The 3rd Annual Lawyers Rock Legends rocked the house at Buddy Guy’s Legends and raised approximately $20,000 for the Illinois Bar Foundation on Feb. 28.The event also featured a performance by Exoneree, a group of five former prisoners who were exonerated for crimes they did not commit. Exoneree members William Dillion, Eddie Lowery, Antoine Day, Raymond Towler and Darby Tillis served a combined total of 87 years for their supposed crimes ranging from murder to rape. They were later exonerated and freed through the efforts of the national Innocence Project. The group performed the opening set for ISBA-member bands 5-thirty, CAC ATTACK, Disbard, The Objections and The Thornes.The event raised much-needed funds to support the programs and services of the Illinois Bar Foundation and its M. Denny Hassakis Fund supporting juvenile justice reform.The mission of the Illinois Bar Foundation is to ensure meaningful access to the justice system, especially for those with limited means, and to assist lawyers who can no longer support themselves due to incapacity. This year, the Foundation will distribute more than $400,000 in grants to legal aid organizations across the state of Illinois, and in Lawyers Care Fund support to attorneys and their families in need. The Illinois Bar Foundation is located at 20 S. Clark St., Suite 910, Chicago, IL  60603, and the phone number is (312) 726-6072.

ISBA Director of Legislative Affairs Jim Covington reviews bills in Springfield of interest to ISBA members. In this episode he covers Cook County residential real estate transactions (House Bill 2269), Guardians and disabled adults (Senate Bill 1612), Civil procedure service of summons (House Bill 3275), FOIA and judicial entities (Senate Bill 2222), Additional Cook County filing fee (House Bill 2976) and Service of process for civil cases (Senate Bill 1724). More information on the bill is available below the video.

The ISBA has established the John C. McAndrews Award to honor the extraordinary commitment of individuals, bar associations, or law firm/corporate legal departments to providing free legal services to the income eligible in Illinois or expanding the availability of legal services to the income eligible in Illinois. Nominations for the John C. McAndrews Award due on March 15, 2013. The nominating form is available at www.isba.org/awards/mcandrews.

"The taxpayers in Cain v. Hamer were classic snowbirds," write Steven B. Siebers and Emily Schuering Jones in the latest ISBA Trusts and Estates newsletter. "Residents of Illinois since 1964, they built a second home in Florida in 1990. Within several years, they began spending a portion of each year in Florida. Every October through May, they enjoyed Florida’s warmer climes. They returned to Illinois once during the holidays, before again fleeing the Midwest winters." And in 1996 they quit paying Illinois taxes, regarding themselves as Floridians and not Illinoisans.Ultimately, they sued for a declaratory judgment that they were right about that. And they won. Cain v. Hamer, which Siebers and Jones call "a surprisingly taxpayer-friendly decision," gives clients and their counsel "a judicial road map for an Illinois snowbird." Read their summary of Cain and the 10 lessons they draw from it.