ISBA member Steve Baker is being honored by receipt of "The Promotion of Social Justice Award" by the Illinois Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.Details are below for the Nov. 9th dinner and ceremony. The award states as follows: "A lawyer since 1978, Stephen W. Baker has served the Illinois criminal defense community for decades both in the courtrooms - as an Assistant Public Defender and later the Public Defender of DuPage County - and in the halls of the Illinois Legislature.  He has worked vigorously for groups such as the Cook County Public Defender's Office, the Illinois Public Defender Association, the Illinois State Bar Association, and the Illinois Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Steve has fought tirelessly for years against an unending tide of efforts to increase sentences, expand the scope of Illinois criminal laws, shrink our civil liberties, and keep the death penalty. His efforts merit his selection as the first recipient of IACDL's Promotion of Social Justice Award." Steve and other recipients will be honored at IACDL's Annual Dinner, on Friday, November 9, 2012 at the University Club, 76 East Monroe, Chicago, IL 60603.  Cocktails will begin at 6:00 P.M. (cash bar) with dinner to be served at 7 P.M.  Cost is as follows: 

Springfield lawyer George Petrilli proposes a win-win-win solution to the three problems of student debt, lawyer underemployment, and client underrepresentation. "A loan obligation reduction plan for federally funded student loans would allow attorneys to reduce their student debt while providing legal services to the underrepresented," Petrilli writes in the latest ISBA YLDNews. "This program would afford young lawyers valuable time and experience actually practicing law by analyzing facts against legal theory, arguing motions and drafting appeals."This in turn would allow the young attorneys to develop into productive professionals and make these young attorneys more marketable," he writes. "At the same time, traditionally underrepresented segments will gain access to necessary legal representation, where typically none would be afforded." Read his proposal.

The Honorable Debra B. Walker, a judge in the Circuit Court of Cook County, will be inducted as president of the Illinois Bar Foundation (IBF), the charitable arm of the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA), at the organization’s 14th Annual Gala on Friday, Oct.19, at the Four Seasons Hotel. Judge Walker will be the second woman president in the organization’s 61 year history.Judge Walker, who sits in the court’s Domestic Relations Division, received her B.S. in Accounting from the University of Illinois Urbana in 1982, and her J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1987. Before being elected to the bench in November 2008, she was a partner at Clausen Miller P.C., concentrating in defending professional liability matters.Judge Walker serves as vice chair on the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism, and as a commissioner on the Illinois Supreme Court Access to Justice Commission. She is a past president of the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois, a past president of the North Michigan Avenue Business & Professional Women’s Network, and an active member of the Illinois State Bar Association and the Economic Club of Chicago.A native of Carthage, Illinois, she now resides in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood with her husband and two children.

Over the summer, stunning new tablets from Google, Amazon and others have hit the market with prices as low as $200. However, lawyers may want to wait a few weeks before actually making a purchase, argues Jason Gilbert in his article in the Huffington Post, The iPad Mini and Why Now is a Bad Time to Buy a Seven Inch Tablet. That's because Apple is scheduled to announce the iPad Mini on October 23; and Microsoft is scheduled to release its Surface tablet on October 26. He predicts that the reaction of other manufacturers to these new products will be a price reduction. The iPad mini will offer users a reduced footprint and price for a tablet that has the backing of the world's most successful company. The Surface will offer competitive tablet pricing for a device that includes the Microsoft Office software with which the legal community is comfortable.