The federal district courts in Illinois will host two remote continuing legal education seminars on representing prisoners. The first seminar “Introduction to Prisoner Civil Rights Litigation” will be held on January 27, 2022 and the second seminar “Representing Prisoners in Medical Cases” will be held on February 3, 2022. Both seminars will be held from
Pro Bono
N.D. Illinois Requests Pro Bono Awards Nominations
The Northern District and the Chicago Chapter of the Federal Bar Association are seeking nominations – no later than March 15, 2019 – for outstanding pro bono and public interest representation in civil and criminal matters before the Court.
Factors considered include:
- dedication to pro bono or public interest work;
- outstanding achievement resulting from the
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N.D. Illinois Seeks Nomination for Pro Bono Excellence Awards
The Northern District and the Chicago Chapter of the Federal Bar Association are seeking nominations (by March 12, 2018) 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…
Nominations Open for N.D. Illinois Excellence in Pro Bono
The Northern District and the Chicago Chapter of the Federal Bar Association are seeking nominations (by April 3, 2015) 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…
Nominations Open for Northern District Excellence in Pro Bono and Public Interest Service Awards
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
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False In Forma Pauperis Application Does Not Warrant Dismissal
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.
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Eleventh 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. 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.
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Tenth Annual Northern District of Illinois Pro Bono Awards
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.
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Tenth 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. 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
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Blawg Review #173
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.
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