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Asked and Answered
By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC
Q. I am the founder and owner of a law firm in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. I have three other attorneys and 4 staff members. We represent primarily business and civic organizations. Our fee revenues are around $735,000 per year and I take home $175,000 to $200,000 from the practice. I am looking to sell the practice to either the associates in the firm or another law firm. Do you have any idea what my firm might be worth?
All Illinois judges running for retention, as well as candidates for Illinois judicial offices who are running in the March 18 primary election, have been rated by Illinois State Bar Association evaluations committees, or in a poll of lawyers conducted by the ISBA. Results were made available today at www.isba.org/YouBeTheJudge.
In Cook County, an ISBA Judicial Evaluations committee used the results of a questionnaire, background investigations, and in-person interviews to rate candidates for all judicial offices. Candidates for the Appellate and Supreme Court outside Cook County were also evaluated using this process.
In counties outside Cook, the ISBA conducted an advisory poll of members in the circuit or district from which a candidate seeks election or retention. Licensed lawyers who are not members of the ISBA may request a ballot. The poll reflects the opinion of those lawyers who choose to respond, and not the opinion of the ISBA.
The ABA Law Student Division desperately needs 77 more lawyers and judges to serve as oral argument judges for the 2012-13 St. Louis Regional National Appellate Advocacy Competition (NAAC). This moot court competition will be held at the Thomas F. Eagleton Courthouse (111 South 10th Street, St. Louis, MO 63102).
The rounds take place in the late afternoon on Thursday and Friday, February 21-22 and all day on Saturday, February 23. Judges may serve multiple rounds if they desire.
Lawyers and judges are asked to visit https://abanet.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_enhnuayY4bWNU5T and enter their contact information and round selection on that form.
ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. In this episode he covers UM and UIM arbitration (Senate Bill 1636), Short-term guardian (Senate Bill 1565), Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act (Senate Bill 1568) and Mortgage foreclosure (Senate Bill 1602). More information on the bill is available below the video.
Chief Justice Thomas L. Kilbride announced Wednesday that a pilot project established last year to allow electronic filing of documents with the Illinois Supreme Court has been expanded to include the option for all documents in cases on the Court's general docket to be filed with the Supreme Court electronically. The expansion also includes the electronic filing of documents concerning attorney disciplinary matters before the Court.
The pilot project, approved by the Supreme Court in January 2012, allowed the Illinois Attorney General, the State Appellate Defender's Office and the Office of the Illinois State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor to digitally file motions, briefs and related documents with the Clerk of the Court through a secure password system designed and operated by a third-party vendor.
Now the pilot project expands to give the option for more persons registered with the third-party vendor, including pro se litigants and attorneys licensed in other jurisdictions appearing in a specific case, to file documents electronically. This move could eventually result in the savings of tens of thousands of pages of paper documents.
Chief Judge Frank H. Easterbrook announced that the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has reappointed Northern Illinois Bankruptcy Judge Carol Doyle to another 14-year term when her current term expires on July 26, 2013. Chief Judge Easterbrook commented that the bar and the public were extensively surveyed and the results were that Judge Doyle is rated as an excellent judge.
Judge Doyle was initially sworn in as a bankruptcy judge in 1999. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa and her law degree from Loyola University in Chicago. Prior to her appointment as a bankruptcy judge, she was a lawyer with the Chicago law firm of Sidley and Austin. She is the immediate past Chief Bankruptcy Judge for the Northern District of Illinois.
Asked and Answered
By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC
Q. Our firm - St. Louis, Missouri - handles personal injury cases on a contingency fee basis. All 6 attorneys practice in this area and we do no work on any other type of fee or billing arrangement. During the last couple of years cash flow has been tough, we have lost some cases, and we are looking for ideas on what we should be doing differently. We would appreciate any ideas that you may have.
Our panel of leading appellate attorneys review Thursday's Illinois Supreme Court opinions in the criminal cases People v. Wilmington, People v. Jackson and People v. Grant.
By Jay Wiegman, Office of the State Appellate Defender
ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. In this episode he covers Consumer Fraud and attorney's fees (House Bill 1447), Qualifications for being a judge in Cook County (Senate Joint Resolution for Constitutional Amendment 7), Custodial interrogations (Senate Bill 1332), Identification by lineups and photo spreads (Senate Bill 1333), Statute of limitations and sex offenses (Senate Bill 1399) and Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (House Bill 1452). More information on the bill is available below the video.
Asked and Answered
By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC
Q. Our firm is a 14 attorney firm in central Iowa. We have one office in Des Moines and have been considering opening an office in another city. We represent business organizations and very few individual clients. I would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions.