Recently, we swore in a new class of lawyers in Illinois. Many of these new lawyers were Millennials — people born between 1980 and 2000 — who have had a tremendous effect on the legal workplace. A recent American Lawyer…
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Last month, I had the pleasure of speaking at Legalweek 2018. The conference, sponsored by ALM, is a re-imagining of LegalTech, an industry conference that began in 1982. Its new incarnation, Legalweek, started in 2017 and now includes sub-conferences focused…
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From #MeToo to Hackathons – New Ideas for Programming By the year 2044, the United States will officially become a majority-minority nation. More than half of our population will belong to a minority group. By 2060, one in five Americans…
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Something to Think About Soon to be our newest Illinois lawyers will trade their backpacks for briefcases at the upcoming November 9 admission ceremonies.  In their academic years, they have had many questions and strived to find the answers. They…
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Helping Lawyers Overcome Substance Abuse We are a self-regulated profession. That means that we have a duty to protect the public, including from impaired lawyers. We also have an obligation to help our colleagues who may be suffering from alcohol…
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The future may be unknowable, but it’s not unthinkable. That line from the introduction to Bruce MacEwen’s book “Tomorrowland: Scenarios for Law Firms Beyond the Horizon” really stuck with me. As lawyers, we should think about what is coming around…
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Do You Know if it Works? For the past decade, the Illinois Supreme Court has encouraged attorneys to take diversity Continuing Legal Education courses, mental illness and addiction CLE courses and activities to fulfill part of their professional responsibility requirement….
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Dear Law Student, The Future Is Now. Not only is that title prophetic, it was also the name of a conference hosted by my organization, the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism, last month. Held in the Art Institute of…
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I recently had an experience with online dispute resolution.  And it wasn’t pretty.  I am embarrassed to admit it all came about when I clicked on an alluring ad for a face cream.  I charged $4.95 on my credit card…
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Competency in the practice of law clearly means you must keep abreast of changes in substantive and procedural law in the representation of your clients. Supreme Court Rule 1.1 demands “legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness and preparation reasonably necessary for the…
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What It Should Be On June 30, Adnan Syed received a new trial after serving 16 years in prison for a murder he claims he did not commit. New trials aren’t generally national news. This one, however, was the top…
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Since the Illinois Supreme Court announced that the electronic filing of documents in civil cases will be required in all circuit courts by Jan. 1, 2018, discussion among Illinois court clerks, lawyers, paralegals and staff quickly changed from when to…
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