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  • June 22, 2016 | Practice News
    Best Practice: Associate satisfaction and retention

    Asked and Answered

    By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

    Q. I am the owner of a 20-attorney litigation firm in Seattle. The 19 associates are all in the same tier or category and are paid a salary plus bonus. Their time with the firm ranges from 1-15 years. I enjoy sole ownership but I realize that to continue to grow and prosper I must make some changes. I have recently lost several associates that I would have liked to have stayed with the firm. I am also getting stressed having all of the management responsibility since I currently make all of the decisions. Several associates have told me that the morale is low. I welcome your thoughts.

  • June 21, 2016 | Practice News | ISBA News
    Illinois Bar Foundation promotes innovation with 3-year $105,000 grant to Illinois Legal Aid Online

     The Illinois Bar Foundation (IBF), the charitable arm of the Illinois State Bar Association, will provide a three-year, $105,000 special-project grant to support an innovative new program of Illinois Legal Aid Online (ILAO). The announcement was made following its April 1 board of directors meeting in Chicago. The funding is in addition to a $15,000 operating grant from the IBF.

    With the funding, ILAO will launch the American Bar Association-sponsored Legal Answers, which is an online portal to allow people with civil legal problems to submit their questions securely to be reviewed by volunteer attorneys and receive brief legal advice. The program originated in Tennessee as Online Tennessee Justice and has been adopted by the ABA with the goal of expanding it to all 50 states this year.

    The IBF’s grant will enable ILAO to hire an attorney part-time to launch the Illinois effort. ILAO, which is a national leader in using technology to help people understand their legal issues and enhance access to justice, will make the Illinois version of Legal Answers a new national standard, according to Lisa Colpoys, ILAO executive director.

    1 comment (Most recent June 22, 2016)
  • June 16, 2016 | Practice News
    Quick Takes on Thursday's Illinois Supreme Court opinions

    Our panel of leading appellate attorneys review Thursday's top Illinois Supreme Court opinions in the Civil case Moline School District No. 40 Board of Education v. Quinn and the criminal cases People v. McFadden and People v. Rizzo.

    CIVIL

    Moline School District v. Quinn

    By Joanne R. Driscoll, Forde Law Offices LLP

    Does legislation (Public Act 97-1161) creating a property tax exemption for one lessee of one metropolitan airport authority violate the special legislation clause of the Illinois Constitution (Ill. Const. 1970, art. IV, § 13)?  Affirming the appellate court, the Illinois Supreme Court held that it does. 

    1 comment (Most recent June 17, 2016)
  • June 16, 2016 | Practice News
    Quick Takes for Your Practice: Preparing an estate plan

    Gain an understanding of what it takes to prepare an estate plan for a client from Attorney Ryan Walsh.

    1 comment (Most recent July 6, 2016)
  • June 15, 2016 | Practice News
    ISBA Statehouse Review for the week of June 15, 2016

    ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews legislation in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers Filing fees, Mobile Home and Landlord and Tenant Rights Act (House Bill 6285), Unclaimed U.S. savings bonds (House Bill 5607),  Guilty pleas (House Bill 2569), Counties Code (House Bill 4603) and Toxicology results (Senate Bill 3096). More information on each bill is available below the video.

    Filing fees. The Access to Justice Act created the Statutory Court Fee Task Force to study the current system of fees, fines, and other court costs and propose recommendations to the Illinois General Assembly and Illinois Supreme Court. Its report may be found here.

    1 comment (Most recent June 16, 2016)
  • June 15, 2016 | Practice News
    Best Practice: Managing performance reviews

    By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

    Q. We are a firm is a 15-attorney firm in Kansas City, Missouri. Our management committee is charged with the responsibility of determining partner, associate and staff compensation. Several years ago we switched to a competency based, goal driven system for partners, associates, and staff. The system requires self-evaluations, peer evaluations for partners and associates, and self-evaluations. This requires extensive performance reviews, tracking, scheduling, and documentation. We are using Excel spreadsheets and MS Word documents and having a hard time managing all of this. Do you have any ideas?

  • June 13, 2016 | Practice News
    Supreme Court Rules Committee sets public hearing on proposals

    The Illinois Supreme Court Rules Committee will hear comments July 8 at a public hearing in Chicago on three proposals, including one calling for the creation of a Supreme Court rule to govern the use of restraints on minors during court proceedings.

    The Committee will also consider proposed changes to Supreme Court rules involving proof of service and the record on appeal.

  • June 13, 2016 | Practice News
    Please watch out for fraudulent bar complaint emails

    State Bar Associations around the country have received numerous calls and emails regarding a fraudulent email being distributed to members purportedly informing them of a Bar Complaint.  For example, the fraudulent email could be titled in the subject line: "The Illinois State Bar Association Complaint."

    If you receive one of these fraudulent emails, please do not respond or click on any attachments. Delete it immediately. These emails are NOT from the Illinois State Bar Association and may contain links to files that open malicious software. Please be aware, if you are a member of another bar, that they may have experienced this as well.

    For more information on email scams, please read Too Many Phish in the Sea from the April 2015 Illinois Bar Journal.

  • June 9, 2016 | Practice News
    ISBA Statehouse Review for the week of June 9, 2016

    ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews legislation in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. This week he covers E-business fee (Senate Bill 3162), Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (2015) (House Bill 4648),  Forcible Entry and Detainer Article (Senate Bill 3166),  Supplementary proceedings (Senate Bill 2845), FOIA (House Bill 4715) and Snow and ice removal (Senate Bill 2138). More information on each bill is available below the video.

  • June 9, 2016 | Practice News
    Quick Takes for Your Practice: The basic components of a real estate deed

    Illinois Attorney Heather Fritsch, author of Basic Residential Real Estate: From Contract to Closing, outlines the basic components of a real estate deed.

    1 comment (Most recent June 9, 2016)