The ISBA Standing Committee on Women and the Law hosted "Celebrating Laughter in the Law Luncheon" on March 8 at Maggiano's in Chicago. The program featured Dr. Gail Stern, Co-Owner and Chief Academic Officer at Catharsis Productions.

The ways in which we are delivering legal services are evolving like never before. To stay on top of these changes, we as a profession must create dialogue. That’s how the inception of The Future is Now: Legal Services 2.016 came to be. On April 6th, ISBA will co-sponsor a conference with the ABA Commission on the Future of Legal Services, the Chicago Bar Association, and the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism. The event will take place at the Chase Bank Auditorium in Chicago from 2-5:15 p.m. with a reception immediately following. The conference will feature several leaders in the legal profession from in and outside of the state, including ISBA President-Elect Vincent F. Cornelius, ISBA Past President Tim Eaton, LegalZoom General Counsel Chas Rampenthal, Washington State Bar Association Executive Director Paula Littlewood, and several more. The event is free and attendees are eligible to receive three hours of professional responsibility CLE in Illinois. However, seating is limited, so register early. You won’t want to miss it out on this conversation. We hope to see you there.

The Illinois State Bar Association’s Lawyer Finder Service provides referrals to local lawyers Mondays through Fridays. The Service makes referrals in a number of areas of law. For the month of February 2016, there were 897 referrals. ISBA helped people in need of legal services find lawyers in the following areas:

"What can you do to protect yourself from potential clients who come into your office, indicate they want to hire you, and then change their mind?" Barbara Bell of Libertyville asked recently on the ISBA main discussion group. "Do any of you charge a consultation fee?" She got a range of responses. At one end of the spectrum was Carl Draper of Springfield, who says there are no free consultations in his practice. "I have a set fee that is a very fair price to the client, so I get compensated for my time since appointments are rarely shorter than an hour," he said. "I try to give good advice for the amount of information provided in advance and often get retained to do further work." On the other side is Michael Poulos of Evanston, who says, "I almost never charge a consultation fee. If the potential client has a case that makes sense, wants to hire me, and has the money, great. Otherwise I chalk it up to goodwill and 'marketing.' That potential client who did not hire me has been known to send a good client my way at some future date." Read more responses in the March Illinois Bar Journal. And find out more about ISBA discussion groups, many of which are open to all members.