029 members) Emily J. Kirk (editor) 1st year
The Eastern Illinois Estate Planning Council this month began its 2000-01 series of monthly meetings and programs, which usually are held on Tuesday evenings.
Tentative future dates are Oct. 10; Nov. 14, a joint meeting with the Illinois CPA Society; Feb. 13; March 13, and May 21, an annual afternoon meeting at Allerton Park in Monticello.
Call EIEPC President Carolyn Casady-Trimble at (217) 344-0711 for program and location details. Other officers are Shirley Anderson, vice president; Sandy Moore, secretary, and Gregory Foster, treasurer.
The council was formed several years ago as a forum for estate planning professionals to meet and share experiences. Its objectives include fellowship and continuing education through quality programs.
Membership is open to attorneys, chartered life underwriters, bank trust officers, certified public accountants and certified financial planners.
Self-confidence is key to successful interview
By Sheila Nielsen
"I've been looking for a job for a long time," Lisa said. "Usually I get the interview, but I never get the job. They tell me I was the runner-up or I was one of the final candidates, but I never get the offer.
"I've read every book on interviewing I can get my hands on," she continued. "I prepare for every interview. I must be doing something terribly wrong, but I don't know what it could possibly be. Maybe you could help me figure out why I am doing so badly."
Lisa sounded close to tears. When we met, she was dressed in a neat tailored suit with every hair in place. She looked extraordinarily prim and proper.
I noticed Lisa's handshake was uncommonly tense. When she filled out a form for me, I saw her handwriting was perfect Palmer method, just as she had been taught in grammar school.
As we talked I noticed that she sounded somewhat stilted and rehearsed, with an absence of inflection or cadence in her voice. She answered briefly, looking at me for approval, as if afraid to say the wrong thing.
Lisa had been a corporate attorney for a pharmaceutical company for four years before the department was downsized. After that, she found a job doing corporate compliance regulatory work for an insurance company.
This job, which was routine claims management and coverage analysis, was tedious and lacked sufficient challenge for her. She needed an opportunity with more responsibility.
Lisa had obtained an LL.M. degree in health law to steer her career in the direction of in-house counsel work. She was interested in the material she was exposed to in the master's degree program, and did well in it, but she admitted that the real motive for investing in this degree had been to gain access to a corporate counsel job at a hospital.
When the LL.M. did not turn out to be a quick ticket to success, Lisa felt betrayed and angry. She had been job hunting ever since her graduation two years before.
As we discussed her frustrations and the difficulty of her search, given the relatively small size of the market and the large number of other lawyers looking for this same kind of position, Lisa began to let down her guard.
Our conversation style became more relaxed and easy. She smiled and even laughed a little when I asked about the various interviews she had gone through.
Once she was relaxed, she presented a far more appealing picture. She appeared to be a self-possessed, knowledgeable woman with the capacity to listen well, to understand and to take charge.
We tried a mock interview. I took the role of the interviewer, asking Lisa typical questions she must have already encountered in many interviews.
Lisa suddenly transformed into the woman who had first walked in my office. She was uptight, guarded and nervous. Her voice became stilted again. Our interaction lost its previous conversational quality.
Lisa seemed to be thinking and rethinking every response as if she were on the verge of giving the wrong answer to the million-dollar question on a quiz show. She confirmed that she usually felt this tongue-tied and nervous in her interviews.
Given this interview style, no one would ever believe she was capable of the decisive action necessary for an effective general counsel.
To understand the reasons for her disappointing interview style, we talked a little about her personal background and upbringing. Lisa had grown up with parents who scrutinized and corrected her. Her childhood legacy of overly critical parents contributed to her current problems.
She never felt she was dressed right. She thought her hair was messy and was so ashamed of the way her skin looked that she cried when she talked about it with me. In an interview, she felt she was being scrutinized by the interviewer, which was reminiscent of her parents. The interview setting reawakened strong self-doubts.
After reading all the books and trying to psyche out the best responses to standard questions, Lisa had become a bundle of nerves.
Being naturally self-critical and a perfectionist, she was busy correcting herself instead of answering each question honestly and enthusiastically. She was ruining the music of the interview.
What can you do if you are terrified about an interview? Remember why you are there: to learn about the workplace and help the employer get to know the real you.
Every employer has fears about hiring a person he or she has never met before. The employer has to be reassured that you are the right person for the job: that you have the right skills, the ability to get along with others, the ability to be decisive and so forth.
A good interview reassures the employer. What is the best way to reassure an employer?
First, understand the employers' fears. For example, if you are applying for a general counsel position and have never been general counsel before, an employer will obviously wonder if you have the right stuff for that job.
In Lisa's case, she had served as acting general counsel for a three-month period earlier in her career while her boss was on maternity leave. In her interviews, Lisa needed to talk about exactly what she had done and how well she had done as acting general counsel.
Second, specific anecdotal information is essential for a terrific interview. Cite chapter and verse. Be ready with numbers and talk about specifically what you did. But don't be boring or go on too long.
Third, be ready with excellent, informed questions about the workplace. Knowledgeable questions show that you cared enough to research the workplace.
Fourth, do not be afraid to ask for the job. If you know you would like to work for this company, tell them so and say why. Employers like to be chosen, so long as the reasons are real, not bogus.
Fifth, if you have personal ghosts that are interfering with your interview success, identify the problem and work to overcome it.
Lisa's fears of answering "the wrong way" turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Our counseling work shifted to support and practice.
Lisa's efforts paid off beautifully. She was hired as in-house counsel for a well-respected suburban hospital after her next interview.
Asian bar meets Chinese visitors
The ISBA has invited officers of the Asian American Bar Association and Chinese Bar Association to join in welcoming 19 judges and lawyers from China to a luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 4, in the ISBA Chicago Regional Office.
Members of the visiting group from Shanghai and Shenyang represent both the Chinese Bureau of Justice and Ministry of Justice, which regulate the practice of law. The two cities are sister cities of Chicago.
The Chinese lawyers and judges will participate in workshops at The John Marshall Law School from Sept. 29 to Oct. 4 on a U.S. Department of State grant.