MITCHELL A. KARBIN, Northfield: Karbin, who was licensed in Illinois in 1988, was suspended for six months. After his client, who was selling a parcel of real estate, had fired him, he improperly attempted to collect a fee several times the sum the clients had agreed to pay by filing an attorney's lien on the home and then contacting the buyers directly without their attorney's consent to seek payment. He neglected a second closing and then was not candid with authorities during the course of the subsequent disciplinary investigation.
GREGORY RAYMOND LaPAPA, Chicago: LaPapa, who was licensed in 1982, was suspended for one year for converting more than $12,000 from two personal injury clients in 1996. He repaid the money before disciplinary proceedings were initiated against him.
JAMES PARKER MARTIN, Chicago: Martin, who was licensed in 1978, was suspended for 36 months and until further order of Court. While suspended from the practice of law for neglect and failure to refund fees, he continued to practice law on behalf of six clients and appeared in court on ten different occasions.
CAROL ANN McCUBBIN, St. Louis, Mo.: McCubbin was licensed in both Illinois and Missouri in 1985. Missouri suspended her for five years and until she makes restitution to several clients. She agreed to represent several persons in various cases, neglected those cases, and refused to return files and/or unearned fees. As reciprocal discipline, the Illinois Supreme Court suspended her until such time as she is reinstated to the practice of law in Missouri.
THOMAS RAYMOND MOLITOR, Evanston: Molitor, who was licensed in 1985, was censured. He agreed to handle a personal injury case for a client, but after filing suit, he failed to effectuate service on the defendant, and misrepresented the status of the matter to his client over a period of almost two years.
JAMES ANTHONY PAYONK JR., Chicago: Payonk, who was licensed in 1982, was suspended for 30 days. He neglected a criminal appeal for more than two years, failed to communicate with his client during that time, and did not refund the unearned portion of his retainer fee to the client in a timely fashion. The client did not lose his right to proceed with his appeal despite the delay.
ALAN CHARLES SCHAEFER, Hoffman Estates: Schaefer, who was licensed in Illinois in 1985, was suspended for three years and until further order of court for neglecting a client matter, failing to promptly refund an unearned fee, misrepresenting to the client that the legal matter was still pending after judgment had been entered against the client, misrepresenting that he would pay the costs of an accounting firm that prepared a financial report for the client's litigation, and entering into several loan transactions with the client without adequate disclosures. He was previously disciplined for similar misconduct.
STEVEN WAYNE SIMMONS, Newberry, Mich.: Simmons was licensed in Illinois in 1993 and in Michigan in 1996. Michigan disbarred him after he was convicted of bank robbery and possessing a firearm at the time of the commission of a felony. The Supreme Court of Illinois imposed reciprocal discipline and disbarred him.
AARON MICHAEL SPIEZER, Philadelphia, Pa.: Spiezer was licensed in Illinois in 1977 and in New Jersey in 1990. New Jersey suspended him for three months and until further order of Court for misconduct in connection with a medical malpractice case. He engaged in the unauthorized practice of law by taking the case before he was admitted to the New Jersey bar and then neglected the matter. As reciprocal discipline, the Illinois Supreme Court suspended him for three months and until he is reinstated in New Jersey.
ROBERT STEVEN WILSON, DeKalb: Wilson, who was licensed in 1984, was disbarred. He borrowed $35,000 from a client, failed to repay the loan, settled the client's civil case without consent, took the proceeds of the $65,000 settlement, lied to the client about the status of the case, and preparing false documents to conceal the unauthorized settlement. He also neglected two other clients' civil cases.
M. JOANNE WOLF, Prairie du Chien, Wis.: Wolf was licensed in Illinois in 1978 and in Wisconsin in 1980. Wisconsin disciplined her for practicing law while she was suspended for non-payment of bar dues and for neglecting a client's divorce. In the divorce matter, she led her client to believe that the client could remarry, even though a remarriage was not yet possible under Wisconsin law, and falsified a divorce decree so that the client could get married as planned. As reciprocal discipline, the Supreme Court of Illinois suspended her for two years and until she is reinstated in Wisconsin.
By Jim Covington
Director of Legislative Affairs
The following is a summary of new public acts that may affect ISBA members.
Oil and Gas Legislation. PA 92-379 clarifies and simplifies the Mineral Lease Release of Record Act to limit the award of costs, litigation expenses, and attorney fees to cases in which there is a failure to release after notice and demand. It would also amend the Illinois Partition Act to provide that an ownership interest in the surface of lands does not prevent the partition of the minerals as separate estate. Effective Aug. 16, 2001.
Land Trusts and UCC Article 9. PA 92-234 is intended to ensure that the former practice of perfecting assignments of beneficial interests in Illinois land trusts will remain the same despite the enactment of new Article 9. It was unclear whether new Article 9 required UCC filings to perfect assignments of beneficial interests in land trusts. Effective Jan. 1, 2002.
Securities Violations. PA 92-308 is an initiative of Secretary of State Jesse White to improve protection of investors against unscrupulous securities dealers. It expands the powers of the Secretary of State's office to deny or revoke securities registrations of registered parties or applicants. It would also increase the penalty for a violation of the Illinois Securities Act from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class 4 felony. It also specifically prohibits a person from acting as a loan or business broker without registration or selling unregistered business opportunities. Effective Jan. 1, 2002.
Docs and Limited Liability Companies. PA 92-144 allows a limited liability company to be formed to practice medicine if (1) all the managers, if any, are licensed to practice medicine; and if any of the following conditions apply: (a) the member or members are licensed to practice medicine under the Medical Practice Act; (b) the member or members are a registered medical corporation or corporations organized under the Medical Corporation Act; (c) the member or members are a professional corporation organized under the Professional Corporation Act of physicians licensed to practice medicine in all its branches; or (d) the member or members are medical limited company or companies. Effective July 24, 2001.
Full Disclosure of Government Purchases. PA 92-294 creates the Airport and Correctional Facility Land Disclosure Act. This Act provides that neither the State nor any unit of local government may enter into any agreement or understanding for the use or acquisition of land that is intended to be used or acquired for airport purposes or for a correctional facility unless full disclosure is made of all individuals and entities holding any beneficial interest in the land. It also requires that the statement be in writing, verified under penalty of perjury, and recorded. Effective Aug. 9, 2001.
Local Government Changes. PA 92-354 does three things that affect some units of local government. (1) Amends the Public Funds Statement Publication Act so that municipal treasurers must report all moneys paid out that exceed $2,500 annually to one person. The amount under current law is $1,000. (2) It allows the reporting categories under the Publication Act to be segregated under six categories based upon amount. Current law has four categories. (3) Deletes the residency requirement for appointed village clerks. Effective Aug. 15, 2001.
Municipalities and Property Acquisition. PA 92-102 allows municipalities to acquire by gift, legacy, or grant any real estate or personal property, or rights therein, for purposes authorized under the Municipal Code. It does not matter whether the land or personal property is located within or outside the municipal boundaries. Effective Jan. 1, 2002.
Stephen Anderson
Editor
Head high, fists down
There's a line in "To Kill a Mockingbird" where Atticus Finch tries to explain to his daughter Scout why he agreed to provide a seemingly hopeless defense for a black man falsely accused of rape in a redneck Alabama town in the 1930s.
He responds that "simply by the nature of the work, every lawyer gets at least one case in his lifetime that affects him personally. This one's mine, I guess. You might hear some ugly talk about it at school, but . . .just hold your head high and keep those fists down."
Scout asks Atticus whether he will win the case. He thinks not, but "simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win."
After Tom Robinson is found guilty despite the magnificent closing by Atticus that earned a Pulitzer Prize for Harper Lee's novel and an Academy Award for Gregory Peck the lawyer's son needs reaffirmation of his naive faith in humanity.
"The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow," Atticus tries to explain, "but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box."
When Robinson is killed trying to escape from prison, it remains for the town's fiercely independent newspaper editor to rail at the injustice in terms that are easily understood by young Scout. The editor likens the tragedy to the sinfully "senseless slaughter of songbirds."
Scout perceives that although "Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson," he failed to make his case "in the secret court of men's hearts."
"To Kill a Mockingbird," the enduring work selected as the One Book-One Chicago focus for book week this month, "is about bigotry," Gregory Peck writes in the Chicago Public Library's comprehensive resource guide.
But the novel, based on Alabama's Scottsboro trials in the thirties, delves deeply through crabgrass of racial intolerance into the rich loam of a defense attorney's ingenuity and dedication against all odds.
The criminal defense philosophy the calling that attracts some of our best and brightest to the challenge of clinging to the innocence of a forsaken client is articulated by Atticus Finch in his summation to a wall of obdurate jurors.
"Our courts have their faults, as does any human institution," he admits, "but in this country our courts are the great levelers, and in our courts all men are created equal."
That thankless task of the appointed public defender, especially in capital cases, gets its due in a tribute that assistant state appellate defender Charles Hoffman has crafted to idealize the short life's work of Richard Cunningham as prototypical.
A former county and state defender, Cunningham has been memorialized by the Illinois Public Defender Association with an award that will be initiated Oct. 26 at a dinner in Urbana (see page 8). Cunningham will be the first recipient, but posthumously. He was stabbed in March by a disturbed son, and died the day after he had testified against the death penalty before a governor's commission.
"Death penalty defense work is very hard, intellectually and emotionally," Hoffman says in his tribute. "In fact, death penalty defense work is so difficult that of those few lawyers who do it, most specialize in only one small area" trials, appeals, post-conviction petitions or federal habeas corpus.
But Cunningham did it all, Hoffman points out, and excelled. "Dick worked without a net, a sole practitioner, with a small office in his home." He "certainly didn't do it for the money, or the security, or the fringe benefits. He did it because of his absolute passion for justice."
The two defenders shared a surreal interlude in November 1997, when each had a client on Death Row. "It's difficult to describe the sheer agony of knowing that someone you've know for years, who you've come to care about, someone whose life literally was in your hands, is about to be killed by the state, and there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop it."
Nothing, that is, but to "just hold your head high and keep those fists down," as Atticus Finch would say, and look forward to a day when the system can say with assurance that no innocent indigent defendant need fear conviction, incarceration and execution.
Seems like a good time for a reminder that only a few months remain before a lawyer must be certified by the Capital Litigation Trial Bar to serve as defense counsel in a death penalty case. The public criminal defense bar needs the help of private attorneys, but accreditation is a requisite.
Federal grant helps fund state legal aid web site
Grants of more than a half-million dollars in federal funding for technology initiatives in Illinois legal aid provider offices were announced Sept. 27 during a press conference in the DuPage County Judicial Center.
Part of the $501,855 made available by the Legal Services Corp. will fund development of the Illinois Technology Center for Law at the Chicago-Kent College of Law and a server resource for a new legal assistance web site, www.illinoislawhelp. org.
The web site is intended to provide information for pro bono attorneys and to help pro se litigants use the legal system effectively. Online training for legal service advocates also is contemplated.
Other beneficiaries of the federal grants are Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation, which has nine offices in 65 central and southern Illinois counties, and Prairie State Legal Services, which has 10 offices in 36 central and northern counties.
The announcement in Wheaton was made by U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert of Hinsdale. Former Congressman John Erlenborn, who is president of the Legal Services Corp., once represented the DuPage County area.
Women lawyers hold benefit for children
"Through the Eyes of a Child," the annual black-tie benefit for a DuPage County Courthouse waiting room, will take place at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 16, at the Brookfield Zoo.
The sponsor is the DuPage Association of Women Lawyers, which established a Child Friendly Courts Foundation that supports Safe Harbor, a facility for children of witnesses and litigants in the 18th Circuit.