Under Age 37, Downstate Vincent F. Cornelius of Wheaton may not run for re-election due to the age limitation.
Area I (18th Circuit) Irene F. Bahr of Wheaton is eligible to serve one additional year.
Area III (12th, 13th, 16th and 21st Circuits) Michael W. Clancy of St. Charles is eligible for re-election to a three-year term.
Area VII (1st, 2nd and 4th Circuits) Ronald D. Spears of Taylorville is eligible to serve one additional year.
Cook County Stephen Komie and Enrico J. Mirabelli of Chicago are eligible for re-election to three-year terms. Robert Downs of Oak Park is eligible to serve one additional year. Sheila M. Murphy of Chicago is not eligible for re-election due to the term limitation.
Twenty-six ISBA Assembly members from Cook County also will be elected. Nine current Assembly members will not be eligible for re-election to three-year terms, due to term limitations.
Assembly members who may not seek re-election are Joseph J. Annunzio, Patrice Ball-Reed, Thomas J. Dart, Michael V. Favia, Eugene F. Friedman, Richard S. Gutoff, Daniel M. Locallo, John G. Locallo and James J. Morici Jr.
Members who are eligible for re-election to three-year terms are William J. Borah, Timothy J. Cavanagh, John W. Damisch, Mark W. Damisch, Karen M. Enright, Jeffrey G. Liss, Lisa A. Marino, Eric Crohn Minchella, Paul J. Nealis, Alan J. Pearlman, Stephen D. Phillips, Peggy M. Raddatz, Meredith E. Ritchie, Joan E. Smuda, David B. Sosin, John L. Stuart and John A. Wasilewski.
Nominating petitions for all offices may be filed between Jan. 15 and Feb. 15 at the Illinois Bar Center in Springfield or the ISBA Chicago Regional Office. Petitions may not be filed by e-mail or facsimile. See pages 10 and 11 for complete details.
Ballots will be mailed by April 1 to ISBA members in good standing whose dues are paid by March 1 for the period ending June 30. Ballots must be returned by May 10.
Elected member of the Board of Governors and Assembly will take office June 21 at the beginning of the 126th ISBA Annual Meeting at Lake Geneva, Wis. The new third vice president will take office June 24 at the conclusion of the meeting.
Child rep training set Jan. 25 in Bloomington
A child representative certification training program will be conducted Friday, Jan. 25, in Bloomington by the ISBA Family Law Section Council and the 11th Judicial Circuit.
The presentation from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Jury Assembly Room at the Law and Justice Center will prepare attorneys for qualification as child representatives, pursuant to amendments to the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act that give chief judges the authority to make appointments.
Attorneys who complete the 11th Circuit training also will be certified for reciprocal appointments in the 3rd, 7th, 13th and 20th Circuits.
The amendments were introduced in the Illinois General Assembly after a study by the ISBA Task Force on Attorneys for Children concluded that clarifications were needed of the roles of guardians ad litem and other lawyers who represented the interests of children in domestic relations cases.
The concept of "child representative" was created by the legislation, and several training sessions have been conducted in circuits throughout the state.
Belleville attorney Roza B. Gossage, a member of the ISBA Family Law Section Council, has been the driving force behind development of a series of court-supported trainings to qualify more attorneys for appointment as child representatives.
A recent program in Collinsville, co-sponsored Oct. 19 by the 3rd and 20th Circuits, was attended by 55 attorneys. After the Jan. 25 program in Bloomington, another is being planned for Jan. 30 in the 13th Circuit.
In Bloomington, the training session will be conducted by Chief Judge John P. Freese and presiding judges of the 11th Circuit.
Speakers include Don C. Hammer of Hayes, Hammer, Miles, Cox & Ginzkey, Bloomington, a member of the Family Law Section Council and past chair of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Section Council. Helen E. Ogar of Lawrence, Moore & Ogar, Bloomington, also will speak.
The registration fee of $35 may be made by check payable to the Illinois State Bar Association and mailed to Becky Havrilka, Illinois Bar Center, 424 S. Second St., Springfield, Ill. 62701.
Registration by MasterCard or Visa may be made via facsimile to Havrilka at (217) 525-0712. For more information, call her at (800) 252-8908 or (217) 525-1760.
Leighton is nominated for Thurgood Marshall Award
The ISBA Board of Governors voted Nov. 16 to support the nomination of Chicago attorney George N. Leighton for the 2002 Thurgood Marshall Award that will be presented by the American Bar Association Section of Human Rights.
A former federal judge, Leighton was inducted earlier this year as a Laureate of the Academy of Illinois Lawyers as one whose "entire life has been devoted to fighting for constitutional, legal and political rights wherever and whenever threatened."
A graduate of the Harvard Law School after military service during World War II, Leighton was elected to the Cook County Circuit Court in 1964. He was appointed to the Illinois Appellate Court in 1969 and elected in 1970.
Leighton was nominated to the U.S. District Court in 1975 by President Gerald Ford, and he served from March 1976 until November 1987. He is of counsel to Earl L. Neal & Associates.
Previous recipients of the Thurgood Marshall Award include federal judges William Wayne Justice of Texas, Revius O. Ortique Jr. of Louisiana and Damon J. Keith of Michigan, and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The Board of Governors also approved the nomination by ISBA President Tim Eaton of past and present appellate justices James Craven, William Cousins, David Cerda and Peg Breslin for Access to Justice Awards. The presentations will take place during a Chicago luncheon Thursday, Jan. 24.
Now is the time to sign up for service on ISBA section councils and committees during 2002-03. President-elect Loren S. Golden of Elgin plans to make appointments during the first few months of next year.
The incoming president annually reviews membership of the 21 standing committees and 36 section councils, appoints officers for the coming year, and selects applicants to fill vacancies caused by term limitations and resignations.
More than 1,000 ISBA members serves on these bodies to conduct programs, review proposed legislation and rules, and help develop state bar association policy related to the areas of concern in various practices.
For complete details and an application form, see "A Message from the President-Elect" on page 9. The deadline is Jan. 1.
Two ISBA cable television programs on workers' compensation issues will be broadcast this month at 10 p.m. Tuesdays on Chicago channel 21.
"Workers' Compensation: Injuries on the Job, Part I" will air Dec. 4 and Dec. 18. "Workers' Compensation: Injuries on the Job, Part II" may be seen Dec. 11 and Dec. 25.
John E. Thies of the Special Committee on Cable Television Programming is the moderator. Panelists are Lawrence A. Scordino, chair of the Workers' Compensation Section Council, and section council member James E. Babcock Jr.
Financial responsibility: Is it a lawyer's professional duty?
By Tim Eaton, ISBA president
There is a national discussion currently on the issue of whether lawyers should have financial responsibility to compensate clients for professional malpractice.
Ohio, South Dakota and Alaska recently passed measures requiring lawyers to disclose to their clients if they do not have legal malpractice insurance in certain minimum amounts.
Last year, Virginia surveyed its lawyers to determine who has coverage and who does not, and consumers can call a toll-free number to ask whether a lawyer has coverage. No disclosure by the lawyer is required. Oregon requires every lawyer to carry legal malpractice insurance at certain prescribed levels.
Finally, the ABA Standing Committee on Client Protection has recommended to the ABA House of Delegates that the model Rules of Professional Responsibility be amended to provide for a lawyer to disclose "the lack of malpractice insurance."
It was with this backdrop, and the knowledge that our Supreme Court is considering a rule, that last year's ISBA president, Herb Franks, appointed a special committee to study the issue. John Hopkins, of Edwardsville, was appointed chair, and the committee represented a cross section of lawyers from throughout the state.
After much study and deliberation, the committee recommended a proposed attorney financial responsibility rule that would require attorneys licensed in Illinois to have either adequate legal malpractice insurance (for a sole practitioner, $100,000 per incident in excess of any deductible, with a $300,000 annual aggregate) or adequate financial responsibility (defined as $50,000 for a sole practitioner).
Since the committee reported its proposal to the Board of Governors at its July meeting, the financial responsibility proposal has been widely disseminated and discussed within the ISBA.
All of our section councils and committees have discussed it and weighed in with their opinions, and at special meetings of our Assembly members, the issue has been raised and debated. Our ISBA ListServe has been active on this subject as well.
Board and Assembly members have received letters and telephone calls from ISBA members voicing their opinions on the proposed rule. Rarely have I seen such an active discussion of an issue facing our profession.
Before voicing my opinion, let me begin by saying how proud I am of our members for the way in which they have conducted themselves during this discussion. Although in some instances opinions were strongly and at times emotionally held, all have conducted themselves with professionalism and dignity in the debate.
Few professions could conduct themselves with the decorum that I have witnessed on this topic. The civility in which this discussion has evolved should make us all proud.
Last year, another initiative of Herb Franks that I strongly support and continue to press enthusiastically, is the fight against the unauthorized practice of law.
As I have stated repeatedly, if we as lawyers do not challenge at every opportunity those who are offering legal services when they are not qualified or authorized to do so, it will weaken our profession, both economically and qualitatively.
It will hurt those consumers who will be poorly served, and at times hurt, by those businesses that are trying to usurp the role of trained professionals in offering legal services. This fight goes to the core of who we are as a profession and what we stand for.
But in making the argument as to why lawyers are better than those unauthorized providers of legal services, we have to be able to make a solid case. We have legal training, and we are licensed by our Supreme Court, but what else do we bring to the table?
Are we required to keep current with the law after we graduate from law school? Do we offer some level of minimum protection to our clients if we err when providing legal services? For most lawyers, the answer to these questions is yes. But there are some lawyers who are unable to give a positive response.
If we are to address the unauthorized practice of law as a profession, then it seems to me we have to guarantee that our profession takes at least some minimum steps to offer our clients the best legal services we can provide, with some amount of protection where our services fall short.
Minimum continuing legal education requirements and minimum financial responsibility are, in my opinion, a small price to pay for maintaining a profession that stands for excellence and provides the protection that our clients and the public deserve.
Is the proposed financial responsibility rule perfect? No, but it is close. Can we as lawyers pick it apart word for word, or sentence by sentence? Of course. That is our trade. But should we? No.
Many legitimate questions have been raised during the discussion of this rule. For example, should it apply to those engaged in part time practice? The answer is yes, unless you believe malpractice committed by part-time lawyers is any less of a concern than the malpractice committed by full-time lawyers. The harm to the client is the same.
Will it add an additional expense to our practice? Yes, for those uninsured. But the costs should be less than $1,000 a year for the minimum coverage required. Premiums of those who are insured should not be affected or, if so, only slightly, and perhaps only initially.
Will it mean that some lawyers who are uninsurable, or do not have adequate financial responsibility, will not be able to practice? Yes. But if a lawyer becomes uninsurable because of the numerous instances of malpractice, do we not have a responsibility as a profession to police ourselves?
If we choose not to, then maybe we will lose our right of self-regulation. Our General Assembly, or the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation, could step into the breach.
The Board of Governors has taken the leadership on this issue by recommending unanimously to the Assembly that it support submitting the proposed rule to our Supreme Court. I am very proud of the board's action. I urge our Assembly and our membership to follow its lead.
This year, my theme has been "Take Pride in Your Profession." I am proud of our profession very proud it is a profession that not only cares about the quality of service we provide, but cares about the people to whom we provide it.
I hope we will do the right thing by endorsing enthusiastically this rule proposal for our Supreme Court.
(Glimpses from pages of the December 4, 1991, issue of the ISBA Bar News.)
Chicago attorneys Terrence K. Hegarty and Todd A. Smith announced their intentions to seek the office of ISBA third vice president. . . Philosopher Mortimer Adler was the keynote speaker for the joint ISBA-IJA Midyear Meeting luncheon. . .
Rock Island attorney John C. McAndrews chaired a Pro Bono Development Subcommittee of the ISBA Committee on Delivery of Legal Services to find a way to increase the number of volunteer attorneys representing indigent clients throughout the state.