The JMLS Center for Intellectual Property Law will conduct a European patent practice seminar Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 22-23. Call Kevin Farrell, (312) 987-1420.
CLE Institute
A schedule of future seminars of the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education follows. Call (800) 252-8062 for registration and program details.
"E-Commerce Law 2002: Managing the Privacy, Security and Transaction Risks" Thursday and Friday, Oct. 18-19, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Chicago.
"Timely Tax Tips: The Annual Fiduciary Income Tax Update" Thursday, Nov. 1, at the University Club of Chicago.
"Preparing and Trying a Domestic Relations Case," a master teacher presentation with Cook County Judge Edward R. Jordan, an ISBA Assembly member who has served on the Family Law Section Council Friday, Nov. 2, at the University Club of Chicago.
"The Nuts and Bolts of Establishing, Growing and Maintaining an Elder Law Practice," a master teacher presentation with Constance B. Renzi of Aurora, past chair of the ISBA Elder Law Section Council Friday, Nov. 9, at the Radisson Hotel, Bloomington, and Wednesday, Nov. 14, at the Palmer House Hilton, Chicago.
Kane County Bar
The Kane County Bar Association Estate and Probate Committee will present a seminar, "Tax Legislation: How It Affects Estate Planning," from 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 23, in the Kane County Judicial Center, St. Charles. Call (630) 762-1915.
Past president L. Lee Perrington will be moderator for panelists Jay P. Tarshis and Mary Ann Wilson of Michael, Best & Friedrich, Chicago. The seminar is free to KCBA members.
The Kane County Bar's annual David Peskind Family Law Seminar will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15, at St. Charles Place.
DuPage County Bar
"Investing in the Future," a law practice management seminar for new lawyers will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 24, at the Cantigny Golf Club, Wheaton. A reception will follow with West Group as host. Call (630) 653-7779.
The DCBA will conduct a two-part seminar, "Off the Wall Family Law," for new lawyers, paralegals and legal assistants. The dates are Fridays, Nov. 9 amd Dec. 14, beginning at 1:30 p.m. in the bar center classroom.
Intellectual Property
Patent litigation will be discussed at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26, during a seminar by the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago and the 7th Circuit Bar Association in the Fairmont Hotel. The IPLAC judicial reception and dinner will follow.
Panelists are Judge Randall Rader of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Judge Matthew Kennelly of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and Judge Allen Sharp of the Northern District of Indiana.
Timothy Q. Delaney of Brinks, Hofer, Gilson & Lione will be panel moderator. Call him at (312) 321-4251 for more information.
Defense Trial Counsel
The Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel will hold a downstate Rookie Seminar Friday, Oct. 26, at the Collinsville Holiday Inn. Call (800) 232-0169.
Loyola Law School
The Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies of the Loyola University School of Law will be host for a Conference on Competition and Energy Deregulation from 9 a.m. Friday, Nov. 2, in the Rubloff Auditorium at 25 E. Pearson, Chicago.
Commissioner Thomas Leary of the Federal Trade Commission will deliver the keynote address at 9:15 a.m. His remarks will be followed by three panel discussions on related subjects.
Conference co-sponsors include the American Antitrust Institute and Exelon Corp. For more information, call Spencer Weber Waller, director of the Loyola institute, at (312) 915-8598.
Illinois Trial Lawyers
The Illinois Trial Lawyers Association Education Fund will hold a workers' compensation seminar from 8:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 3, at the Four Points Barcelo Sheraton, Oakbrook Terrace. Call (800) 252-8501.
Among the speakers are ISBA past president Herb Franks, who will participate in a roundtable panel; ITLA President Kim E. Presbrey, a member of the ISBA Workers' Compensation Law Section Council, and Karen J. Dilibert, vice president of loss prevention for the ISBA Mutual Insurance Co.
Cook County Bar
Veteran lawyers and judges will speak during the Cook County Bar Association seminar, "How to Try a Felony Case," from 9 a.m. to 12 noon Saturday, Nov. 3, at the ISBA Chicago Regional Office. Call (312) 630-1157 for details.
Topics include preliminary hearings, pretrial, trial and post-trial motions. The seminar is sponsored by the CCBA In-Court Referral Committee, chaired by Bonita Coleman.
Lake County Bar
The Lake County Bar Association and Prairie State Legal Services will conduct a "Best Practices" seminar Thursday afternoon, Nov. 8, in the jury assembly room of the County Courthouse, Waukegan. Participants in the Volunteer Lawyers Program are admitted free of charge,
The Lake County Bar's annual Estate Planning and Tax Seminar will take place from 8:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, Nov. 16, at the State Bank of the Lakes, Grayslake. Call (847) 244-3143.
Illinois Paralegal
"Charting a Course for Paralegal Success," the annual educational seminar of the Illinois Paralegal Association, will be conducted Thursday and Friday, Nov. 8-9, at the Chicago Athletic Association. Call (815) 462-4620.
Paralegal Day will be celebrated and awards will be presented Nov. 8 during a reception and dinner with keynote speaker.
ISBA Mutual plans risk management panels
The ISBA Mutual Insurance Co. will conduct four sessions of the seminar, "Practical Risk Management for Practicing Lawyers," this month.
They will begin at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 23, at the Holiday Inn, Collinsville; Wednesday, Oct. 24, at the Radisson Hotel, Bloomington, and Thursday and Friday, Oct. 25-26, in the Harris Bank Auditorium, Chicago.
ISBA Mutual board members Murphy C. Hart of Benton, Catherine A. Pratt and Cheryl I. Niro of Chicago will open the programs with welcoming remarks.
At 1:10 a.m., Karen J. Dilibert, vice president of loss prevention, will present A View from the Trenches: Claims Update.
At 1:30 p.m., Practical Solutions to Conflicts Problems will be reviewed by William Freivogel, an authority on loss prevention and ethics. Participants will receive sample conflict letters.
At 3 p.m., ARDC administrative counsel Mary Andreoni will discuss Running Your Practice Without Running Afoul of the ARDC.
At 3:45 p.m., Todd Flaming of Schopf & Weiss, Chicago, a past chair of the ISBA Committee on Legal Technology, will present Making Profits, Avoiding Losses: Practical Technology for Practicing Lawyers.
The programs are free of charge, but advance reservations must be made by facsimile to ISBA Mutual at (312) 379-2002. Seating will be limited.
By Gertrude Block
Q: Please explain when the word court should be capitalized: (1) when it is named in full, (2) when it refers to a specific court, (3) when it is used as a synonym for judge, (4) when it is used as a generic name?
A: The answers to the proper capitalization of court appear below:
(1) When a court is named in full, or when the reference is to the United States Supreme Court, the word court is capitalized.
* the California Supreme Court
* the court of appeals
* The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
* the supreme court (a state court)
(2) This question is answered in (1) above.
(3) When it is a synonym for judge, the word court is not capitalized: "The court held . . . ."
(4) As a generic name, court is not capitalized: "Generally courts have held. . . ."
Q: Is there any difference in the meanings of may and might, as in "I may go," and "I might go"?
A: In the two examples the correspondent provided, may and might are often used interchangeably. But they are not exact synonyms; The word might is somewhat less definite than may, sometimes expressing a greater degree of doubt.
In addition, both may and might contain meanings apart from "possibility," which is their meaning in the examples the reader submitted. May indicates permission rather than possibility in the context "May I go?" May also sometimes expresses purpose, as in, "Write so that the average person may understand." This usage is old-fashioned, however; currently the word can is more often used in this context.
Might expresses a condition contrary to fact in constructions like, "She might be here if she had received your letter in time." It is also infrequently used to express polite deference, in a question like, "Might I add a word here?"
As a substandard southernism, might appears in constructions like, "I might could do that." The standard English version of that statement would be, "I might be able to do that," a more cumbersome way of expressing ability.
FROM THE MAILBAG
In the July "Language Tips" column, I reported that Attorney James Heil had written that he was "disgruntled" at the widespread use of plural pronouns to refer to singular nouns; for example, in the statement, "Everybody went their own way." Instead of substituting the gender- less form their for the grammatically correct his, I wrote that the problem could be avoided by re-phrasing the sentence as, "They all went their several ways."
Several emails arrived in response to the July column. Correspondent Joe Schuman wrote that while his ear still objects to the new usage, he believes that changing usage so that language does not reinforce stereotyped thinking is a good thing. Political correctness, he said, has already "created new grammar," Even literate and educated young people stare blankly when corrected. Mr. Schuman argued, "If their usage is not correct yet, it will be correct soon, and our objecting ears will be archaic."
Also, in the July 16 "Language Tips," I noted that while in this country, a corporation, a committee, a jury, and other such entities are referred to as "it," Britons refer to them as "they," as in "The jury were unanimous in their verdict."
Several readers responded. Attorney Glenn Campbell, who practices at the Chancery/Commercial Bar in London, wrote:
* It is certainly the case that many lawyers here, whether solicitor or barrister, would use the plural form when making reference to a limited company. However, at the Chancery Bar, the usual style is to refer to a company in the singular, and a partnership in the plural, on the basis that, since the decision of the House of Lords in Saloman v. Saloman Brothers Ltd in the 1890's, a company has been recognised as a body with a separate legal personality whereas a partnership is, of course, a group of individuals . . . with no separate legal identity. The use of the plural form would be deprecated . . . by the more traditional Chancery practitioner.
Another reader, New York City attorney John Berry, who is English, wrote that he entirely agrees with what is described as American usage, in that he refers to entities like committees, sports teams, etc., as singular. "I would always say, 'England has lost the cricket' or 'the England team has lost the cricket.'" Although Mr. Berry agrees that many English people use the plural, he disagrees that this is correct usage.
Other readers who have opinions on these or other subjects should feel free to write.
Gertrude Block is Lecturer Emerita at the University of Florida College of Law. Her book, "Effective Legal Writing" (Foundation Press), is now available in a 5th edition (1999), with an accompanying instructor's manual. Ms. Block is also co-author of the "Judicial Opinion Writing Manual" (published by the American Bar Association, 1991). Send questions to the ISBA Bar News -- Language Tips, Illinois State Bar Association, Illinois Bar Center, Springfield, IL 62701, or e-mail her at block@law.ufl.edu.
Women's Bar joint dinner slated Nov. 1
The 60th annual Joint Professional Dinner of the Women's Bar Association of Illinois, and presentation of 2001 Women with Vision Awards, will take place Thursday, Nov. 1, at the Union League Club of Chicago.
The event will begin at 5:30 p.m. with a networking reception, followed by dinner at 6:30 p.m. Call (312) 341-8530 for reservations. Awards in various professional fields will be presented as follows.
Business: Maryann Waryjas of Katten, Muchin & Zavis and Susan Davis, president of Capital Missions; Government: Jill Zwick, director of intergovernmental affairs for the Illinois secretary of state;
Labor: Margaret Blackshere, president of the Illinois AFL-CIO; Law: immigration attorney Susan Fortino-Brown; Medicine: Nada L. Stotland, M.D., speaker of the American Psychiatric Association Assembly.
Will County Bar
Chief Judge Rodney B. Lechwar of the 12th Circuit will deliver his State of the Courthouse Message to the Will County Bar Association during a luncheon Thursday, Nov. 8, at Al's Steak House in Joliet. Call (815) 726-0383.
West Suburban Bar
Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans of the Cook County Circuit Court will be honored by the West Suburban Bar Association during itds annual Judges Night dinner Wednesday, Oct. 24, at the Riverside Golf Club.