Epilogue
By Stephen Anderson
Mark Banner led ISBA, ABA intellectual property sections
Chicago attorney Mark Thomas Banner, a past chair of both the ISBA Intellectual Property Section Council and the American Bar Association Section of Intellectual Property Law, died Dec. 30 at age 57 of cancer in Tucson, Ariz.
Mr. Banner was a partner in Banner & Witcoff, the firm founded by his father, Donald W. Banner. The elder Banner, who died Jan. 29, 2006, in Tucson, also was a past chair of the ABA section.
A 1979 high honors graduate of The John Marshall Law School, Mark Banner was an adjunct professor at John Marshall and the Georgetown Law Center. He served on the faculty of the first National Institute of Trial Advocacy program on patent litigation skills.
He lectured and published frequently on patent law, trade secrets and other intellectual property issues, and was lead counsel in several bench and jury trials from both defendant and plaintiff perspectives.
Mr. Banner had been a bar course administrator for the master class on appellate advocacy taught by federal Judge Paul R. Michel for John Marshall’s Center for Intellectual Property Law.
A Donald W. Banner and Mark T. Banner Scholarship Fund at John Marshall was endowed by the father and son law partners.
Survivors include a brother, Brian E. Banner of the firm’s office in Washington, D.C.
Matthew Maloney, advocate and defender of downtrodden
The death of Princeton attorney Matthew Alexander Maloney at age 62 on Christmas day was front-page news in the Bureau County Republican.
The former Bureau County public defender was called “a determined defender of justice” who wasn’t afraid of challenges and would be missed by the community.
“He really was the defender of the downtrodden,” said assistant state’s attorney Anthony F. Sciuto. “He would take those causes.”
Matthew Maloney also made the front page of the Nov. 15, 1991, issue of the ISBA Bar News, subsequent to his appearance at a meeting of the Board of Governors on Oct. 25 of that year in Chicago.
A public defender from 1982 to 1992, he elicited, and received, a commitment of ISBA board support for his attempt to obtain adequate funding from the Bureau County Board as required by statute.
Mr. Maloney told the board that he had devoted about 200 hours in the previous month as public defender, at the expense of his private practice, but had received no compensation because he was involved in a legal dispute between the 13th Circuit Court and the county board.
The ISBA adopted a motion to involve the Criminal Justice Section Council in pro bono representation, as needed, and a related motion to back enforcement of statutory provisions for funding public defenders statewide.
Then a member of the Criminal Justice Section Council, Mr. Maloney also was a member when it convened last month during the ISBA Midyear Meeting in Chicago. He chaired the Special Committee on Public Defender’s Office during its tenure from 1996 to 1999.
An Assembly member from 1996 to 1999, he had served since 1995 on the Committee on Legislation and the General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Section Council, which he chaired in 2006-07.
A 1973 graduate of the St. Louis University Law School who had a master’s degree in history, Mr. Maloney was a partner in Pierson, Maloney & Rayfield and a resident of Wyanet.
He served on the boards of the Illinois Public Defender Association and Illinois Attorneys for Criminal Justice. He was advocacy vice chair of the Criminal Law Committee of the American Bar Association Section of General Practice in 1994-95.
Charles Glennon was chief judge
Retired 11th Circuit judge Charles Edward Glennon died Dec. 31 at age 65 of a heart attack in his Lake Geneva, Wis., home. He was a 1966 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law.
Mr. Glennon served in the Army for two years and was an associate at Fellheimer & Fellheimer in Pontiac from 1968 until 1973, when he became a partner in Gomien & Glennon.
Appointed to the circuit court in 1976 and subsequently elected resident judge of Livingston County, he served as chief judge from 1991 to 1994 and retired in July 1998.
Mr. Glennon was president of the Livingston County Bar Association in 1995-96. He chaired the Criminal Law Committee of the Illinois Judicial Conference and was a member of the Executive Committee and Domestic Relations Committee.
He served on the Livingston County Committee on Children and Youth, the Illinois Regional Youth Planning Commission and the Pontiac Salvation Army Advisory Board.
Harold Burnstein
Northbrook attorney Harold Robert Burnstein, a resident of Highland Park, died Dec. 4 at age 88 in Prentice Hospital, Chicago. Of counsel to Strauss & Malk, he was with Schwartz & Freeman in Chicago from 1979 until last year.
A 1950 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law and a certified public accountant, Mr. Burnstein was a tax accountant in California from 1941 to 1945, and practiced accounting and law with John E. Hughes until 1979. He was past chair of the Chicago Bar Association Taxation Committee.
Mr. Burnstein was a past chair of Highland Park School District 108, and a former member of the Highland Park Public Library board and the North Suburban Library System.
David Burrowes
Chicago attorney David Taylor Burrowes, a Glenview resident, died Dec. 27 at age 47 in Glenbrook Hospital after suffering from Hodgkin’s lymphoma for two years. He was with Boundas, Skarzynski, Walsh & Black from 1992 until his illness made law practice difficult.
A 1986 graduate of the Vanderbilt University Law School, Mr. Burrowes began his career in the Los Angeles office of Peterson & Ross and was transferred to Chicago in 1990.
Joseph Butler
Joseph Butler, a retired Chicago-area banking executive who had a law degree from the University of Michigan after Air Force service during the Korean War, died Dec. 20 at age 78 of heart disease in his home at Marco Island, Fla.
Mr. Butler was executive vice president of Sears Bank in Chicago when he was appointed president of the LaGrange State Bank in 1978. He retired in 1995.
A past president of the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Banking and the Flossmoor school board, Mr. Butler was a director and treasurer of Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital.
Arthur Cieslik
Retired Cook County judge Arthur J. Cieslik, an Oak Lawn resident, died Dec. 7 at age 83 in Little Company of Mary Hospital. A veteran of Navy service, he was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1958.
James Duda
Homewood attorney James Thomas Duda, a partner in Cummings & Duda, died Dec. 7 at age 58 of cancer. He was a 1974 graduate of the Loyola University School of Law.
A Glenwood resident, Mr. Duda served on the Glenwood Library Board and coached little league and soccer teams.
Joy Fisher
Long Grove attorney Joy Deborah Fisher died in December at age 55. She was a 1976 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law.
An article by Ms. Fisher, “Smoking as child abuse,” was published in the Feb. 15, 1993, issue of the ISBA Bar News. Then a Buffalo Grove attorney and school board member, she called for legislation to prohibit seating children in smoking sections of public accommodations.
Denise Krez
New York attorney Denice Rassas Krez, formerly of Winnetka, died Dec. 25 at age 60. A former neonatal nurse administrator at Presbyterian-St. Lukes and Prentice Women’s Hospitals in Chicago, she was a partner in Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, New York City.
Hugh Martin
Retired Chicago banking attorney and marketing consultant Hugh Thompson Martin Jr. died Nov. 20 at age 81 in Evanston. He was a Navy gunnery mate on the aircraft carrier Saratoga in the Pacific during World War II.
A 1952 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law, Mr. Martin practiced at Northern Trust for about 10 years before leaving to conduct market research for radio and television stations.
In 1969, he inherited Martin Farms west of Galesburg, where ancestors had settled after the War of 1812. One of them, William Martin, was shot dead and scalped by Indians at the end of the Blackhawk War in 1832.
Owen Meegan
Romeoville attorney Owen Daniel Meegan, a De La Salle Christian brother for 48 years, died Dec. 29 at age 65. He had several degrees in education and theology before being admitted to the Illinois bar in 1992 and beginning a practice in River Forest.
Mr. Meegan had been a professor of English at Lewis University since 2001.
Diane Otto
Wilmette attorney Diane Lynne Davis Otto died Dec. 17. She was a 1983 graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law.
Mel Perretti
Chicago attorney Mel E. C. Perretti died in December at age 86. Admitted to the Illinois bar in 1951, he was a trial attorney and in-house counsel for Allstate Insurance for more than 35 years.
An active member of the Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel in its early years, he chaired the 1974 Defense Tactics Seminar.
John Posch
Retired Chicago attorney John Joseph Posch died in January at age 59. He was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1975.
William Reardon
Retired 10th Circuit judge William John Reardon was found dead at age 85 on Nov. 20 in the back yard of his Pekin home. A 1948 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, he had been an Army captain overseas during World War II and a judge advocate general during the Korean War.
After 17 years of practice in Pekin, Mr. Reardon was appointed an associate judge in 1965. He retired in 1993 but was recalled in 1994 and 1995. He was appointed resident Tazewell County judge in 2000 after Judge John Gorman became a federal judge.
William Strauss
Washington, D.C., attorney and government policy expert William Arthur Strauss died Dec. 18 at age 60 of cancer in his McLean, Va., home.
Born in Chicago, Mr. Strauss graduated in 1973 from Harvard Law School and became an aide to Sen. Charles H. Percy of Illinois and chief counsel to the Senate subcommittee on energy, nuclear proliferation and government processes.
In 1981, he and other members of Percy’s staff formed the group of singing satirists that became “Capitol Steps.” They have performed frequently in the Chicago area.
Harold Tenney
Retired Decatur attorney Harold Frank Tenney died Nov. 17 at age 74 in Carle Foundation Hospital, Urbana. He graduated first in his class in 1957 at the University of Illinois College of Law.
Mr. Tenney was a partner in Tenney, Tietz & Heavner before he formed Tenney & Tenney with his son, Carl J. Tenney, who is now with Hughes, Hill & Tenney.
Ronald Wilder
Chicago attorney Ronald Wilder, a partner in Schiff Hardin, died Dec. 19 at age 70 of cancer. A 1962 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, he was a former adjunct professor of labor and employment discrimination law at the Chicago-Kent College of Law.
Valeta Wisuri
Valeta Kern Wisuri of Elmhurst, a 1941 graduate of the Washington University Law School, died Dec. 13 at age 91 in Elmhurst Memorial Hospital of a gastrointestinal blockage.
Mrs. Wisuri first practiced with the Rural Electrification Administration in Washington, D.C., and later lived in New York City and St. Louis. Subsequently a Waukegan resident, she became a writer and editor for American Educator Encyclopedia and Commerce Clearing House.
Mrs. Wisuri also was an assistant in the Cook County Law Library and the Chicago corporation counsel’s office before retiring in 1982.
Bradley Wood
Bourbonnais attorney Bradley William Wood died Dec. 6 at age 50 in his home. A 2000 graduate of The John Marshall Law School, he was an assistant Kankakee County state’s attorney in the Child Support Enforcement Division.
Mr. Wood worked at the Shapiro Developmental Center for 17 years before entering law school.
Albert Zimmer
Former Chicago attorney Albert Laughlin Zimmer, a resident of St. Charles, died Dec. 30 at age 67. A 1978 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, he was an Air Force captain from 1964 to 1968.
After service as an assistant attorney general, Mr. Zimmer practiced with Cosby, Oltman & Bell. From 1986 to 2002, he was a lawyer for the Illinois State Board of Elections.
Recently, Mr. Zimmer was studying at Northern Illinois University for a master’s degree in music theory and history and singing in the university choir. He also sang with the Elgin Choral Union and served on the board of Bella Voce.
Lawrence Zinder
Chicago attorney Lawrence Allen Zinder died in December at age 77. A 1953 graduate of the Northwestern University Law School, he was a former partner in Constantine, Zinder & White.