Practice News

From the Illinois Judges Association – The special interest groups trying to oust incoming Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court Tom Kilbride in his retention election pose a direct threat to fairness and impartiality of all Illinois judges. Through the use of deceptive and slick marketing, those sullying Justice Tom Kilbride are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for their own ideological and political ends at the expense of the touchstone of the American legal system – a judiciary independent of all influences and interests. The Illinois Judges Association opposes any effort to “get” judges for doing their jobs. It undermines the ability of judges to carry out their judicial functions. It constitutes a dangerous intrusion upon independent judicial decision-making. And it is a blatant affront to everyone that the judiciary serves. The public rightly demands that judges decide cases based on the law, not policy, popularity, or political views. As John Adams declared in the Declaration of Rights of the Massachusetts Constitution, "It is the right of every citizen to be tried by judges as free, impartial and independent as the lot of humanity will admit." Yet, the incendiary attacks on Justice Kilbride seek nothing of the sort. To achieve their ends, special interest groups have resorted to ugly misrepresentations and falsehood of Justice Kilbride’s opinions. What political motive do they have? Playing politics with a judge's record, distorting it for political reasons, is unfair and dishonest.

Our panel of leading appellate attorneys review today's Supreme Court opinions in JP Morgan Chase Bank v. Earth Foods, Ready v. United/Goedecke Services, Wright Development Group v. Walsh, In re Estate of Wilson, People v. Close, People v. Johnson and People v. Thompson.

Illinois Judges Association President Judge Lewis Nixon today reiterated the importance of maintaining a judiciary free of political influence. “The Illinois Judges’ Association encourages voters to educate themselves about the candidates in contested judicial elections and the judges standing for retention,” said Judge Nixon, of Chicago. “Every election cycle there are unfair attacks on judges which threaten the constitutional principle of judicial independence. As Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has said, ‘Judicial independence does not just happen all by itself. It is tremendously hard to create, and easier than most people imagine to destroy.’” “Voters should be mindful of the credibility of the sources of information on the qualities and competencies of individual judges on the ballot. In recent years, judicial elections in Illinois and throughout the nation have become more politicized, a development widely criticized by those who worry about the preservation of an unbiased and balanced administration of justice. Forgotten is that Illinois instituted retention election of judges to take politics out of the judicial process once a judge has been elected to the bench. As he did in his remarks on assuming the leadership of the organization, Judge Nixon said, “So important was judicial independence that it was one of the grievances listed by the drafters of the Declaration of Independence in their complaint against the British Crown. The judicial branch of government was designed to operate as a forum unfettered by any considerations other than an evenhanded determination of the facts and a steadfast adherence to the law. Judges simply do not make decisions based on personal preferences.

Asked and Answered By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. Our firm is a 25 attorney IP law firm located in Washington D.C. Metro area. We are planning our year-end firm retreat to plan for next year. This will be our third retreat. While we believe we have achieved some positive results from the last three retreats - we believe that we need to accomplish much more. What are your ideas or thoughts on the matter? A. We find that many law firms try to use their retreats to be an extended version of their regular partnership meetings. They simply try to do too much. The agendas are loaded down with far too many topics. As a result there is a lot of debate and discussion on often day-to-day operational items and no focus on the more complex-strategic issues that often have been ignored or pushed under the rug. This year try to do less and achieve more!