Tag Archives: Pro Bono

Nominations Open for Northern District Excellence in Pro Bono and Public Interest Service Awards

By R. David Donoghue on Posted in Legal News
The Northern District and the Chicago Chapter of the Federal Bar Association are seeking nominations (by April 11, 2013) for attorneys who have provided outstanding pro bono and public interest representation in civil and criminal matters before the Northern District that are complete and no longer pending. In the words of the Northern District: The nominee should … Continue Reading

False In Forma Pauperis Application Does Not Warrant Dismissal

By R. David Donoghue on Posted in Local Rules
Kim v. Earthgrains Co., No. 01 C 3895, Slip Op. (N.D. Ill. Jun. 24, 2010) (Cox, Mag. J.). Judge Cox denied defendant's motion to dismiss plaintiff's patent claims regarding a bread formulation pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1915(e)(2)(A). The Court held that plaintiff made false statements on her in forma pauperis ("IFP") application. The normal remedy for false IFP application statements was dismissal of the applicant's case. But that remedy was not appropriate in this case because plaintiff had not "reaped the benefits" of IFP status. Plaintiff financed her own case for over nine years by mortgaging her house, using credit cards and borrowing from friends and family. Plaintiff only applied for IFP status after the Court suggested it, and only enjoyed its benefits for ten months. And while plaintiff made false statements, they were all either contradicted elsewhere in the application or the false statements tended to portray plaintiff as wealthier than she was. The consumers, therefore, suggested plaintiff misunderstood the question. While the Court did not dismiss plaintiff's claims, the Court did sanction plaintiff pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 11 for her false statement. Plaintiff was ordered to pay for here legal services received from pro bono counsel. The Court, however, observed the fees and costs were not likely recoverable unless plaintiff won at trial. … Continue Reading

Eleventh Annual Pro Bono and Public Interest Awards

By R. David Donoghue on Posted in Legal News
The Northern District and the Federal Bar Association are seeking nominations for excellence in pro bono and public interest work. Nominations should be based upon work performed in civil cases before the Northern District which are no longer pending. Nominations should include: the name and address of the nominee; a brief resume; the complete case title; case number and judge for each case; the work done by the nominee on the cases; and the brief summary of the reasons you believe the nominees pro bono work has been outstanding. Send nominations via email by next Wednesday, April 14 to ProBono2010_ILND@ilnd.uscourts.gov. Contact the Chambers of Chief Judge James F. Holderman with any questions. … Continue Reading

Tenth Annual Northern District of Illinois Pro Bono Awards

By R. David Donoghue on Posted in Legal News
Last Friday, May 29 the Northern District held its tenth annual pro bono awards ceremony. Federal Bar Association President Juanita Sales Lee was the keynote speaker. The Court gave out both Awards for Excellence in Pro Bono and an Award for Special Service to the Court. The Excellence awards went to: * Richard L. Marcus of Sonnenschein Nath Rosenthal LLP (presented by Judge Cox); * Howard L. Mocerf, Richard P. Darke and Amy E. McCracken of Duane Morris LLP (presented by Judge Manning); * Kate Jillian Grossman of Sidley Austin LLP (presented by Judge Schenkier); * Edward M. Fox of Ed Fox & Associates (presented by Chief Judge Holderman); * Jeffrey D. Colman of Jenner & Block LLP (presented by Judge Bucklo); * James P. Condon of Central States Funds (presented by Judge St. Eve and Judge Cole); * Michael George Kelly of the Law Offices of Chadwick & Lakerdas (presented by Judge Manning and Judge Cox); * Arthur J. Howe of Schopf & Weiss LLP and Julie Ann Sebastian of Cook County State's Attorney's Office (presented by Judge Lefkow); And the Special Service Award went to: * Joel Daly, District Court Information Officer (presented by Chief Judge Holderman). Congratulations to all of the recipients, and thanks to all of the award recipients for their service. … Continue Reading

Tenth Annual Pro Bono and Public Interest Awards

By R. David Donoghue on Posted in Legal News
The Northern District and the Federal Bar Association are seeking nominations for excellence in pro bono and public interest work. Nominations should be based upon work performed in civil cases before the Northern District which are no longer pending. Nominations should include: the name and address of the nominee; a brief resume; the complete case title; case number and judge for each case; the work done by the nominee on the cases; and the brief summary of the reasons you believe the nominees pro bono work has been outstanding. Send nominations by this Friday, April 17 to: Email: ProBono2009_ILND@ilnd.uscourts.gov Chambers of the Chief Judge James F. Holderman 219 South Dearborn Street, Suite 2548 Chicago, Illinois 60604 … Continue Reading

Blawg Review #173

By R. David Donoghue on Posted in Legal News
Last week's Olympic edition Blawg Review focused on the medals. Building on that, this week I discuss the elements of a world record swim. If you were watching last week, instead of blogging, you saw 20 of them in the Olympic pool; seven by Mr. Phelps. Practice Nothing is more critical than preparation. A big part of preparation is tightening your stroke and cutting out unnecessary motion. Reese Morrison, at the Law Department Management blog, discusses blunt suggestions for trimming legal bills. Endless hours in the pool alone are not enough, you need a good coach. Business development coach Cordell Parvin provides an excellent three part series at his Law Consulting Blog - one, two, and three - on persistence, an important element of any Olympic training program. In an Olympic caliber display of persistence, Drug & Device Law had an exhaustive post discussing and classifying each medical device preemption case since the landmark Supreme Court decision in Riegel v. Medtronic, Inc., 128 S. Ct. 999 (2008). You also need a support network to help you get through all of the pool time. Bruce Allen, at Marketing Catalyst, teaches us how to avoid the cocktail conversation you cannot escape from at a networking event. At Copyblogger, John Morrow explains that content is no longer king in the blogosphere, you need friends. And he teaches you how to get them. At BlawgIT, Brett Trout - who is a fighter, not a swimmer - has an interesting post about how to work together as a community to thwart webjackings (the hijacking of a website). And Mediation Channel's Diane Levin discusses the social side of blogging, and reading blogs. Of course, if you do not have time to practice you will never set the record. So, you need a job, or at least some cash. On that note, Harmful Error posts the great news that loan forgiveness programs were expanded this week for legal aid lawyers, state prosecutors and public defenders. The Suit The clothes make the man (or the woman). This year the go-to duds were Speedo's LZR suits. Patent Librarian Michael White tells us that, no surprise, Speedo patented the LZR. IPKat expands on swimming patents, providing a broader view of Olympics-related patents. Genes As a guy who swam for a lot of years and practiced hard throughout, I can tell you not everyone has what it takes to set world records. The closest I came was getting beat by an Olympian and world record holder. Of course, you might be less impressed by my loss if you knew that at the time his Olympic medals were four or five decades old, and I was 19. At Idealawg, Stephanie West Allen discusses the traits that make entrepreneurs entrepreneurial. Mental Focus One of the big stories on Phelps this week was how he thinks of nothing but not losing during a race. At Litigation & Trial, Maxwell Kennerly tells us that you have to know when you are sweating the details more than your client would want by over emphasizing proof-reading. Of course, even Kennerly agrees that some details matter. Knowing the Rules You have to know the rules. Turn wrong or break the rules for your stroke and beating a record by ten seconds will not matter. At the Legal Juice, John Mesirow reports that kids at the Lake County Florida library are allowed to rent R-rated movies because they believe it is an unconstitutional delegation of authority for the Motion Picture Association of America's guidelines for determining obscenity. I am sure kids from all over that area are flocking to the Lake County library because the rules are on their side, at least for now. Filewrapper reports on a Federal Circuit decision holding that copyright infringement, and not just breach of contract, when the terms of an open source license governing the copyrighted material are breached. For more on this major decision in the IP world, check out: BLT; Law Pundit; and Patently-O. Seattle Trademark Lawyer Mike Graham shows the consequences of not following the rules using two Western District of Washington opinions. Ethan Lieb, guest blogging at Freakonomics, argues that we need to change the rules requiring unanimous juries. And the WSJ Law Blog discusses a judge and a juror who clashed over jury nullification. The Start A bad start is hard to recover from, especially when you are chasing the fastest time ever. Evan Schaeffer shows how to open well at trial at the Illinois Trial Practice Weblog, and he links to Trial Theatre's opening statement quiz. Turns Coming off the wall in a turn is the fastest a swimmer goes during a race. So, you need good turns. IntLawGrrls discuss how to turn around the conflict between Georgia and Russia (sorry the turns section was tough). Legal Literacy discusses Whole Foods' turned around (or recalled) beef and looks behind the scenes at how it happened and Whole Foods' impressively quick response. The Finish Do you do an extra stroke or do you glide in hard? Always a tough question, but the .01 seconds the decision costs you can mean the race and the record. At his E.D. Texas Weblog, Michael Smith reports that while the E.D. Texas started out as a rocket docket, particularly for patents, it has now slowed down and let many other districts catch it with a time to trial of 24 - 30 months. The Law and Magic Blog reminds us that we cannot always win, and that trying to rig the system to guarantee wins - he is talking about the stock market, but it holds true for the pool - is dangerous work. At the IP ADR Blog, Victoria Pynchon praises several Perkins Coie attorneys who went the distance for their pro bono clients at Gitmo and earned the clients' respect for providing them an able defense. ** Images provided via a Creative Commons license by A. Dawson or Andre from Flicker. ** Next week's Blawg Review will be at fellow LexBlog site, the Texas Appellate Law Blog. Blawg Review has information about next week's host, and instructions on how to get your blawg posts reviewed in upcoming issues. … Continue Reading

Northern District’s Ninth Annual Pro Bono & Public Interest Awards

By R. David Donoghue on Posted in Legal News
The Northern District of Illinois and Chicago's Federal Bar Association chapter are hosting their Ninth Annual Awards for Excellence in Pro Bono and Public Interest Service awards program this Tuesday, May 13 beginning at 3:30 pm in the James Benton Parsons Memorial Courtroom (2525) of the Dirksen United States Courthouse at 219 South Dearborn Street. The program is open to everyone and is free of charge. The keynote speaker will be William Neukom, the President of the ABA and partner in K&L Gates. Prior to his private practice, Neukom was executive vice president of Law and Corporate Affairs for Microsoft, where he managed Microsoft's legal, government affairs and philanthropic activities. Seven "Awards for Excellence in Pro Bono and Public Interest Service" and one "Special Recognition Award for Public Interest Service" will be presented to the following Chicago-area lawyers for their pro bono and public interest work before the Northern District: Sara C. Arroyo and Rosa M. Tumialán, of Dykema Gossett PLLC (presented by the Judge Coar); Anthony J. Masciopinto, of Kulwin, Masciopinto & Kulwin, LLP (presented by Judge Manning); Myron Mackoff, of Richardson & Mackoff (presented by the Chief Judge Holderman and Magistrate Judge Valdez); Joshua D. Lee and Amy M. Rubenstein, of Schiff Hardin LLP (presented by the Judge Brown); Catherine Caporusso and Margot Klein, of the Federal District Court's Self-Help Assistance Program (presented by Judge Hibbler); David A. Gordon, Michael B. Nadler, and Kristen R. Seeger, of Sidley Austin LLP (presented by Magistrate Judge Schenkier); Lisa R. Kane, of Lisa Kane & Associates, PC (presented by Chief Judge Holderman); and Richard J. Gonzales, Clinical Professor of Law, Chicago-Kent (presented by Chief Judge Holderman). … Continue Reading

Northern District & IP News: Pro Bono & Patent Reform

By R. David Donoghue on Posted in Legal News
Tomorrow I will be back to case analysis, but there is some Northern District news and some excellent IP and litigation blog posts worth reading, here they are: Ninth Annual Pro Bono and Public Interest Awards -- The Northern District and the Federal Bar Association are seeking nominations for excellence in pro bono and public interest work. Nominations should be based upon work performed in civil cases before the Northern District which are no longer pending. Send nominations by March 28 to: Amy Rettberg, Executive Law Clerk Email: amy_rettberg@ilnd.uscourts.gov Chambers of the Chief Judge James F. Holderman 219 South Dearborn Street, Suite 2548 Chicago, Illinois 60604 Patent Reform is Moving Forward -- The Senate is preparing to vote on the Patent Reform Act after its spring recess (yes, it is spring already in DC). Here is some additional coverage of the Act's status: 271 Patent Blog -- looking at the latest amendments to the Act. Maryland Intellectual Property Blog -- looking at the latest amendments and questioning whether proponents have the sixty votes necessary for cloture, thereby avoiding a filibuster. Patent Docs -- taking sides, but asking you to call your Senators regardless of which side you take. Check out the newest entry to Chicago's law blog scene, the Lean & Mean Litigation Blog. It is not IP-focused, but it is an interesting read for any commercial litigator or litigant. William Patry at Patry on Copyright has an interesting post about the difficulties of serving corporate entities based upon a District of the District of Columbia case involving a pro se plaintiff. The best advice, of course, is to hire counsel because if you do not get the party served properly, you have no case. The Seventh Circuit affirmed Judge St. Eve's ground breaking opinion in the CLC v. Craigslist case. The Seventh Circuit held that an ISP is exempt from cases based upon user content when the case attempts to treat the ISP as a publisher of the content. This is considerably narrower than most of the other circuits, which have held that Section 230 exempts ISPs from essentially all suits based upon user content. For more coverage, check out the WSJ Law Blog (which erroneously elevates Judge St. Eve to the Seventh Circuit), Internet Cases, and the Technology & Marketing Law Blog (very detailed analysis of Judge Easterbrook's opinion). … Continue Reading
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