Practice News

Have you gotten a press release saying the Illinois Department of Public Health has “mandated new language” for healthcare POAs? Wondering what's up with that? Helen Gunnarsson got to the bottom of it for the May Illinois Bar Journal, and we're giving our Illinois Lawyer Now faithful an early look. Read what she has to say.

The Supreme Court has posted the following opening for the position of Clerk of the Supreme Court of Illinois: The Clerk of the Supreme Court is an officer appointed by the Court (Ill. Const. 1970, Art. VI, § 18 (a)), reports to the Court, and serves at the Court’s pleasure. This senior level position is the Court’s principal case processing and records manager who operates the Clerk’s main office in Springfield and a satellite office in Chicago through a staff of 14 deputies which the Clerk recruits, selects, trains, and supervises, and by planning, developing, and implementing policies and procedures necessary to execute the responsibilities of the office. As case manager, the Clerk oversees and evaluates the functioning of four distinct automated dockets, and all associated processes, to ensure compliance with Supreme Court Rules and effective tracking and scheduling of cases from initiation to issuance of mandates and final orders. Relatedly, the Clerk interprets and applies relevant rules and compiles, analyzes, and reports statistics on the Court’s case load. As records manager, the Clerk is responsible for the Court’s active and closed files and permanent records, dating to 1818. The Clerk maintains the roll of attorneys, which includes the licensing process; registers and renews professional service corporations and associations, and limited liability companies and partnerships engaged in the practice of law; files judicial financial disclosure statements required of state court judges.

Asked and Answered By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. Our firm has been discussing the possibility of merging with another law firm of similar size. We are a 25 attorney firm. We have heard horror stories of firms that have merged and been unhappy with the experience. Why do mergers fail and what should we look out for? A. There can be a whole list of reasons for failure including poor financial performance, attorney defections, loss of key clients, and leadership and management issues. However, it has been our experience that most failures have been the result of poor cultural fit. The merging firms - after they have moved past conflict checks and excitement about new client potential - jump immediately to an examination of practice economics and the financials. They fail to perform proper due diligence on the people. It is critical that firms insure that cultural due diligence is a key component of the merger assessment process. Philosophies, personalities, and life styles should be generally compatible. The partners should like each other and the deal should make sense. Do all the due diligence that you can - start with the people - then move through the rest of the process. John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC, is a past chair and member of the ISBA Standing Committee on Law Office Management and Economics.

We hear from some quarters that legal generalists are a dying breed, that the law is too complex and voluminous for a jack of all trades. But in the latest ISBA Family Law newsletter, family-law practitioner Ross Levey writes about the involuntary jack-of-all-trades nature of his practice. "Over the past year, besides understanding the IMDMA and the Parentage Act, I have also had to research issues related to bankruptcy, social security, ERISA, guardianship, adoption, tax/financial planning, probate, real estate, immigration, contracts, personal injury, partnership, corporate and criminal law and I could go on," he writes. Chances are you're seeing the same thing. Read Ross's interesting observations about what it means and what you can do in response.