sion, "What's Happening at the Agencies?" from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 17, in the ISBA Chicago Regional Office.
The ISBA Labor and Employment Law Section Council will conduct the open program on employment discrimination, and a reception will follow.
Participating agencies include the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, National Labor Relations Board, Illinois and U.S. Departments of Labor, the State Labor Relations Board, Department of Employment Security, and Human Rights Commission.
Speakers will review current case law and timely issues, and answer questions from the floor. The program is free of charge but reservations are required because of space limitations. Call Marietta Putignano, (312) 726-8775.
The Labor and Employment Law Section will be a cooperating participant in the 35th anniversary Labor Law Conference of Region 33 of the NLRB. It will take place Thursday, Oct. 28, at the Hotel Pere Marquette, Peoria.
For more information, call section council chair Donald S. Rothschild at (708) 458-1253.
Bertschy to be honored during defender forum
ISBA past president Timothy L. Bertschy will receive an award Friday, Sept. 3, from the Illinois Public Defender Association during its board meeting in the Cook County public defender's office.
Bertschy, who was co-chair of the Illinois Equal Justice Project, will be honored for his contributions on behalf of the indigent who need legal representation.
Bertschy's efforts culminated in passage during the last session of the Illinois General Assembly of the Illinois Equal Justice Assistance Act (S.B. 331).
The legislation would provide a statewide structure for educating Illinois residents about the legal system and promoting cost-effective legal services for low-income individuals and families.
The IPDA plans to honor ISBA legislative affairs director James R. Covington III during its spring seminar Oct. 15 and 16 in Jumer's Chateau, Bloomington.
DiVito to speak in WBAI-CCL merit program
A forum on the issue of merit selection of judges, rather than election, and merit retention of sitting judges will take place from 12 noon to 2 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 16, in the ISBA Chicago Regional Office.
Among the scheduled panelists is former appellate justice Gino L. DiVito of Quinlan & Crisham, chair of the ISBA Task Force on Merit Retention. Others are Leonard Jay Schrager, past president of the Chicago Bar Association, and William H. Hooks, president of the Cook County Bar Association.
Panelists will discuss legislative proposals and answer questions from the audience. The forum is sponsored by the Women's Bar Association of Illinois and the Chicago Council of Lawyers.
Tuesday, Sept. 7, is the last chance for ISBA section councils and committees to submit proposals for Law Ed Series seminars during the 1999 Midyear Meeting in December at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel.
For information, call David N. Anderson at the Illinois Bar Center in Springfield, (800) 252-8908, or send a facsimile to (217) 525-0420.
The ISBA Committee on Continuing Legal Education will meet in September to review the proposals and their components on alternative dispute resolution, legal ethics and law office technology.
Law Student Clerkship Network links schools, jobs
The Illinois State Bar Association has established a Law Student Clerkship Network with affiliated law schools to provide interim job opportunities for members of the Law Student Division.
Teri Litwiller, ISBA field services representative, explained the program to representatives of the law schools during a meeting Aug. 11 in the ISBA Chicago Regional Office.
The clerkship network is not intended as a permanent job placement program. Temporary employment opportunities will be identified by Illinois lawyers and law firms, and their requests will be forwarded to the law schools.
Interested employers may obtain the "Request for Participation" forms from the ISBA Membership Services Department by calling Litwiller at (800) 252-8908 or sending facsimile letters to (217) 525-0712.
Law school staff will not disclose the prospective employer's identity until the law office has accepted a student's application for a job interview.
The employer's request form includes complete information about the office location, type of position available and area of practice, hours per week and compensation rate, and whether during the school year or summer.
Litwiller emphasized to law school representatives that the clerkship service is open only to student members of the ISBA. Membership application forms may be obtained in student placement offices. The annual fee is $11.
Student membership benefits include publications, access to the ISBA web site, group insurance rates, and free admission to Law Ed Series seminars, ISBA Annual and Midyear Meetings, and programs sponsored by the Law Student Division.
Intangibles include assistance in developing careers, promotion of improvements in the system, a voice in state and federal legislation, and enhancement of good will between the public and profession.
Affiliated law schools and their career service contacts are:
Chicago-Kent College of Law, Stephanie Rever Chu; DePaul University, Susan Smith Ross; John Marshall Law School, Stacia Moffic; Loyola University, Jody Greenspan and John Byrne; Marquette University, Paul Katzman; Northern Illinois University, Mary Obrzut;
Northwestern University, Jeanne Kraft; Southern Illinois University, Carmen Suarez; St. Louis University, Wendy Werner; University of Illinois, Mark Weber; University of Chicago, Jennifer Sacon; Valparaiso University, Gail G. Pechel, and Washington University, Tomea Mayor.
NIU professor leader of ABA Section of ADR
James J. Alfini, a professor and former dean of the Northern Illinois University College of Law, was installed Aug. 8 as chair of the American Bar Association Section of Alternative Dispute Resolution.
A member of the ISBA Special Committee on the Future of the Profession, he previously served on the Task Force on Minorities and the Justice System.
NIU law dean from 1991 to 1997, Alfini had been director of education and research for the Florida Dispute Resolution Center. He was on the Florida State University College of Law faculty from 1985 to 1991, and was a certified county, family and environmental mediator.
Alfini also chairs the Dispute Resolution Section of the Association of American Law Schools and is past regional vice president of the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution.
"Lawyers are in a particularly good position to be peacemakers and healers," Alfini said, "and we need to be thinking more along those lines. This field has the potential to produce a new breed of lawyer that will be viewed much more positively by American society."
As chair of the ABA section, Alfini will provide leadership in developing positions on policy issues and oversee the work of more than two dozen committees. He anticipates helping to draft a uniform mediation act and ethics rules to govern the conduct of lawyers in ADR proceedings.
Sunday Runners set pace despite rain, power outage
All the power outages, traffic jams and thunderstorms the gods could muster Aug. 12 failed to slow the ISBA Sunday Runners from turning in stellar performances in the sixth annual Race Judicata.
Once again, the state bar team contributed a sizable share of effort and financial aid during the 5K annual benefit run and walk for the Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation.
Team captain Robert K. Downs, a member of the ISBA Board of Governors, finished third in his age group, and the squad that included fellow board members Russell W. Hartigan and Umberto S. Davi was among the top performers. Other members were Michael Shevick and David P. Pasulka, and Kelly Hartigan recorded the fastest time.
"It rained all day, but how could anybody expect that it wouldn't turn out to be another glorious evening for a really important cause," Downs remarked. Electric utility failures in many downtown office buildings threatened to further dampen the spirits of participants.
"By the time Chief Justice Charles Freeman sounded the starting horn, the sky was blue and the sun was shining," Downs said. "The ISBA Sunday Runners raised several thousand dollars more for CVLS."
The Illinois Bar Foundation will be a beneficiary of the next Sunday Runners venture: the Frank Lloyd Wright 10K run and walk on Sunday, Oct. 10, in Oak Park.
Robert and Barbara Downs, both attorneys, will serve pre-race orange juice and coffee at their home and provide transportation to the starting line. A brunch will follow in the Downs' garden.
Each participating team member will contribute a surcharge for the Bar Foundation to the race entry fee. For more information, call Downs at (708) 848-0700.
Security firm is fulfillment of marine's dream
Joseph DuCanto never too short on ambition
By Jeff Cappel
Joseph N. DuCanto seemed puzzled and amused when he was told he was too small to become a policeman.
The men he commanded in his Marine Corps platoon didn't think he was too small, and neither did the Japanese soldiers who shot at him on Guam and Iwo Jima.
DuCanto didn't have to lie about his height when he enlisted in the Marines during World War II, so he saw plenty of action with the 3rd Marine Division in the Pacific Theater.
After his discharge in 1946, he tried to join the police department but was turned down because of his small stature. "People forget that there was a time when you had to be as big as a gorilla to be a cop," he recalled.
Now a matrimonial attorney and partner in the Chicago firm of Schiller, DuCanto & Fleck, DuCanto has developed a venture that gives him an affinity with law enforcement after all.
In 1982, he founded Securatex, a private detective agency and security contractor. He is president, CEO and board chair of the firm, which employs more than 650 people and is licensed in five midwestern states.
DuCanto attended Antioch College in Ohio, so unsure of his major that he changed it three times. Through a work study program, he landed at the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C., where he found his niche.
"I liked working with those lawyers," DuCanto remembers. "They were highly skilled people, and the air was electric. But most of all, they got things done. They got on the phone with a senator or congressman, and things happened.
"I knew that was for me, and I knew I had the skills to make it happen," DuCanto said. He received a full tuition scholarship to the University of Illinois College of Law and graduated in 1955.
A former member of the ISBA Board of Governors, DuCanto considers himself a law pioneer in two ways.
He claims to be among the first of his generation's lawyers to do a decent job of "unscrambling the marriage omelet" in regard to the economic aspects of divorce. He edited a series of books on tax, financial and estate planning in matrimonial settlements.
DuCanto's second "first" was coordinating and teaching a post-graduate program in this specific area of matrimonial practice.
In the early 1970s, with cooperation from the Loyola University School of Law and the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, DuCanto facilitated a 13-week program for lawyers and judges in the Domestic Relations Division.
"Continuing legal education had no meaning 25 years ago," he said. "Bar associations were just beginning to realize that they needed to be more than just clubs that looked out for lawyer's financial interests, and to become true educational institutions."
Education is what DuCanto likes best about the security business: training young people in the ways of the trade (DuCanto, himself, is a weapons instructor).
About 25 law firms are clients of Securatex. Its broad range of services includes contract security officers, forensic, fraud and internal theft investigation, undercover assignments and background checks.
Among other clients are Edgewater Hospital, Loyola University Medical Center, General Electric and Harpo Studios, where talk show host Oprah Winfrey's programs originate.
"We do a lot of work for museums and hospitals," DuCanto said, adding that hospitals pose special problems because of high traffic and accessibility to drugs.
Law firms use both Securatex security officers and internal investigation capabilities. "Part of what we do for law firms is perform background checks and locate witnesses," DuCanto said.
He sees this work as a matter of simple economics and effectiveness. "Having a trained investigator ferret out easily obtained and not so easily obtained information is a hell of a lot cheaper than putting an associate on it at $125 an hour," DuCanto said.
DuCanto doesn't downplay the need for security within a law firm. "Obviously, many people are under stress during a deposition and there's a lot of hate. Often, the one side views its opposition and its lawyer as one and the same. Sometimes threats are made and it can get physical," he said.
"I've been threatened as I'm sure we all have. Although the person who makes a threat doesn't always act on it immediately, you do have cause for concern."
If something does happen in the law office, DuCanto said, an on-site guard is more effective than having to call and wait for building security.
"Firms probably don't need uniformed guards on duty 24 hours a day," DuCanto said, "but the safety of individuals working after-hours is always of concern." Securatex often receives requests to escort people.
It's not only because of the tough guys that law firms need security, he said. "Law firms, like other businesses, have an influx of public traffic, so things can and do turn up missing, such as purses and other valuables, especially around the holidays."
Common problems that DuCanto sees in law firms include conflicts of interest and disclosure of confidential information, but "padding timesheets and general over-billing of clients is something that you'll see a lot more of.
"There's a whole new industry being borne out there of lawyers and investigators who go after lawyers and their billing to prove that they've been tapping the till," he said.
Surprisingly, misappropriation of client funds is still the purview of one- and two-lawyer firms. "The big firms have too many eyes watching this area," DuCanto has observed. It's generally the suspicious client who initiates investigation of a misappropriation.
Securatex investigates claims of embezzlement and other internal problems. "Fortune 400 companies always have investigatory needs for one thing or another," DuCanto said. Although his company has no law enforcement responsibility, it does make detailed reports to company officials. The company takes it from there.
Despite having many high-profile clients, DuCanto calls Securatex a small boutique outfit. Hardly a week goes by when he doesn't get an offer to sell. But it's a safe bet that he won't.
The company is an extension of DuCanto's dream of becoming a police officer, and the inspiration for forming it was his son, Anthony, who has been involved in police work for several years.
Taxpayers to get reports on where the money goes
Senate Bill 360, a legislative measure designed to give Illinois taxpayers easier to understand information about how the state raises and spends tax dollars, has been signed by Gov. George H. Ryan.
An initiative prompted by Comptroller Daniel W. Hynes (right), a Chicago attorney, the new law directs the Department of Revenue to include an analysis of state revenues and expenditures, including the state lottery, in its tax information booklet.
Hynes' office will provide brief reports for inclusion in the revenue department's annual IL-1040 tax instruction booklets, starting in 2000.
"A taxpayer should not have to be a budget analyst, or have to read a 500-page budget book, to know how the state raises and spends dollars," Hynes said. "Increasing sunshine on state financial information continues to be one of my highest priorities as comptroller."
The report will include simple pie charts and graphs to illustrate how the $43 billion state budget is allocated. It also will highlight the strengths and weaknesses of Illinois government by showing trends in spending priorities and comparisons with other states.
"Empowering people with more information about how their money is spent in Springfield can only help lead to more accountability in government," said State Sen. David Sullivan of Park Ridge, sponsor of the legislation along with State Rep. Judy Erwin of Chicago.
Hynes added his hope that the new reports "will clarify for taxpayers the revenues and expenditures of the Department of Lottery, particularly in relation to the overall education funding total."
He said the reports also would be posted on the comptroller's office web site: www.ioc.state.il.us.
Council members dramatize elder rights
Portraying a dawdling father in a recent Elder Law Section Council presentation, past chair Daniel M. Moore of Decatur set the tone with "Here's to our ability, to have the agility, to carry our virility, into our senility!"
Moore and other section council members used the skit to demonstrate effective communication with a confused elderly person. The venue was the Elder Rights Conference conducted July 28 in Chicago by the Illinois Department on Aging.
N. Lee Beneze of Springfield was the narrator, occasionally stopping the action to highlight important points. Past chair Karl A. Menninger of Springfield played Moore's over-involved son.
Section council chair Constance B. Renzi of Aurora filled the role of the consummate professional who controlled the dramatized interview with a man seeking legal assistance for decisions in the twilight of his life.
Renzi maintained her focus on determining Moore's specific wishes, despite the Menninger's interference. She encouraged her elderly client to express his preferences on advance directives for health care, property and treatment in case of mental health challenges.
The interaction of the role players and their audience of 300 social service practitioners made clear that the most important principle is to conduct an interview with respect and patience.
In addition to Renzi, who chairs the Elder Law Section Council, Beneze is vice chair and newsletter editor, and William L. Cleaver of Moline is secretary.
Board meets Sept. 17 in Chicago
The ISBA Board of Governors will convene at 9 a.m. Friday, Sept. 17, at the Westin River North Hotel, Chicago. Future dates are Friday, Oct. 15, at the Grand Geneva Resort; Friday, Nov. 12, at McDonald's Lodge, Oak Brook; Friday, Jan. 21, in the ISBA Chicago office; Friday, March 10, in the Fairmont Hotel, Chicago, and Wednesday, May 17, at the Illinois Bar Center in Springfield.
The ISBA Midyear Meeting and convention of the Illinois Judges Association will take place Dec. 9 to 11 in the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers.