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  • December 2, 2009 | Practice News
    Best Practice tip of the week: Building a better PI firm
    Asked and Answered By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. We are a five attorney personal injury plaintiff firm. In the last few years we have gone through tort reform, increased competition from other law firms doing extensive advertising, and now trying to weather the recession. From a profitability standpoint - we are holding our own. However, we are concerned about the future. While we do not want to be a high volume PI advertising factory - we believe we need to be doing something different. Do you have any suggestions on how we should plan our future? A. The majority of our PI law firm clients are advising that they are having to work much harder at getting clients and investing more heavily in marketing - both time and money. PI firms were feeling most of these challenges before the recession. However, the recession may accelerate the pace with which law firms re-evaluate existing processes and consider new business models. PI firms may want to begin by: 1. Develop a firm strategic plan and individual attorney marketing plans which include aggressive network/contact plans for past clients, attorney referral sources (non PI attorneys), attorney referral sources (other PI attorneys), and other referral sources. 2. Evaluate the feasibility of adding an additional practice segment to reduce the level of risk in the case portfolio and reduce cash flow variability. 3. Reduce case portfolio risk and improve case profitability by implementing a intake system whereby all new cases over a specified level of projected case value are reviewed and approved by the partnership (or a client intake committee) in order for the case to be accepted by the firm.
  • December 1, 2009 | Practice News
    Illinois outlaws DWT (driving while texting)
    Effective January 1, drivers in Illinois aren't allowed to "compose, send, or read an electronic message." But is PA 96-0130 overregulation or overdue? Read the arguments for both sides in Helen Gunnarsson's LawPulse item in the December Illinois Bar Journal.
  • December 1, 2009 | Practice News
    Goodwin appointed associate judge in Fifth Judicial Circuit
    Cynthia Y. Cobbs, Director of the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, has announced that Mark S. Goodwin received a majority of the votes cast by the circuit judges in the Fifth Judicial Circuit and is declared appointed to the office of associate judge. Mr. Goodwin received his undergraduate degree in 1984 from Illinois State University and his Juris Doctor in 1987 from John Marshall Law School. Mr. Goodwin is currently affiliated with Dukes, Ryan, Meyer, Freed, Goodwin, et al., in Danville.
  • December 1, 2009 | Practice News
    Wilson appointed associate judge in Tenth Judicial Circuit
    Cynthia Y. Cobbs, Director of the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts, has announced that Lisa Y. Wilson received a majority of the votes cast by the circuit judges in the Tenth Judicial Circuit and is declared appointed to the office of associate judge. Ms. Wilson received her undergraduate degree in 1984 from the University of Illinois, Urbana, and her Juris Doctor in 1987 from Northern Illinois University. Ms. Wilson is currently affiliated with the Prairie State Legal Services, Peoria.
  • December 1, 2009 | Member Services | Practice News
    Fastcase tip of the week: Browse statutes in outline view
    Sometimes the fastest way to find the statute section that you are looking for is to browse the statute in Outline View.  Using Outline View you can see the structure of the entire statute and easily toggle back and forth between different subsections. Example: If you wanted to browse the U.S. Code to find 42 U.S.C. § 1983, you would follow these steps: 1. Select Search Statutes from the Search menu. 2. Select U.S. Code from the list of statutes and jurisdictions. 3. Underneath the title of the page there are two tabs, a Search tab and an Outline View tab.  Click on the Outline View tab. This will bring you to an expandable outline of the U.S. Code. 4. Initially, you will see a list of the Titles within the Code.  Click on the plus sign next to each Title to view the Chapters within each Title.  Then click on the plus sign next to Chapter to view each Section. a. Scroll down and expand Title 42 The Public Health and Welfare. b. Then scroll down and expand Chapter 21 Civil Rights. c. Finally scroll down a bit further and click on Sec. 1983.  Civil action for deprivation of rights. The statute text is in the panel on the right while the outline of the statute remains in the panel on the left. Questions? Call us at 1-866-773-2782 (7AM-7PM Central Mon-Fri) or e-mail support@fastcase.com.
  • November 30, 2009 | Practice News
    Legal-writing tip: National Weather Service and plain English
    If it is good enough for the National Weather Service (NWS), it ought to be good enough for lawyers. A piece in today’s State Journal-Register by Tim Landis reported that the Weather Service is changing its winter-warnings this year as experiment in some local offices. The Weather Service is going to punchier leads and use of bullet points so that readers can grasp the information more easily. Hear, hear. Compare an older warning with the new experimental version as provided in the Landis article. (Bullets are not used in the opening paragraph.) Old: “Low pressure from south Texas into central Tennessee will deepen as it tracks northeast across the upper Ohio River Valley overnight. This will continue to bring snow, and periods of sleet and freezing rains across southeast Illinois…and snow over parts of central and east-central Illinois tonight. The heaviest snow will occur south of I-70…where storm total amounts of 4 to 10 inches will be common by late tonight. Snow accumulations will steadily decrease further northward…with 3 to locally 6 inches expected as far north as a Taylorville to Decatur to Danville line.” (92 words) New: “Snow…with periods of sleet and freezing rain…can be expected in southeast Illinois through tonight. The heaviest snow is expected to be south of I-70. Snow accumulations will steadily decrease farther to the north. The snow is being caused by an area of low pressure, which is forecast to strengthen as it tracks across the Ohio River Valley tonight.” (58 words)
  • November 29, 2009 | Practice News
    Legal-writing tip: Use a theme statement in drafts
    This weekend I finished reading A Writer's Coach by Jack Hart, who is the editor at large and writing coach at The Oregonian. One of his recommendations was to put a theme statement at the top of your screen while you write. The theme statement is a simple statement of what you are trying to say; it's not your lead or introductory synopsis. (You do use an introductory synopsis if you can, right?) The theme statement is to keep you on track as you write so that you don't get lost deeper into the document. Because if you get lost, your reader will also get lost. When you are finished with your piece, you delete it from the screen. For those interested, I liked and recommend A Writer's Coach, The Complete Guide to Writing Strategies That Work.
  • November 25, 2009 | ISBA News | Practice News
    "The ABC's of Buying Bank Owned Properties" to air on Illinois Law
    [caption id="attachment_5945" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Appearing on the shows will be (from left) Joel L. Chupack, Nancy Freeman, Myles L Jacobs and program moderator Martin Dolan."][/caption] "The ABC's of Buying Bank Owned Properties," two half-hour programs presented by Illinois Law, will air on Chicago Access Network Television, Channel 21 during the month of December.  Part I will air on Tuesdays, December 1, 15 and 29 at 10 p.m., and Part II will air on Tuesdays, December 8 and 22 at 10 p.m. Appearing on the shows will be Joel L.
  • November 25, 2009 | Practice News
    Legal-writing tip: "Must" vs. "shall"
    I read a recent Illinois Supreme Court opinion (People v. Garstecki) that I believe validates eliminating the word “shall” in legal documents or statutes. The legal writing scholars suggest using “must” instead of “shall” for a mandatory word because “shall has become so corrupted by misuse that it has no firm meaning. It can mean ‘must,’ ‘should,’ ‘will,’ ‘may,’ or ‘is.’ (Joseph Kimble, Lifting the Fog of Legalese, 160 (2006)) If you draft documents that use the word “shall,” you may want to consider changing your approach. Richard C. Wydick in his excellent book Plain English for Lawyers (5th ed. 2005) recommends using these words of authority: "Must” is required to. “Must not” is required not to; is disallowed. “May” has discretion to; is permitted to. “May not” is not permitted to; is disallowed from. “Is entitled to” has a right to. “Should” ought to. “Will” means one of the following: (a) To express a future contingency. (b) In an adhesion contract, to express the strong party’s obligations. (c) In a delicate contract between equals, to express both parties’ obligations.
  • November 25, 2009 | Practice News
    Best Practice tip of the week: How to take your firm to the next level
    Asked and Answered By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. I am a member of a three attorney firm. I think we know where we are as a firm, where we want to be, but we just don't know how to get to the next level. Ideas? A. Rather that following the pack - attorneys need to find ways in which their firm's can "dare to be different." Many attorneys are providing the same service - solving the same sort of legal problems for their clients using similar tools strategies/approaches. To many clients - attorneys all look the same. What can you do to stand out? Marketing is about more than just promoting the firm to get clients. It is also about deciding on: 1.  What services to offer, where, and to whom? Sometimes less is more - by focusing on fewer areas of practice. Just because a law firm focuses on say three areas of practice - doesn't mean that it does not handle matters in other areas. It just means you are building you brand around the three core areas. These are the areas you primarily promote, speak about and write about. Broader geography? 2.  Pricing. Not just the amount to charge but how to charge. Clients are asking for budgetary certainty? Get creative. 3.  Delivery and producing the service. Are you doing all that you can using technology, staffing, work processes, etc. to minimize the cost of producing your services? If you are - aggressively promote it.