Roughly six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, a partner at a BigLaw firm in Chicago shared an exciting revelation with me. “While I’ve become more physically distanced from my coworkers, I’ve actually become more personally connected to them,” he said. “We’ve stepped into each other’s homes and lives much more while working remotely.”  His discovery caused me to recall a discussion with a colleague about our mentoring program for new lawyers in Illinois. The year-long program pairs lawyers early in their careers with more experienced attorneys for a mentoring experience centered on skill-building and instilling the values of professionalism in the next generation of attorneys. Given social distancing guidelines, in the early weeks of the pandemic, we thought, “How are we going to keep our mentoring pairs active?” To which we quickly…

Our Lawyer Spotlight series highlights Illinois lawyers who are demonstrating the ideals of professionalism in their daily lives. These attorneys are teaching us how to adapt and thrive in the changing legal environment. Susan L. Zielke is a Managing Attorney in the Eastern Regional Office of Land of Lincoln Legal Aid. In her practice, Susan focuses on legal aid work, primarily criminal records and public benefits, in addition to housing/homeownership, domestic violence/family, and consumer debt. How is Land of Lincoln Legal Aid adapting to the changing work environment? Because we are a program spread over 65 counties with five regional…

Small law firms continue to struggle with administrative tasks and new business, but few are taking meaningful action to address these challenges, according to the Thomson Reuters 2020 State of U.S. Small Law Firms survey. This inaction creates opportunities for small firms willing to take the lead in innovating their service delivery models. In its fourth report on the state of the nation’s small law firms, Thomson Reuters surveyed more than 400 solo and small firm lawyers in April and May 2020. The survey found that in spite of societal upheaval due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the operations of many…

Evictions were prevalent before COVID-19, but the situation has reached a crisis level. The national unemployment rate hit an all-time high of 14.7% in April 2020 and was still at 8.4% in August. The high unemployment rate has resulted in fewer people being able to pay their rent or mortgages. In the first three months of 2020, landlords collected 80% of total rent due from tenants. In the first half of July, they collected just 37%. To help prevent the further spread of COVID-19 due to homelessness, laws have been created and amended to address the eviction crisis in…

Illinois attorneys A-M who received the MCLE reporting extension for the 2018-2020 cycle: September 30 is your deadline to complete your MCLE credits and submit your online report. Newly-admitted attorneys have separate requirements. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Illinois Supreme Court, in consultation with the MCLE Board, provided attorneys in the current reporting group with a no-cost, three-month extension to complete the 30-hour MCLE requirement. This pushed the completion deadline from June 30 to September 30, 2020. Attorneys who secured this extension must complete both their MCLE credits and report “complied” to the board online by September…

Our Lawyer Spotlight series highlights Illinois lawyers who are demonstrating the ideals of professionalism in their daily lives. These attorneys are teaching us how to adapt and thrive in the changing legal environment. Ivy Lee is an attorney at Hlustik, Huizenga, Williams & Vander Woude Ltd. (HHWV) in Chicago, where she serves as outside general counsel to a variety of small and mid-size businesses. As a generalist, Ivy is experienced in various fields of law, including negotiating commercial transactions, drafting contracts, participating in merger & acquisition transactions and due diligence, advising on intellectual property strategies, reviewing insurance policies, responding to…

The supreme courts of Arizona and Utah have approved far-reaching modifications to court rules aimed at addressing the access to justice gap. On August 27, the Arizona Supreme Court announced that it will eliminate the rule prohibiting fee sharing and prohibiting nonlawyers from having economic interests in law firms. The announcement follows that of the Utah Supreme Court, which voted on August 13 to establish a regulatory sandbox that will allow lawyers and non-traditional legal providers and services to explore creative ways to practice law and promote their services, including entities with nonlawyer investment or ownership. Over the past couple …

Our Lawyer Spotlight series highlights Illinois lawyers who are demonstrating the ideals of professionalism in their daily lives. These attorneys are teaching us how to adapt and thrive in the changing legal environment. Carl R. Draper is a partner at FeldmanWasser in Springfield, Ill., where he practices employment and administrative law, focusing specifically on individuals who are having legal issues with state agencies. He has also practiced civil rights law, representing individuals on civil rights claims, matters involving state government regulation, and many types of administrative hearings. How is FeldmanWasser adapting to the changing work environment? Working through this period…

Remote learning may not be the panacea we all hoped for, but we can learn from the new normal if we embrace our role in the experience. “Can you help me with this?” This question used to be asked of parents when inexplicable homework problems were served up alongside impenetrable instructions. “Wait, you don’t carry the 1 now? You have to add it to the second column on the right? When did basic math change?” Parents had a few options for responding: Be pleasantly surprised that you know how to solve the problem Ask some delaying questions while trying to…

Civility has a tough row to hoe these days. In our national discourse, on our social media platforms, and even in the legal profession, civility can be fleeting. Instead, pejorative criticism unfettered by courtesy or respect has become the norm. Add to that heightened emotions and rhetoric around social justice issues and our national conversations have at times morphed into “cancel culture,” wielded as the weapon of choice against those espousing oppositional viewpoints. But shouldn’t we embrace civility even more tightly during these extraordinary times? Or has civil discourse been mortally wounded, slinking its way to the corner to die?…

Over the next couple of months, hundreds of law students across Illinois will commit to upholding the highest ideals of the legal profession through annual professionalism orientations. Professionalism orientations are designed to introduce first-year law students to the core concepts of attorney professionalism. The programs are held in conjunction with broader law school orientation activities. For the 14th year, the Commission on Professionalism is assisting with the professionalism orientation at each of Illinois’s nine law schools. At many Illinois law schools, the typical in-person orientation has gone virtual, with video remarks from Illinois Supreme Court Justice P. Scott Neville, Jr.…