The length of time that the evidence must be preserved, subject to a continuous chain of custody, has also been amended. For cases in which the death penalty has been imposed, it must be held permanently. For other homicides or sex crimes, it must be held until the completion of the sentence (including the mandatory supervised release time) or Jan. 1, 2006, whichever is later. For any felony conviction for which the defendant's genetic profile may be taken for a forensic DNA database, it must be held seven years.
Stephen Anderson
Editor
Wisdom and deliberation
You could say that the Illinois State Bar Association is as American as baseball and the telephone, by virtue of being just about as old. The year was 1876. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, and the U.S. National Baseball League was founded.
And almost 125 years ago in Chicago that October, Judge Stephen R. Moore of Kankakee suggested to Myra Bradwell, editor of the Chicago Legal News, that the clamorous voice of a state bar association was needed to focus the attention of the legislature on the four-year backlog of the Supreme Court docket.
The perilously burdened court then still held sessions in three divisions Springfield, Ottawa and Mt. Vernon despite a provision in the 1870 Constitution that Appellate Courts were to have been established by 1874.
One justice, William K. McAllister, had aleady resigned in protest. He was elected a Cook County judge at a salary of $7,000 an increase of $2,000 over his annual compensation on the Supreme Court.
Bradwell, who had written editorials about the Supreme Court crisis, agreed with Judge Moore that formation of a statewide association of lawyers might just generate enough heat to make the procrastinating legislators uncomfortable. She published a call for an organizational meeting on Jan. 4, 1877.
The feisty editor added editorially that such an organization "should speak with wisdom and due deliberation, and in such a manner that the bar of the state would have respect for its doings. It should have no axes to grind, no private ends to serve."
That gathering of 88 delegates from 37 counties in the Sangamon County Courthouse (now the Old State Capitol) turned out to be the "first annual meeting" of the Illinois State Bar Association. Anthony Thornton of Shelbyville, a former Supreme Court judge, was elected president and re-elected twice.
An ISBA committee headed by Thornton jumped to the task of developing plans to relieve the court system, and applying pressure on the General Assembly. Paralleling similar efforts by the three-year-old Chicago Bar Association, the committee got a prompt decision from the enlightened legislators.
The act establishing an Appellate Court system, then only of four districts, was signed June 2, 1877, by the governor, and another bill calling for the election of more circuit court judges was enacted.
The 125th ISBA Annual Meeting will be conducted this month at The Abbey on Lake Geneva, where J. Timothy Eaton of Chicago will be installed as the 125th person to hold the office of president (while Thornton served two extra terms, two other presidents died before completing their terms).
Many things have changed since 1876. Alex Bell's primitive telephone, which developed into a public system in 1877, has been eclipsed by rotary-dial and push-button models, and wireless phones that you can take anywhere and call anybody in the world. The rules of baseball are vastly different, too.
Charter ISBA members established the 1877 dues rate at $2 per year. After one year of operation, the association had 139 members and $126 in its treasury. By 1916, then 2,000-strong, the ISBA named R. Allan Stephens of Danville permanent secretary and used his office as headquarters.
But some things don't change. The result of the presidential election of 1876 between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden was delayed a few months while a commission decided what to do with 20 disputed electoral votes. The states in question were South Carolina, Louisiana, Oregon and, yes, Florida. Republican Hayes nosed out Democrat Tilden by one electoral vote, 185-184. Sound familiar?
More to the point, the primordial mission of the Illinois State Bar Association speedy justice for litigants and correction of defects in the justice system has not veered from what was stated in Stephen Moore's 1876 notice in the Chicago Legal Times.
The due processes and techniques for implementation have evolved as times have required, but access to justice via competent counsel for every Illinoisan rich or poor, able or distressed continues to top every ISBA president's priority list.
This Annual Meeting, from June 21 to June 24, will be a precursor of celebration and rededication. The actual 125th anniversary may pass quietly next Jan. 4, midway between perihelion and epiphany, but plans are under way for a resounding commemoration next March in Springfield.
We won't need the spirit of Myra Bradwell to remind us to pledge 125 more years of "wisdom and due deliberation, no axes to grind, no private ends to serve."
Pro bono awards presented
Peoria attorney Kenneth R. Eathington of Husch & Eppenberger was honored as Pro Bono Attorney of the Year on May 1 during the Peoria County Bar Association Law Day luncheon. Law Firm of the Year honors went to Kavanagh, Scully, Sudow, White & Frederick.
The awards were presented by Pro Bono Committee chair Louis P. Milot on behalf of the Peoria County Bar Pro Bono Plan and Prairie State Legal Services.
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Prairie State and the Tazewell County Bar Pro Bono Project recently honored Kenneth L. Black of Black, Black & Brown as Pro Bono Attorney of the Year.
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Mahomet attorney Holly W. Jordan received the James Capel Pro Bono Award from the Champaign County Bar Pro Bono Program on May 1 during a Law Day dinner.
Lott Thomas, chair of the Pro Bono Committee, also presented awards to attorneys Carolyn Casady-Trimble, Janice Pea and James Mullady, and University of Illinois law student Cathy Manual.
The CCBA has kicked off a fund-raising campaign for the Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation, chaired by Lott Thomas, Tracy Nally and past president Mark D. Lipton.
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The DuPage County Bar Association presented its Liberty Bell Award during a May 2 Law Day luncheon to Barbara Brent, director of volunteers for the 18th Circuit Family Court.
Since 1998, Brent has recruited, trained and scheduled courthouse greeters who provide directions and make referrals to Safe Harbor, the children's waiting room, and representatives of Family Shelter Service and other agencies.
The DuPage Bar presented its Hartman E. Stime Scholarship of $2,000 to Jana Fischer, a law student at Northern Illinois University.
Birnbaum heads benefit for kids
Chicago attorney Peter J. Birnbaum, president of Attorneys' Title Guaranty Fund, is perennial chair of the Big Brothers Big Sisters Pro Celebrity Golf Classic, which has raised $750,000 in 10 years.
The annual benefit for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago will take place Monday, July 23, at River Forest Country Club, Elmhurst. For details, call Geri Delaney at (312) 372-8361, ext. 563.
The organization provides adult role models for youths from primarily single-parent homes, offering guidance, friendship and emotional support.
Student honoree's goal is career in public service
Melanie Maron hit the ground running when she graduated last month from the Chicago-Kent College of Law. She already has almost two years of varied legal experience.
A certified mediator for the Center for Conflict Resolution and volunteer ombudsman in long-term care for the Illinois Department on Aging, she has been a public interest law intern with the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law since January.
Maron will receive the ISBA Law Student Division Public Service Award on June 22 during the 125th Annual Meeting at The Abbey on Lake Geneva. A $250 donation in her name will be made to the not-for-profit organization she chooses.
"I came to law school with the sole intent of serving the public interest," she said, "and my journey thus far has been as exciting and rewarding as I could have hoped."
In addition to her work last semester as a research assistant for Chicago-Kent Law Prof. Joan Steinman in class action lawsuits, Maron was president of the Kent Justice Foundation and vice president of the Society of Women in Law.
Her public interest stint with the Chicago Lawyers' Committee included 15 hours a week researching and writing memoranda in civil rights matters involving equal employment, housing, public accommodations, government service, education, and the rights of children and the disabled.
Maron participated in a judicial externship program last summer with Judge Blanche M. Manning of U.S. District Court, assisting in the preparation of two summary judgment opinions in employment discrimination and fair labor standards cases.
During the 1999-2000 academic year, she was a legal intern with the Law Offices of Chicago-Kent. Her work included drafting and analyzing pleadings and discovery documents in employment discrimination and civil litigation, and conducting simulated counseling and negotiation exercises.
In the summer of 1999, Maron was a legal intern for the Citizen Advocacy Center in Emlhurst, where she created model civics curricula for students from kindergarten through 12th grade and wrote papers on the use of electronic signatures for referendums and initiatives.
In her spare time, Maron has been a student counselor five hours a week for Saving Our Society, a member of the Journal of Intellectual Property, and a volunteer coordinator of special events at the Association House.
A Richard B. Ogilvie Scholar in the top 20 percent of her class at Chicago-Kent, she earned a certificate of recognition a year ago as a finalist for the ISBA law student public service award.
Austin appointed to circuit court
The appointment of Chicago attorney Richard William Austin to the Cook County Circuit Court was announced May 17. His assignment in the 6th Municipal District began May 30 and will end in December 2002.
A past president of the Chicago Bar Association and the National Conference of Bar Presidents, Austin opened his own law office last year after practicing with Winston & Strawn from 1957 to 1993 and Pretzel & Stouffer since then.
A 1855 graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law, he was recommended for the appointment by Justice Mary Ann G. McMorrow after evaluation by her screening commission and an Alliance of Bar Associations that includes the ISBA.
Austin has chaired the admissions committee of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District since 1982. He is past chair of the Chicago South Suburban Mass Transit District and a former member of the Regional Transportation Authority.
Jeffrey Allen of Joliet gets term on ARDC
J. Jeffrey Allen of Joliet, managing attorney for the Will County Legal Assistance Program, was appointed in April to a three-year term on the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission.
A member of the ISBA Assembly, Allen chairs the Committee on Judicial Advisory Polls and is vice chair of the Committee on Judicial Evaluations Outside of Cook County, He also is secretary of the Committee on Delivery of Legal Services and a member of the Special Committee on Ethics 2000.
A past president of the Will County bar Association, he manages the Senior Citizens Legal Project of Will County and the Pro Bono Project of Will County.
A 1976 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law, Allen has taught American jurisprudence and criminal law at Lewis University in Romeoville. He is president of Joliet Grade School Dist. 86 and a member of the Board of School Inspectors.
Applicants welcome
Supreme Court Justice Robert R. Thomas will review applications for appointment to the 16th Circuit Court when Judge Thomas E. Hogan leaves the bench July 31. For information, call Stephanie Wilson, (630) 871-0025.
Sherlock Holmes group presents award to Newey
Chicago attorney Paul D. Newey, a former state and federal law enforcement official and investigator, was honored May 19 by Hugo's Companions, a scion society of the Baker Street Irregulars, during a dinner in the Adventurers Club.
Newey received the organization's Baker Street Tankard Award in recognition of professional performance that emulates Sherlock Holmes, "who pursues justice for the sake of justice."