Podcasts about Chicago Bar Association

After a yuletide dinner in days of yore, a group of Chicago Bar Association members spiced up the evening with some delightful songs and sketches. Now, over a hundred years later, this tradition has grown into a full-fledged musical review, featuring an array of comedic and musical performances peppered with parodies of notable pop-culture moments. Mathew Kerbis and Kellie Snyder welcome cast members Carissa Meyer, Christopher Johnson, and Skip Harsch to learn about their experiences in theater, their involvement in the Bar Show community, and what this year's performance has in store!   The Chicago Bar Show will be performed on January 8, 10, and 11. To learn more, visit The Bar Show on the CBA website. And, tickets are selling fast! Purchase yours at barshow.org.

After a yuletide dinner in days of yore, a group of Chicago Bar Association members spiced up the evening with some delightful songs and sketches. Now, over a hundred years later, this tradition has grown into a full-fledged musical review, featuring an array of comedic and musical performances peppered with parodies of notable pop-culture moments. Mathew Kerbis and Kellie Snyder welcome cast members Carissa Meyer, Christopher Johnson, and Skip Harsch to learn about their experiences in theater, their involvement in the Bar Show community, and what this year's performance has in store!   The Chicago Bar Show will be performed on January 8, 10, and 11. To learn more, visit The Bar Show on the CBA website. And, tickets are selling fast! Purchase yours at barshow.org. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Chicago Bar Association is celebrating 150 years of championing justice, building connections and making an impact in Chicago and beyond. In this episode, Trisha Rich and Maggie Mendenhall Casey talk with the CBA's former Executive Director Terry Murphy about the history of The Chicago Bar Association, memorable moments from his five decades of leadership of the CBA, and the future of the legal profession as we conclude the CBA's 150th anniversary celebration.

The Chicago Bar Association is celebrating 150 years of championing justice, building connections and making an impact in Chicago and beyond. In this episode, Trisha Rich and Maggie Mendenhall Casey talk with the CBA's former Executive Director Terry Murphy about the history of The Chicago Bar Association, memorable moments from his five decades of leadership of the CBA, and the future of the legal profession as we conclude the CBA's 150th anniversary celebration.

The Chicago Bar Association is celebrating 150 years of championing justice, building connections and making an impact in Chicago and beyond. In this episode, Trisha Rich talks with CBA's current President Ray Koenig III about the state of the organized bar today, the benefits of bar association involvement, and the CBA's 150th anniversary celebration.

The Chicago Bar Association is celebrating 150 years of championing justice, building connections and making an impact in Chicago and beyond. In this episode, Trisha Rich talks with CBA's current President Ray Koenig III about the state of the organized bar today, the benefits of bar association involvement, and the CBA's 150th anniversary celebration.

A must-listen episode for anyone who handles nursing home cases!  We are thrilled to have guest Spencer Payne from Morgan and Morgan in Orlando break down a $12.35 million verdict on a nursing home bedsore case he tried with Keith Mitnik and what it took to get such an outstanding verdict.Host Matthew Heimlich is an attorney at Malman Law in Chicago, Illinois.  Matt's law practice is focused on the representation of injured victims and their families in nursing home negligence, medical malpractice and other personal injury cases. He is a member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.   Host John Risvold is a personal injury trial lawyer at The Collins Law Firm P.C., with offices in Naperville, Illinois.  He has dedicated his career to fighting those responsible for injuring his clients. He focuses his practice on medical negligence, nursing home neglect, and catastrophic personal injury. John is active in several professional organizations that work to ensure his clients' access to the courts remains intact, including the American Associate for Justice, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, and the Chicago Bar Association.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.  Email us at ontrialpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @OnTrialPodcast

Also in the news: Chicago Bar Association to make it easier to vote for judges; Chicagoans to now elect Chicago Board of Education members; Nonprofit to send emails to workplace harassers and more.

Also in the news: Chicago Bar Association to make it easier to vote for judges; Chicagoans to now elect Chicago Board of Education members; Nonprofit to send emails to workplace harassers and more.

Also in the news: Chicago Bar Association to make it easier to vote for judges; Chicagoans to now elect Chicago Board of Education members; Nonprofit to send emails to workplace harassers and more.

Suzanne Le Mignot serves as CBS2 Chicago's weekend news morning anchor and weekday reporter. Le Mignot joined the station in 1995 as a freelance reporter and became a full-time reporter in 1999. She has covered a wide variety of stories, with a particular concentration on community related events, including serving as a news correspondent for CBS2′s Southside neighborhood newsroom from 1999-2000. Prior to joining CBS2, Le Mignot was a news anchor and reporter for WBBM-AM Newsradio 780 (1994-99). She was a news anchor and reporter at WGN-AM (1996) and at WTMJ-AM in Milwaukee (1995-96), before returning to WBBM-AM in 1996. In 2007, LeMignot was honored by The Associated Press in the hard news feature category for her investigative report entitled "Tracking Your Security." Her investigation uncovered that bomb-sniffing dogs at Chicago's Metra train stations could not detect the passing scent of explosives. As a result of that story, Illinois passed a law that requires dog handlers to undergo 180 hours of rigorous training and to pass a new state exam. The report also earned LeMignot a Peter Lisagor Award in the in-depth reporting or series category and a Herman Kogan Award from the Chicago Bar Association. Le Mignot has won several other industry awards: a local and national Emmy for her breaking news reports on the Blue Line derailment (2008); a local and national Emmy Award for her breaking news reports about the death of Pope John Paul II (2005); the Illinois Broadcasters Association Silver Dome Award (1997); two Peter Lisagor Awards (1994 and 1996) and the National Association of Black Journalists Leadership Award, while a student (1993). She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and a Board Member of the National Association of Black Journalists Chicago Chapter. Le Mignot has served as a mentor and volunteer at Bunche Elementary School in Chicago's Englewood community. She regularly held workshops and planned field trips centered on building self-esteem for young girls. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago & Northwest Indiana. Additionally, she is on the Board of Directors of PAWS Chicago, the largest no-kill animal shelter in the Midwest. Le Mignot helped set up the first humane education program with PAWS in 2003. PAWS visits Chicago area schools, using the program to teach elementary school children about the importance of nurturing animals. The program is also used by the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago. Le Mignot has served on the Board of Directors of the Better Boys Foundation. The organization provides educational assistance to boys and girls in the North Lawndale community on Chicago's west side. Le Mignot is the recipient of the National Civil Rights Library 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award for her work in journalism. In 2017, she was inducted into the National Civil Rights Hall of Fame. In 2017, Le Mignot also received the "We Dream in Color" Michelle Obama Humanitarian Award for her reports that led to positive change in the lives of those who have endured challenging times. In 2019, Le Mignot won first place in the Chicago Journalists Association Sarah Brown Boyden Award Competition in the Public Service category for her "Misidentified Man" series of reports. The day before Le Mignot received the award, Senate Bill SB2309 was introduced on November 14, 2019. The bill would make fingerprinting and DNA testing mandatory in John and Jane Doe cases in Illinois. In 2021 she received The Shantieya Smith "We Fight for Her Award" by MOVE and YOVE (Mothers Opposed to Violence Everywhere and Youth Opposed to Violence Everywhere) for her reports bringing attention to missing and murdered black girls and women in Chicago. She was also chosen by Better Magazine in 2021 as one of the top 10 Black Women of Impact in Chicago and chosen by the America Nation Multicultural World Foundation as the 2021 Multicultural Woman of the Year. She has served as a Trustee of Ray Graham Association for People with Disabilities, an organization that supports children and adults with developmental disabilities in DuPage and Cook counties. Le Mignot is also on the Board of Trustees of Lifeline Humanitarian Organization. The group provides medical supplies and aid for war orphans throughout former Yugoslavia. She's on the Advisory Council for Smile Train, an organization that provides life-saving cleft-palate surgery for children in need around the world.

Got a case where a rideshare company is involved?  John and Matt discuss what to do and how to deal with rideshare companies in litigation, using John's recent successful settlement against a rideshare company's insurance as an example.  Host Matthew Heimlich is an attorney at Malman Law in Chicago, Illinois.  Matt's law practice is focused on the representation of injured victims and their families in nursing home negligence, medical malpractice and other personal injury cases. He is a member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.   Host John Risvold is a personal injury trial lawyer at The Collins Law Firm P.C., with offices in Naperville, Illinois.  He has dedicated his career to fighting those responsible for injuring his clients. He focuses his practice on medical negligence, nursing home neglect, and catastrophic personal injury. John is active in several professional organizations that work to ensure his clients' access to the courts remains intact, including the American Associate for Justice, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, and the Chicago Bar Association.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.  Email us at ontrialpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @OnTrialPodcast

There has been no shortage of headlines about the devastating impact that ransomware can have on an organization – big or small.  And if you're a fellow Texan, there's a good chance you heard about the recent, and massive attack that essentially crippled the city of Dallas.And yet when it comes to the world of technology, so many leaders, often older, are either aware of or worse, actively dismissive of the potential threats floating in the digital ether. And so while my guest and I will be looking at cyber security through the lenses of the justice system, I would argue that if you own a small business, or work with technology (so basically anyone), there's a lot to be learned from today's conversation. Daniel Cotter has been working on privacy and cybersecurity issues since 1996, including development of terms and conditions and disclaimers on Fortune 500 websites in the late 1990s.  Over his nearly 3 decades of practicing law, Dan has dealt with complex insurance regulatory issues and transactions, reorganizations of holding company systems and has substantial experience with internal investigations and employment-related issues. A past President of the Chicago Bar Association and an Adjunct Professor at the John Marshall Law School, Dan is also a prolific author of news and legal articles as well as the book, “The Chief Justices” an in-depth look at the 17 men who sat at the center seat.   Our conversation deals heavily with cyber security and the law, but we also touch on topics ranging from tips for young law students to Supreme Court history.  It was a fascinating conversation and I hope you'll join us. Enjoy the show! 

In today's episode we talk to Ryan Ferrante, a lawyer whose own experiences with infertility inspired him to pivot his career from tax law to assisted reproductive technology law.  Ryan focuses on third-party reproduction, representing intended parents, gestational surrogates, egg donors, sperm providers, and individuals pursuing arrangements utilizing assisted reproduction techniques.   Ryan is dedicated to raising awareness of the infertility community through professional and personal involvement, providing support of the continued progress in the treatment of infertility, and challenging the forces that might deny others the very same opportunity to be a parent for which he is so thankful.  Ryan earned his J.D. from The John Marshall Law School in Chicago and Bachelor's Degree in Finance from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. Ryan is a professional member of RESOLVE, the American Bar Association, the Illinois State Bar Association, and the Chicago Bar Association. More information about The Law Office of Ryan Ferrante can be found at https://www.ryanferrantelaw.com/, and Ryan can be contacted at ryan@ryanferrantelaw.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/medicus/message

While Craig is away on a well-deserved vacation, we wanted to do things a little bit differently, and share with you one of our favorite episodes from the Chicago Bar Association's @the Bar podcast. This episode is Defending Against Domestic Violent Extremism: A Discussion with Brian Michael Jenkins. We hope you enjoy it! ----- In this episode, host Jonathan Amarilio speaks with one of the world's leading authorities on terrorism and the man famously known for predicting 9/11, Brian Michael Jenkins of the RAND Corporation. They discuss Mr. Jenkins' historical work as an advisor to many U.S. Presidents and governments on terrorism, as well as the current state of domestic political violence and terrorism in America. In this riveting discussion, Mr. Jenkins shares his advice for how we can develop a pragmatic strategy to combat the rising tide of violence in today's tumultuous world.

While Craig is away on a well-deserved vacation, we wanted to do things a little bit differently, and share with you one of our favorite episodes from the Chicago Bar Association's @the Bar podcast. This episode is Defending Against Domestic Violent Extremism: A Discussion with Brian Michael Jenkins. We hope you enjoy it! ----- In this episode, host Jonathan Amarilio speaks with one of the world's leading authorities on terrorism and the man famously known for predicting 9/11, Brian Michael Jenkins of the RAND Corporation. They discuss Mr. Jenkins' historical work as an advisor to many U.S. Presidents and governments on terrorism, as well as the current state of domestic political violence and terrorism in America. In this riveting discussion, Mr. Jenkins shares his advice for how we can develop a pragmatic strategy to combat the rising tide of violence in today's tumultuous world.

On the episode, Jessica Brylo of Trial Dynamics talks with us about the benefits of focus groups and trial consultants, refining your case for trial, identifying and addressing what is driving juror decision making in your case, and picking a winning jury.Host Matthew Heimlich is an attorney at Malman Law in Chicago, Illinois.  Matt's law practice is focused on the representation of injured victims and their families in nursing home negligence, medical malpractice and other personal injury cases. He is a member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.   Host John Risvold is a personal injury trial lawyer at The Collins Law Firm P.C., with offices in Naperville, Illinois.  He has dedicated his career to fighting those responsible for injuring his clients. He focuses his practice on medical negligence, nursing home neglect, and catastrophic personal injury. John is active in several professional organizations that work to ensure his clients' access to the courts remains intact, including the American Associate for Justice, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, and the Chicago Bar Association.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.  Email us at ontrialpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @OnTrialPodcast

Jury selection may be the most important part of a trial.   John and Matt talk through different topics, questions and techniques for jury selection, with a focus on exposing juror bias and getting challenges for cause granted. Host Matthew Heimlich is an attorney at Malman Law in Chicago, Illinois.  Matt's law practice is focused on the representation of injured victims and their families in nursing home negligence, medical malpractice and other personal injury cases. He is a member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.   Host John Risvold is a personal injury trial lawyer at The Collins Law Firm P.C., with offices in Naperville, Illinois.  He has dedicated his career to fighting those responsible for injuring his clients. He focuses his practice on medical negligence, nursing home neglect, and catastrophic personal injury. John is active in several professional organizations that work to ensure his clients' access to the courts remains intact, including the American Associate for Justice, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, and the Chicago Bar Association.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.  Email us at ontrialpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @OnTrialPodcast

Chicago trial attorney Brian LaCien is a founding partner with Todd A. Smith of Smith LaCien LLP. Together they have a lengthy track record of achieving exceptional results for clients, with more than $2.5 billion in verdicts and settlements, and over 100 cases with results of at least $1 million.  Smith LaCien was ranked in the October-November 2022 issue of Chicago Lawyer as the number-one firm in mass tort/litigation for a $42 million settlement and was listed in the magazine as among the top 10 personal injury firms for the total amount of recoveries. Compiled by the Jury Verdict Reporter, the results were from its reporting cycle between August 1, 2021 – July 31, 2022.   Brian began his career as an assistant legal counsel to the Illinois House of Representatives. He joined Power Rogers & Smith and practiced personal injury law for many years before leaving to start Smith LaCien LLP in March 2020.  Brian received a J.D., magna cum laude, from DePaul University College of Law, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa in Iowa City.  For a free consultation, call Smith LaCien at (312) 586-8717 or send an email to: info@smithlacien.com. Smith LaCien LLP is located at 70 W. Madison, Suite 2250, Chicago, IL 60602.  Illinois State Bar Association, Chair, Tort Law Section  American Association for Justice (AAJ), Chair, Aviation Section  Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, Board of Managers,Appointed to represent Illinois on the Board of Governors of the AAJ  Chicago Bar Association  Illinois Super Lawyers since 2011, Previously a “Rising Star”  Illinois Leading Lawyers since 2014, “Top Ten Emerging Lawyer”  Best Lawyers of America  Lawdragon Publishing “Top 500 Leading Lawyers in America,”2022  Law 360 National Conference, Damages and Marijuana in personal injury lawsuits, 2022    Guest lecturer, Practical skills training and fundamental litigation techniques for new lawyers program, Greenhorn Legal LLC, 2013 to 2015  Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/brian-lacien-1572a38 Smith Lacien, LLP: smithlacien.com Learn more about EmotionTrac and our AI-driven Emotional Intelligence Platform: https://emotiontrac.com/calendly/

This week we're replaying a classic episode where your hosts Steve Lowry and Yvonne Godfrey interview Ian Alexander, Katrina Taraska, and Joseph Preiser of Goldberg & Goldberg (https://www.chicagomedicalmalpracticefirm.com/).   Remember to rate and review GTP in iTunes: Click Here to Rate and Review   Episode Details: Chicago trial lawyers Ian Alexander, Katrina Taraska, and Joseph Preiser of Goldberg & Goldberg share how they successfully represented 25-year-old model Irma Sabanovic's grieving family after Irma drove her car over an unmarked curb and drowned in the Chicago River. In May 2011, Irma drove her Ford Focus to Goose Island to pick up her boyfriend from a late-night performance at a nightclub and got lost on a dead-end street bisected by the Chicago River. Due to the City of Chicago's failure to maintain barriers or provide warnings to motorists --despite knowledge of a similar incident that occurred more than a decade earlier -- Irma unknowingly drove her car over the curb and into the water. After an extensive search, her body was discovered nine days later in her vehicle. At trial, the defense attempted to blame Irma for her own wrongful death, insinuating she was drunk, driving impaired, and not paying attention. In May 2016, a Cook County, Illinois jury awarded Irma's family $13,890,000 in damages, delivering the #6 verdict in Illinois in 2016.  View/Download Trial Documents   Guest Bios: Katrina M. Taraska Originally from the East Coast, Katrina M. Taraska grew up in a family of seven in Peoria, Illinois. Her mother was a language teacher proficient in French, Italian and Spanish who devoted her time to the enrichment of the lives of her students while teaching at area schools. Her father, a dedicated pathologist, was one of the four original founders of the Midwest affiliate of St. Jude Children's Hospital, which provides care to children with childhood diseases. Unique to Ms. Taraska's chosen career in personal injury law, she was the victim of a propane gas explosion, in which a commercial building collapsed on her, her mother, her brother, and a close family friend. The explosion left Taraska with extensive second and third-degree burns early in her life. She was hospitalized for 3 months, during which she underwent skin grafting of her arms, legs, hands, and chest. Incredibly, a year prior to the explosion, Ms. Taraska's father and a reconstructive surgeon opened the only downstate burn unit in Peoria where she was successfully treated despite the severity of her burns. It is this life-changing event that has played a significant role in Ms. Taraska's career of representing the injured. After graduating from law school Ms. Taraska has successfully represented clients and their families in complex litigation. In 1995, Katrina Taraska began practicing law in downstate Illinois where she grew up. In 2000 she became a partner with a Peoria law firm where she enjoyed the privilege of advocating for her clients in their respective claims for personal injuries, medical negligence, worker's compensation, and employment discrimination. She frequently appeared before the Circuit Court of Peoria County, Illinois, the Illinois Department of Human Rights, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Employment Security, and in the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois. In 2009, Ms. Taraska joined the Chicago law firm of Goldberg & Goldberg, where she continued her professional experience as a Plaintiff's lawyer in tort litigation. As a focus of her practice, she concentrates on representing individuals and their families in catastrophic medical malpractice and wrongful death claims. Her cases have involved spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, complications from surgical procedures, cardiovascular injuries, birth injuries, interventional radiology, infections, negligence in the diagnosis and treatment of injuries involving alleged abuse and neglect, gynecological and obstetric injuries, and products liability cases. Ms. Taraska also represents individuals involved in transportation accidents (railroad grade crossings, motor vehicle accidents, and semi-truck collisions), as well as premises liability claims, and injuries from assault, battery, and false imprisonment. Throughout her career, Ms. Taraska has been active in professional organizations including the Peoria County Bar Association, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, the American Inns of Court (Abraham Lincoln Chapter), the National Employment Lawyers Association, and the Chicago Bar Association. She has been a guest writer for the Peoria Woman Magazine and enjoys mentoring younger lawyers in their professional endeavors. Ms. Taraska is a member of the Catholic Church and is active in the service of those individuals in need in the local community. Read Full Bio   Ian R. Alexander Mr. Alexander concentrates his practice on representing the victims of catastrophic injuries in the areas of medical malpractice and complex personal injury litigation. Mr. Alexander first joined Goldberg & Goldberg in 1999 and became a partner in 2004. Mr. Alexander has tried to verdict and/ or settled numerous medical malpractice, product liability, aviation, railroad, construction negligence, and other complex personal injury cases. Mr. Alexander has been appointed to the plaintiff's steering committee in the litigation arising out of the Amtrak-Bourbonnais Train Disaster, the Hinkley Air Disaster, and the Oshkosh Mid-Air Disaster, among other litigation. Mr. Alexander has published articles regularly on issues pertaining to medical malpractice litigation. Mr. Alexander was raised in north suburban Chicago and attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his legal education at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. Mr. Alexander is admitted to practice before the Illinois Bar and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He is also a member of the Federal Trial Bar. Mr. Alexander is married and has two children. He resides with his family in Highland Park, IL. Read Full Bio   Joseph Preiser Born in Chicago, Illinois, Joseph M. Preiser grew up in the suburbs of Oak Park and River Forest. Joseph's father, a personal injury attorney, unintentionally set Joseph on a path toward a career in law. From an early age, often unbeknownst to his father, Joseph read his father's books authored by prominent trial attorneys including, Gerry Spence, Robert Shapiro, Irving Younger, and Vincent Bugliosi, sparking Joseph's interest in law and justice. After graduating from Oak Park-River Forest High School, Joseph attended the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. While pursuing his undergraduate degree, Joseph began to hone his skills as a trial lawyer by participating on the University of Illinois' Mock Trial team. During his senior year, Joseph's team won the Regional Mock Trial Championship and competed in the Mock Trial National Championship in Des Moines, Iowa. In 2006, after working for a year at a large Chicago law firm, Joseph received an Honors Scholarship and enrolled at Loyola University in the Juris Doctorate and MBA programs. While attending law and business school, Joseph worked as a judicial extern for Cook County Circuit Court Judge Thomas L. Hogan and as a traffic prosecutor for the City of Chicago, where he prosecuted over 185 bench trials to verdict. In 2009, Joseph graduated with a joint J.D./M.B.A. degree. While earning his degrees, Joseph obtained recognition on the Dean's List, was a participant on the Health Law Moot Court team, assisted at Loyola's Business Law Clinic, obtained his M.B.A. with honors, and became a Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society member. After graduation, Joseph immediately went to work for the Cook County State's Attorney's office as an Assistant State's Attorney. In his first year, Joseph authored and filed more than 30 appellate briefs in the Illinois Appellate Court, First District. Notably, Joseph authored the State's brief in People v. Tripp, a matter of first impression in Illinois, in which the Appellate Court agreed with Joseph's position and published an opinion in his favor. Joseph also argued on behalf of the State before the Illinois Appellate Court in People v. Primbas, an animal cruelty case that resulted in the death of a Rottweiler, where the Appellate Court again agreed with Joseph and published an opinion in his favor. For the following four years, Joseph worked in the Traffic Division where he prosecuted DUIs and represented the victims of automobile crashes. During his time in the Traffic Division Joseph refined his skills in the courtroom, prosecuting over 600 trials to verdict including 14 jury trials. In recognition of his performance and dedication, the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists awarded Joseph with a Certificate of Recognition and Achievement. In late 2014, Joseph was assigned to the State's Attorney's Office's Felony Review Unit. During his time, he spoke to victims of crimes, Mirandized and obtained statements from violent offenders, reviewed evidence, and provided consultation on charging decisions to law enforcement agencies throughout Cook County. In 2015, Joseph joined Goldberg & Goldberg where he continued his practice as a civil trial lawyer with a concentration on representing the victims of medical malpractice. Joseph is involved in all matters related to the trial of these complex civil litigation matters, including taking and defending depositions, drafting and arguing contested motions, attending court, and assisting on all of the firm's catastrophic medical malpractice and wrongful death claims. Joseph has specialized knowledge in Illinois Traffic Law and crash investigations, particularly as they affect victims in car crashes, motorcycle crashes, and pedestrian injuries. Dedicated to the needs of all of his friends and clients, Joseph is willing to lend his assistance on any law-related matter. Joseph relishes the opportunity to work with and learn from the other talented lawyers at Goldberg & Goldberg. Joseph appreciates the firm's devotion to their clients, their comprehensive commitment to preparation, and their unrelenting fearlessness in the courtroom. Read Full Bio   Show Sponsors: Legal Technology Services - LegalTechService.com Digital Law Marketing - DigitalLawMarketing.com Harris Lowry Manton LLP - hlmlawfirm.com   Free Resources: Stages Of A Jury Trial - Part 1 Stages Of A Jury Trial - Part 2

Karen Covy is a Divorce Coach, Lawyer, Author and Speaker who is committed to helping people make the best, most effective choices during one of life's most turbulent times. She is the author of When Happily Ever After Ends: How to Survive Your Divorce Emotionally, Financially, and Legally. Karen is also a former adjunct law professor, former Chief of the Civil Actions Bureau for the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, and former trial lawyer at Querrey & Harrow. Karen graduated from Western Michigan University and the University of Notre Dame Law School. She is a member of numerous bar and professional associations, including the American Bar Association, the Association of Family and Conciliatory Courts, EPWNG, WESOS and NAWBO. She has also been a member of the Chicago Bar Association, The Illinois State Bar Association, The Collaborative Law Institute of Illinois, and the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals. Karen is a popular speaker and has been featured on the Channel 7 News, WCIU You and Me This Morning, and on numerous radio shows and podcasts. Listen to this informative The Confident Retirement episode with Karen Covy about divorce done right. Here is what to expect on this week's show: ●     How a divorce coach is different than utilizing an attorney. ●     Coaching is about 3 things… ●     Common fears working with a divorce coach. ●     How does Karen help people make better decisions? ●     How to decide whether you want to divorce or not. ●     Karen's biggest opportunity in her business.   Connect with Karen: https://karencovy.com/divorce-blog/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What are privacy policy best practices?What are the differences between privacy policies, cookie policies and terms and conditions? How can you ensure you're compliant with the correct policies in your country? Donata Stroink-Skillrud is an attorney licensed in Illinois and a Certified Information Privacy Professional. She is the President and Legal Engineer behind Termageddon, a SaaS that has generated thousands of website policies and kept them up to date with changing legislation. Donata is the Chair of the American Bar Association's ePrivacy Committee, SciTech Liaison to the ABA Cybersecurity Legal Task Force and Chair of the Chicago Bar Association's Privacy and Cybersecurity Committee. Donata gives listeners actionable tips on: [2:10] Best practices when it comes to privacy policies [4:25] The difference between terms and conditions, cookies and privacy policies [7:10] The standards when it comes to cookie policies  [13:05] Why you should never copy and paste someone else's privacy policy  [15:40] What's at risk when you don't have the correct privacy policies in place [22:10] Donata's book review Resources mentioned in this episode:The Everything Store by Brad StoneConnect with Donata here: Instagram Twitter LinkedIn Facebook https://termageddon.com/  Connect with me Instagram Pinterest Facebook Twitter Karin on Twitter Karin on LinkedIn Conroy Creative Counsel on Facebook https://conroycreativecounsel.com 

What are privacy policy best practices? What are the differences between privacy policies, cookie policies and terms and conditions?  How can you ensure you're compliant with the correct policies in your country?  Donata Stroink-Skillrud is an attorney licensed in Illinois and a Certified Information Privacy Professional. She is the President and Legal Engineer behind Termageddon, a SaaS that has generated thousands of website policies and kept them up to date with changing legislation. Donata is the Chair of the American Bar Association's ePrivacy Committee, SciTech Liaison to the ABA Cybersecurity Legal Task Force and Chair of the Chicago Bar Association's Privacy and Cybersecurity Committee.   Donata gives listeners actionable tips on: [2:10] Best practices when it comes to privacy policies [4:25] The difference between terms and conditions, cookies and privacy policies [7:10] The standards when it comes to cookie policies  [13:05] Why you should never copy and paste someone else's privacy policy  [15:40] What's at risk when you don't have the correct privacy policies in place [22:10] Donata's book review Resources mentioned in this episode: The Everything Store by Brad Stone Connect with Donata here: Instagram Twitter LinkedIn Facebook https://termageddon.com/  Connect with me Instagram Pinterest Facebook Twitter Karin on Twitter Karin on LinkedIn Conroy Creative Counsel on Facebook https://conroycreativecounsel.com 

What are privacy policy best practices? What are the differences between privacy policies, cookie policies and terms and conditions?  How can you ensure you're compliant with the correct policies in your country?  Donata Stroink-Skillrud is an attorney licensed in Illinois and a Certified Information Privacy Professional. She is the President and Legal Engineer behind Termageddon, a SaaS that has generated thousands of website policies and kept them up to date with changing legislation. Donata is the Chair of the American Bar Association's ePrivacy Committee, SciTech Liaison to the ABA Cybersecurity Legal Task Force and Chair of the Chicago Bar Association's Privacy and Cybersecurity Committee.   Donata gives listeners actionable tips on: [2:10] Best practices when it comes to privacy policies [4:25] The difference between terms and conditions, cookies and privacy policies [7:10] The standards when it comes to cookie policies  [13:05] Why you should never copy and paste someone else's privacy policy  [15:40] What's at risk when you don't have the correct privacy policies in place [22:10] Donata's book review Resources mentioned in this episode: The Everything Store by Brad Stone Connect with Donata here: Instagram Twitter LinkedIn Facebook https://termageddon.com/  Connect with me Instagram Pinterest Facebook Twitter Karin on Twitter Karin on LinkedIn Conroy Creative Counsel on Facebook https://conroycreativecounsel.com 

*Tim Tomasik, President of the Chicago Bar Association, joins the show to urge voters to ignore television ads focused on the judge elections.  *ABC News Correspondent Andy Field sheds some light on a recent poll: did anyone's views change after the January 6th hearings? *Steve Cochran, WLS Morning Show Host, joins the show to put “Chair Gate 2022” to bed once and for all.  *Plus, Associate Producer Rachel has the inside scoop on the latest Bears trade.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

*Tim Tomasik, President of the Chicago Bar Association, joins the show to urge voters to ignore television ads focused on the judge elections.  *ABC News Correspondent Andy Field sheds some light on a recent poll: did anyone's views change after the January 6th hearings? *Steve Cochran, WLS Morning Show Host, joins the show to put “Chair Gate 2022” to bed once and for all.  *Plus, Associate Producer Rachel has the inside scoop on the latest Bears trade.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When a new case with a comprehensive analysis of the standards for bad faith gets published, we are all ears.  John and Matt go through the case in detail in order to distill and refine what needs to be shown in order to get insurance carriers on the hook for failing to settle policy limits cases, exposing conflicts of interest between defense counsel and their client, and more!Host Matthew Heimlich is an attorney at Malman Law in Chicago, Illinois.  Matt's law practice is focused on the representation of injured victims and their families in nursing home negligence, medical malpractice and other personal injury cases. He is a member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.   Host John Risvold is a personal injury trial lawyer at The Collins Law Firm P.C., with offices in Naperville, Illinois.  He has dedicated his career to fighting those responsible for injuring his clients. He focuses his practice on medical negligence, nursing home neglect, and catastrophic personal injury. John is active in several professional organizations that work to ensure his clients' access to the courts remains intact, including the American Associate for Justice, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, and the Chicago Bar Association.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.  Email us at ontrialpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @OnTrialPodcast

George T. Dowd III, founder of G. Dowd Law LLC, in Chicago, joins us this month to talk about cryptocurrency and digital assets.  Our conversation includes the interesting history of digital assets, how different currencies can be used, and the implications of crypto for Illinois attorneys. George T. Dowd III is one of the authors of IICLE's Digital, Assets, Cryptocurrencies, and Blockchain handbook. He provides subject matter expert consulting services related to the foreign exchange, futures, cryptocurrency, and metals markets and has testified as an expert before the National Futures Association, FINRA, and the London Court of International Arbitration. He has given presentations, or lectured, at the People's Bank of China (Shanghai), the DePaul University Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, the National Futures Association, and the Chicago Bar Association's Futures and Derivatives Law Committee. He has appeared frequently on CNBC, Bloomberg Television, and Fox Business. Mr. Dowd was with Société Générale (via predecessor firms Fimat and Newedge) from 2007 through 2015, where he was Head of the Chicago Foreign Exchange Desk and Head of Foreign Exchange Sales for the America's. Prior to 2007, he established the Spectrum Currency Program at Spectrum Asset Management, Inc., and held senior foreign exchange roles at JP Morgan Chase & Co., Bank of America, and Credit Suisse. He served on the Board of Directors of the Global Digital Asset & Cryptocurrency Association in 2020 and 2021. He holds a B.A. from the College of the Holy Cross, a J.D. from the DePaul University College of Law, and is admitted to practice law in Illinois.Music: Fearless First Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Arbitration clauses seem to be everywhere.  And they can be devastating to personal injury cases, unless you know how to fight back against them.  Listen for rules, cases, and strategies to knock out arbitration clauses before they get your cases kicked out of court.Host Matthew Heimlich is an attorney at Malman Law in Chicago, Illinois.  Matt's law practice is focused on the representation of injured victims and their families in nursing home negligence, medical malpractice and other personal injury cases. He is a member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.   Host John Risvold is a personal injury trial lawyer at The Collins Law Firm P.C., with offices in Naperville, Illinois.  He has dedicated his career to fighting those responsible for injuring his clients. He focuses his practice on medical negligence, nursing home neglect, and catastrophic personal injury. John is active in several professional organizations that work to ensure his clients' access to the courts remains intact, including the American Associate for Justice, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, and the Chicago Bar Association.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.  Email us at ontrialpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @OnTrialPodcast

Jim Doppke is a member of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers, the Illinois State Bar Association, the Chicago Bar Association, and the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility. He is currently serving as Co-Chair of the CBA's Professional Responsibility Committee. Learn more: https://rsmdlaw.com/our-team/jim-doppke-illinois-legal-ethics-attorney/

Is it true?  Or is it a common misconception?  John and Matt tackle their top 5 med mal myths, explaining the truth to your clients, and strategies to keep your cases on track.Host Matthew Heimlich is an attorney at Malman Law in Chicago, Illinois.  Matt's law practice is focused on the representation of injured victims and their families in nursing home negligence, medical malpractice and other personal injury cases. He is a member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.   Host John Risvold is a personal injury trial lawyer at The Collins Law Firm P.C., with offices in Naperville, Illinois.  He has dedicated his career to fighting those responsible for injuring his clients. He focuses his practice on medical negligence, nursing home neglect, and catastrophic personal injury. John is active in several professional organizations that work to ensure his clients' access to the courts remains intact, including the American Associate for Justice, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, and the Chicago Bar Association.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.  Email us at ontrialpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @OnTrialPodcast

This is part 2 of 2 David Lee returns to answer questions from Nela Illinois members Attorney David L. Lee has practiced and taught law for over forty years. From 1984 to 1991, Attorney Lee was a full-time clinical professor at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law's nationally-recognized clinic on employment discrimination. Since approximately 1984, Attorney Lee has concentrated his practice on representing employees in severance negotiations, contract negotiations, discrimination claims, harassment claims, retaliation claims, wrongful-discharge claims, overtime claims, wage claims, commission claims, and employee-benefit claims. Attorney Lee is a member of the Chicago Bar Association, the National Employment Lawyers Association, and the Section of Labor and Employment Law of the American Bar Association. He speaks frequently to lawyers and human resources personnel on issues concerning employment law and is a Hearing Officer for the Cook County Commission on Human Rights and an arbitrator for the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, the National Association of Securities Dealers, and the National Futures Association. He has also published extensively on employment law, legal writing, civil procedure, and other aspects of the practice of law.

Jim Doppke is a member of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers, the Illinois State Bar Association, the Chicago Bar Association, and the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility. He is currently serving as Co-Chair of the CBA's Professional Responsibility Committee. Learn more: https://rsmdlaw.com

What are the most common (and avoidable) things that lawyers and clients do to lose their cases?  John and Matt have a lively discussion about their top ten, and strategies to plan for and avoid these pitfalls.Host Matthew Heimlich is an attorney at Malman Law in Chicago, Illinois.  Matt's law practice is focused on the representation of injured victims and their families in nursing home negligence, medical malpractice and other personal injury cases. He is a member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.   Host John Risvold is a personal injury trial lawyer at The Collins Law Firm P.C., with offices in Naperville, Illinois.  He has dedicated his career to fighting those responsible for injuring his clients. He focuses his practice on medical negligence, nursing home neglect, and catastrophic personal injury. John is active in several professional organizations that work to ensure his clients' access to the courts remains intact, including the American Associate for Justice, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, and the Chicago Bar Association.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.  Email us at ontrialpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @OnTrialPodcast

David Lee returns to answer questions from Nela Illinois members in part one of two episodes. Attorney David L. Lee has practiced and taught law for over forty years. From 1984 to 1991, Attorney Lee was a full-time clinical professor at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law's nationally-recognized clinic on employment discrimination. Since approximately 1984, Attorney Lee has concentrated his practice on representing employees in severance negotiations, contract negotiations, discrimination claims, harassment claims, retaliation claims, wrongful-discharge claims, overtime claims, wage claims, commission claims, and employee-benefit claims. Attorney Lee is a member of the Chicago Bar Association, the National Employment Lawyers Association, and the Section of Labor and Employment Law of the American Bar Association. He speaks frequently to lawyers and human resources personnel on issues concerning employment law and is a Hearing Officer for the Cook County Commission on Human Rights and an arbitrator for the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, the National Association of Securities Dealers, and the National Futures Association. He has also published extensively on employment law, legal writing, civil procedure, and other aspects of the practice of law.

We are thrilled to be joined by Kathryn Conway of Power Rogers in Chicago, who discussed her recent $8 million verdict in a medical malpractice case.   Kate shares her insight and experience about effectively communicating difficult medical concepts, simplifying the case, addressing damages in jury selection and the many other factors that led to this amazing result. Host Matthew Heimlich is an attorney at Malman Law in Chicago, Illinois.  Matt's law practice is focused on the representation of injured victims and their families in nursing home negligence, medical malpractice and other personal injury cases. He is a member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.   Host John Risvold is a personal injury trial lawyer at The Collins Law Firm P.C., with offices in Naperville, Illinois.  He has dedicated his career to fighting those responsible for injuring his clients. He focuses his practice on medical negligence, nursing home neglect, and catastrophic personal injury. John is active in several professional organizations that work to ensure his clients' access to the courts remains intact, including the American Associate for Justice, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, and the Chicago Bar Association.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.  Email us at ontrialpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @OnTrialPodcast

On this episode, Matt and John address five common misconceptions surrounding the legal process for personal injury claims and cases.  John and Matt get real about claim timelines, low initial settlement offers, settlement delays, and other issues they see in their practice every day that is missing in the public perception of injury cases and the lawyers who prosecute them.  Host Matthew Heimlich is an attorney at Malman Law in Chicago, Illinois.  Matt's law practice is focused on the representation of injured victims and their families in nursing home negligence, medical malpractice and other personal injury cases. He is a member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.   Host John Risvold is a personal injury trial lawyer at The Collins Law Firm P.C., with offices in Naperville, Illinois.  He has dedicated his career to fighting those responsible for injuring his clients. He focuses his practice on medical negligence, nursing home neglect, and catastrophic personal injury. John is active in several professional organizations that work to ensure his clients' access to the courts remains intact, including the American Associate for Justice, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, and the Chicago Bar Association.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.  Email us at ontrialpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @OnTrialPodcast

Today I have two guests - Lauren Lester and Jessica Bednarz. Lauren is an attorney operating outside of Denver, Colorado, and has a client based law firm focusing on Family Law principally. It's really interesting how she structured her law firm to be client centered and to take full advantage of the limited scope opportunities and productize the packaging of legal services to meet her client needs. Jessica has formerly worked  with the Chicago Bar Association, and then went on to work for the Chicago Bar Foundation.  She now works in the incubation program leading that program for CBF and helps to turn out new law firms that get away from the billable hour model and are doing a similar thing to what Lauren was doing with her practice in Colorado. Now they've teamed up, and amongst other things, are offering some services and resources known as on purpose legal services. I think it's a fascinating mixture of the two. And I hope you enjoy hearing about it as much as I did learning.   In this episode, Neil, Lauren, and Jessica discuss: Reasons you may decide to go into your own law firm.   Looking outside of the law field to see what you like when designing your business or pricing structure.  Client-centered communication and guides.  Creating modern, profitable law firms.    Key Takeaways: Build a business that you would want to be a client of.  Have open dialogue with clear language when communicating with your clients regarding payment and expectations.  Be open to opportunities as they come up, taking care of clients is not a risk.  D   "What we're trying to do is create resources for lawyers, so that they can create modern practices that are client-centric, profitable, and, at the same time, also support their well being. At the end of the day, we want the legal profession to remain healthy and relevant as the legal profession plays a really important part in society." —  Jessica Bednarz Get in touch with Lauren & Jessica On Purpose Legal: https://adifferentpractice.com/ (https://adifferentpractice.com/)  Chicago Bar Foundation: https://chicagobarfoundation.org/ (https://chicagobarfoundation.org/)  Lester Law: https://www.mylifelawyer.com/ (https://www.mylifelawyer.com/)  Law Guides: https://colawguides.com/ (https://colawguides.com/)  The Pricing Toolkit: https://thepricingtoolkit.com/ (https://thepricingtoolkit.com/)  Lauren's Email: LaurenLester@MyLifeLawyer.com  Jessica's Email: JBednarz@ChicagoBarFoundation.org  Lauren's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mslaurenlester/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mslaurenlester/)  Jessica's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicabednarzlawyerchicago/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicabednarzlawyerchicago/)    Thank you to our sponsors! http://callruby.com/lawentrepreneur (Ruby Receptionist) - Virtual receptionist & live call services that will help you grow your office (and save money), one call at a time - to learn more, go to http://callruby.com/lawentrepreneur (callruby.com/lawentrepreneur) or call 844.895.7829 Coach Rockwell - Mark Rockwell works with lawyers who are frustrated by their inability to scale up and become more profitable. He helps them create their vision, and implement an operating platform that builds healthy, thriving law firms. Reach out to him at mark@coachrockwell.com or 503.784.7205 Get in touch with Neil: Website: https://thelawentrepreneur.com/ (https://thelawentrepreneur.com/) Twitter: https://twitter.com/lawentrepreneur (https://twitter.com/lawentrepreneur) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelawentrepreneur/?ref=hl (https://www.facebook.com/thelawentrepreneur/?ref=hl) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyralawfirm/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyralawfirm/) If you've enjoyed the podcast, http://getpodcast.reviews/id/1086406592 (please head to Apple...

Attorney David L. Lee has practiced and taught law for over forty years. From 1984 to 1991, Attorney Lee was a full-time clinical professor at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law's nationally-recognized clinic on employment discrimination. Since approximately 1984, Attorney Lee has concentrated his practice on representing employees in severance negotiations, contract negotiations, discrimination claims, harassment claims, retaliation claims, wrongful-discharge claims, overtime claims, wage claims, commission claims, and employee-benefit claims. Attorney Lee is a member of the Chicago Bar Association, the National Employment Lawyers Association, and the Section of Labor and Employment Law of the American Bar Association. He speaks frequently to lawyers and human resources personnel on issues concerning employment law and is a Hearing Officer for the Cook County Commission on Human Rights and an arbitrator for the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, the National Association of Securities Dealers, and the National Futures Association. He has also published extensively on employment law, legal writing, civil procedure, and other aspects of the practice of law.

We've talked to attorneys on this podcast who represent clients' needs in distinct, niche areas of the law. But what about lawyers? They're humans with needs and a few flaws, just like the rest of us. Who do they call when they need a lawyer to represent them? If they're smart, they will hire today's guest.Meet Trisha Rich. A first-generation college graduate from a tiny town in Michigan, Trisha is a partner with international law firm Holland & Knight, based in Chicago and New York. Her practice focuses largely on legal ethics and professional responsibility matters, meaning she represents lawyers and law firms when they get into trouble or need legal assistance.  But Trish''s devotion to the legal community doesn't stop there. She writes a column about professional responsibility ethics, teaches legal ethics at Northwestern Pritzker Law School and NYU, and co-hosts a Chicago Bar Association podcast. Oh, and she also helped create the Attorney Defense Initiative to help lawyers with disciplinary and wellness issues. None of it would have happened without a chance encounter she had while working at McDonald's in high school. Don't miss this episode.  

We've talked to attorneys on this podcast who represent clients' needs in distinct, niche areas of the law. But what about lawyers? They're humans with needs and a few flaws, just like the rest of us. Who do they call when they need a lawyer to represent them? If they're smart, they will hire today's guest.Meet Trisha Rich. A first-generation college graduate from a tiny town in Michigan, Trisha is a partner with international law firm Holland & Knight, based in Chicago and New York. Her practice focuses largely on legal ethics and professional responsibility matters, meaning she represents lawyers and law firms when they get into trouble or need legal assistance.  But Trish''s devotion to the legal community doesn't stop there. She writes a column about professional responsibility ethics, teaches legal ethics at Northwestern Pritzker Law School and NYU, and co-hosts a Chicago Bar Association podcast. Oh, and she also helped create the Attorney Defense Initiative to help lawyers with disciplinary and wellness issues. None of it would have happened without a chance encounter she had while working at McDonald's in high school. Don't miss this episode.  

This episode was worth the wait!  Sara Davis, partner at Cogan & Power in Chicago goes through what it takes to win a $51 million verdict in a conservative county during a pandemic.  Sara shares trial tips, techniques for proving up catastrophic damages, and what she learned from her trial experience.  Host Matthew Heimlich is an attorney at Malman Law in Chicago, Illinois.  Matt's law practice is focused on the representation of injured victims and their families in nursing home negligence, medical malpractice and other personal injury cases. He is a member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.   Host John Risvold is a personal injury trial lawyer at The Collins Law Firm P.C., with offices in Naperville, Illinois.  He has dedicated his career to fighting those responsible for injuring his clients. He focuses his practice on medical negligence, nursing home neglect, and catastrophic personal injury. John is active in several professional organizations that work to ensure his clients' access to the courts remains intact, including the American Associate for Justice, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, and the Chicago Bar Association.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.  Email us at ontrialpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @OnTrialPodcast

Gregg Garofalo is the Founding Partner at Garofalo Law Group, he has been practicing law for 20 years with a strong focus on probate matters and estate planning. Gregg talks about when it's right to do estate planning and what are some basic estate planning one should have outright. Gregg also talks about estate planning if you have a special needs child, how you can maximize their benefit to give them the best care they can receive from both your estate and the government. Lastly, he talks about how estate planning must be revisited at least annually to review how it can be adjusted to changes in the family's life, decisions, circumstances, or just life in general.  Timestamps:When is a good time to consider estate planning? (7:35)A guardianship estate for your college kids(12:35)Setting up a special needs trust (14:39)Estate planning and COVID, Cryptocurrency, and other changes(22:35) “It's never early to start planning - literally, we tell parents that when your kids turn 18, they should come in and do the basic estate plan...” - Gregg Garofalo Gregg Garofalo of Garofalo Law GroupWebsite: www.glgfirm.comTwitter: https://twitter.com/GreggGarofaloLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregg-garofalo/ Gregg Garofalo, Founding Partner at Garofalo Law GroupEstate PlanningGregg has been practicing law for the past 20 years with a strong focus on probate matters and estate planning. As a father of a daughter with special needs, he is passionate about educating families on how they can achieve their estate planning goals. As a result of Gregg's vast experience, character and devotion to clients, the families he serves can rest assured that he will do everything he can to meet all of their expectations. Gregg is frequently appointed by the Court to serve as a Guardian ad litem in Guardianship matters. He is also routinely appointed by the Court as a Special Administrator in complex probate matters.Gregg is an active member of the legal community, where he is serving or has served in several leadership roles within the Illinois Bar Association and the Chicago Bar Association. Gregg is a past Chair of the Chicago Bar Association's Probate Practice Committee, where he served two years as Chair. Gregg is also a past Chair of the Illinois State Bar Association's Young Lawyers Division, a member of the Trusts & Estates Council, and starting his third term as a member of the General Assembly after taking the mandatory one year off between terms.Gregg serves as a member of the Illinois State Bar Association's mentor program, and a speaker in the area of probate and trusts and estates.In addition to his passion for law, Gregg works with professional and civic organizations. Gregg has worked with the Children's Assistance Fund and the Illinois Bar Foundation chairing their annual holiday party, which has grossed over $150,000 during his ten-year involvement. Gregg is also a Past President of the Justinian Society of Lawyers, a past board member of the Italian American Political Coalition, and a board member of the Justinian Society Children's Endowment Fund. In addition, Gregg volunteers for the Central Illinois Sheltie Rescue. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregg-garofalo/ Have comments, questions, or concerns? Contact us at feedback@1958lawyer.com Episode Transcript:Ron Bockstahler  0:29  Welcome to the 1958 lawyer. Good to have you here. today. We got an outstanding guest, by the way, I'm your host, Ron inboxdollars. So my good friend, Attorney Greg Garofalo is joining us today Greg has been practicing law for more than 20 years helping families achieve their long range goals through proper estate planning Greg's a father to a daughter with special needs. So he has Insider's an insider's view and planning for a child's long term care. He also serves as a court appointed to guardianship matters in guardianship matters, and complex probate matters. God I've known Greg for 20 plus years, his activities in legal and charitable organizations are too many to mention, but he does serve in leadership roles with the Illinois Bar Association, the Chicago Bar Association, he's the chair of the CPAs, probate practice committee president or past president of the Justinian Society of lawyers. He's a board member with Justinian society, children's endowment fund, where he's helped raise a lot of money. And maybe most important of all, he's a volunteer with the central Illinois Sheltie rescue, Greg's had many, many shelties, since I've known as well kind of chat a little about that, Greg, welcome to the show.Gregg Garofalo  1:29  Oh, thanks, Brian. Thanks a lot. I appreciate it. And Glad to be here. Thanks for the introduction. I just want to say a lot of those board member positions with ISBA and CBA. Those were a lot of those were in the past since the one board that I takes up most of my time is the board member of my family. And I say board member because I'm not the chair.Ron Bockstahler  1:48  Yeah, to your youngest turns four here coming up in October. Yeah, yeah. And I just started kindergarten. So yep. And become time consuming.Gregg Garofalo  1:57  They do. And Rebecca, Rebecca, my wife, our Rebecca systems, people that Rebecca is also aware and she practices. So it keeps us busy. It keeps me busy.Ron Bockstahler  2:10  So you want to talk about that raising children being and keeping your law practice going. I think it's amazing. So we're gonna get that in a minute. But let's kind of talk off a lot of people that maybe know you don't know that you started your career as an accountant, your CPA. So talk to us how you became how you kind of moved into being an attorney.Gregg Garofalo  2:25  So and I know this can be added around. So just for clarification, I have an accounting background accounting degree from Illinois Western University. I graduated in 1992. With the idea that I was going to be practicing as an accountant, I ended up getting the family business full time, which I've been working in ever since I was 13 years old, which was running a restaurant. And so I did that for four years before I went to law school and going to law school, I knew what I wanted to do going in, which is kind of what I wanted to do. Even as I was graduating from undergrad, I wanted to work with families, I wanted to work with small businesses. Part of that was because I came from a family that owns a small business because I felt like I can really help them and be a part of their overall team and their business. And so going into law school, I knew that I wanted to do estate planning with them with my background and tax planning for my background with taxes. I thought it was a really good fit. And I finished up my law school my JD and started working for Ernst and Young and their tax consulting department. And while working there, I went on to get my masters in tax from Chicago, Kent university or Chicago Kent College of Law. So I've got my JD in masters of tax from Kent as well and my undergrad in accounting, and I stayed with Ernst and Young for a couple years before I started to go to private practice.Ron Bockstahler  3:40  So let's think back What year did you start your practice are your own practiceGregg Garofalo  3:44  1999 2000 and graduated, I graduated my way of switching I graduated law school in 99. Got my master's degree in 2000. Worked for a firm for four years, and then I started my own practice in 2004.Ron Bockstahler  3:57  Okay, okay, so and then let's kind of fast forward a little bit. I think you were ahead of your time you moved to Georgia, you moved your family to Georgia while maintaining a law practice in Chicago. So let's talk about you know, how do you do law different what technology are you using? How do you make it happen? I guess that's the let's start there.Gregg Garofalo  4:14  Sure. So when my what my met my wife in Chicago, I met Rebecca in Chicago. She's a practicing attorney with the law school here when we got married and decided to start a family. Rebecca is from Northwest Georgia, just south of Chattanooga. So we decided to go back maybe close to her family. She's got a twin sister and two other sisters to help raise our family. And so Rebecca was working with the firm at that time as well. So we were faced with the challenge of how do we make this work, a practice that I've had in Chicago for over at that point over 12 years? How do we keep that practice and operated from Georgia and be successful? So yeah, when I started my practice, even before that, I tried to institute software and plant management software which I think helped a lot and keeping things all digital because We early on, we tried to keep our files all digital, scanning all the important documents and keeping them online. So when we decided to start to make this transition, I didn't have to have my files with me, I didn't have to be in the office because I could pull up our client management software. And at that point, probably about 70% of the documents were already scanned in the system. So if I needed something was all right there.Ron Bockstahler  5:19  No, I make funny a quite a bit. I call you a gate because you know, you're more of a techie than your attorney sometimes, or maybe both. I don't know. But how does someone that don't love technology like you do? How do they do it?Gregg Garofalo  5:30  In all honesty, if you're if you're technology adverse, all I can say is then you have to work with somebody, you have to work with a firm, you know, even like all like Amada, you'd have to work with a firm that has the experience that can guide and guide you through it, because there's just no avoiding it. And we've seen that now with COVID. I won't say his name, but you know, my next door neighbor here in my office suite who's very technology adverse and always has been as long as I've known him. And now with COVID pandemic, he said he doesn't want to come back to the office and work if he had a choice because he likes it and he likes having an ease that means he's had to step up with a lot of the technology and step into the 21st century if you would,Ron Bockstahler  6:08  I think he you know, an older generations, it's kind of funny, we we looked at and said, Man, if you're like over the age of 60, you're definitely going to be aching to get back to the office. But I find that that's not necessarily the case. It's the younger people that want to get back to the office, maybe for the social and the mentoring and the sex, the opportunity to grow their practice. But some of these, you know, seasoned attorneys that always love come to the opposite. Realize that, hey, it's pretty nice. I'm working, I get a lot done at home.Gregg Garofalo  6:31  Absolutely. I think that's completely true. My associate her she comes from a family of lawyers and her dad, his firm, they're not even back in the office at all. And her brother is the same way they're back in the office maybe two days a week and they don't know when they're going back. But you know, I can even say Yeah, I agree with Ron definitely the older generation is really starting to I say older generation 60. And older lawyers, I'm that's but the 60 year olds, yeah, they really do appreciate and are enjoying being able to work remotely. I'm finding even some of the younger workers are enjoying that as well, too. They want their day or two maybe in the office, but they they definitely like the freedom of being able to work from home as well. SoRon Bockstahler  7:11  I'm with them. I'm enjoying myself. Yeah, let's just jump into estate planning. Yeah, you know, I've seen a topic close to my heart. We've had Steve Sackler on recently talking about, you know, planning your future, what's the, you know, designing your life? What's it going to look like an estate planning kind of falls right into that, and most of us and most, especially attorneys don't just ignore their own state plans. So what's a good time? Let's start when do you start? What's the best time I've got, you know, six children? When do I start telling them? Hey, you need let's start focus on estate planning for you.Gregg Garofalo  7:39  Okay, so we You and I were talking about before, and I think we just posted something on our firm blog on our website. It's never too early to start planning. I mean, literally, we tell parents when your kids turn 18, they should come in and at least to the basic estate plan, and the basic estate planning is just powers of attorney for health care policies, Attorney for property, a basic will author HIPAA authorization, and actually each university a little bit different five, access educational records access. And, you know, apparently, how common is that really necessary. God forbid, we don't know what's coming around the corner, nobody knew what COVID was going to be like this hand with everything happening. Having that in place, if your child gets sick at school, or something happened to them, you're prepared because without these documents, these basic very easy documents, you can find yourself in probate court in front of a guardianship judge trying to make medical decisions for your son or daughter just because you didn't know I mean, he didn't think about it that that you were procrastination, you know,Ron Bockstahler  8:37  let me stop you real quick because I don't want to go over that what you just said records access. And I never thought about this until you'd mentioned is we're just sitting around talking recently. 18 all of a sudden my son turns 18 I can no longer access his records even if he's sitting in the hospital die. Yes,Gregg Garofalo  8:53  that is that is correct. So under Illinois law, you as a parent under the Illinois healthcare surrogate act can make medical decisions for him without a court or without a power of attorney but here's the here's the catch you can't get access to his record you can't say hey you know what, I want a copy of all these records but I can get a second opinion from a different hospital because you don't have that authority under the health care surrogate act you can only make medical decisions it's kind of a an odd rule that allows acts as law that never changed so you're absolutely correct once he turns 18 you can't access those records without his authorization without Of course giving you that authority.Ron Bockstahler  9:28  Wow. Now I know you practice in Illinois and you practicing in Georgia yetGregg Garofalo  9:32  I'm not but my wife is Rebecca is and Rebecca is doing estate planning and estate administration in Georgia as well too.Ron Bockstahler  9:39  So are you familiar with other states? Is that a pretty common clause or is that as it just all state by state and across the board like so many other thingsGregg Garofalo  9:45  the healthcare surrogate act it's it's there's something similar in every state. Okay,Ron Bockstahler  9:49  let's talk. Let's talk college kids. I know we talked about this too. Let's you know, what should we be thinking about for our kids or later in college, as far as setting up their state planningGregg Garofalo  9:58  their estate planning the kids estate plan Yeah, yeah, there's there's five basic things that we tell parents and I touched on them real quick. But other schools and again, five basic things were poverty for health care, so that you have the ability to make health care decisions for your child, because like you said, once they turn 18, you want it in writing exactly the power that you have without having to get a court involved, I HIPAA authorization, which the difference between them for those who don't know, between a HIPAA authorization and the power of attorney for health care, HIPAA, we've all signed those nowadays, with going to the doctor, it just means you have access to medical records, or you're giving somebody access to your medical records. And in most instances, the power of attorney for health care will cover that. But we recommend both just it's kind of the duel across across all T's and dotting the eyes, it's better to have both of those poverty for property. And this is one where I want my, my kids don't have anything, the only thing my kids have is what I give them. So why do we need to find a property that may be true, okay, but that poverty is also going to give you authority then to if something happens, your job, pay their credit cards, get access to credit card records, maybe cancel credit cards, just stop for whatever reason, it will give you the authority to execute tax returns for your child, because at the age of 18, they need to file their own tax returns. So that's how the property is something very important, even if they don't have any money, a last will and testament. And I know that seems very morbid, but it is very unfortunate if your child gets in an accident, at college, on their way to college, or even not at college. And it's a result of an accident where their estate inherits money or receives money, your child may want to say, well look, Mom, Dad, you're all set, I don't want to give it to you. I'd rather give it just to my siblings, or I'd rather give it to this charity that I'm so passionate about or so on, etc. So a basic will is something that's very important as well. And the last document that parents don't think about and is normally not part of a parent's estate plan certainly would be the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act authorization form. And each school has its own unique form. But in essence, that's giving you the authority to access your child's records, school records, because parents like well wait, I pay for the education, can I get access to the records? Not necessarily? No.Ron Bockstahler  12:01  So your simple question that someone like me thinks about is I'm sending my kids out to this college and we do the enrollment and and you know, pay tuition are these things the school brings up like, Hey, here's a checklist, make sure you're covered all these things.Gregg Garofalo  12:12  You know, a lot of times they will bring up and I'll use the acronym, the FERPA release for the records, since that is a unique form that each school has felt that may be something that they kind of shove in front of the college students, they are assigned this at registration, but the other documents generally know generally what's a familyRon Bockstahler  12:28  do? Do they call someone like you and say, Hey, I'm in a bind. My kids in the hospital is in college. I can't access his records. What do I do?Gregg Garofalo  12:35  Right? So we sit down and we go through and we have to open up a guardianship estate. And I've had that happen a couple of times during my career.Ron Bockstahler  12:42  I'm most curious what so give me a ballpark something like that happens. And we're talking about the college student knew what are we talking about money just open a guardians. I know I know, attorneys don't want to talk about that. But I just want to ballpark we talked about $5,000 thing a $20,000 thing.Gregg Garofalo  12:54  in Cook County, in the collar counties generally you're looking at just to open it probably about $5,000. And that's not all my that's not all the attorneys fees, that's filing fees, the attorneys fees, the court usually appoints a guardian ad litem that also has to be paid from the guardianship estate. So all these fees come into play that has to be paid. And from start to finish, it's usually about 5000. And people who hide that so expensive. Or if you're coming to me, because you need to make medical decisions for your child because they're in the hospital, that's just not a regular guardianship. Now it's a temporary guardianship based on an emergency basis. So that's even more fee. So all these fees add up very quickly, because you need to start making decisions very quickly. And so it's like anything in life, we tell our clients all the time, a guardianship usually is set up as a reaction to something happening. And with the powers of attorney and sitting down and educating your children and educating parents. That's that's you're being proactive, and you're planning ahead of time. So the cost versus that. I mean, the cost to do basic estate planning for a college student of a client, we give them a discounted rate for for if they're an existing clients, I mean, could be minimal, could be 10%. It could be 20%. It could be 1000 $2,000, which is extremely less than this issue. Plus no court, no court involvement, public, private. SoRon Bockstahler  14:13  this is the sounds like you know, an area of law that I never even thought about, you know, sending your kid off to college is enough. But now said I should make sure that we have all these forms these documents filled out they got an estate.Gregg Garofalo  14:22  Yeah, that's true. Absolutely. Like I said, there is a blog, a really quick blog that goes over the five different documents that we suggest for children. So and we are doing a little webinar because we have more and more parents that have called us this year. And I think part of that is has been fueled by COVID.Ron Bockstahler  14:39  Let's talk about children. Let's talk about it because you've got first hand experience with the serafina What special guests actions do you need to take to make sure that you know serafina is taken care of if something were to happen. God forbid something happens to you and Becca, so it'sGregg Garofalo  14:54  so serafina she is going to be six in December like we talked about. She has autism and so she He's not verbal at this time. And so the prognosis for autism, medical experts don't, they can't tell you. So for us, and what we try to tell parents in similar situations is the planning should start now. I mean, you don't know what's going to happen a year, five years, 10 years down the road. And it's always to me, again, getting back to, you need to do the planning now. So you're not reactive and scrambling down the road. And so what are some of the things we do? Well, we set up you know, consider setting up a special needs trust for for your child now, and you want it to be a special needs trust, a, what we call a third party special needs trust, which is one that we create, we find and we put our money in now. And a lot of parents who said, Well, you know, I get I'm not worried about it, when when the time comes and I pass away, I'll just make sure that she gets half of the assets and the other half, go to my other daughter, whatever the case may be, but an outright gift to your child like that could disinherit them and not just in here could disqualify them from potentially getting governmental assistance or qualifying for certain government programs and make them spend down all that money first. So example, parents pass to what both parents pass away, and the other child that has special needs may inherit $200,000. And it's a direct outright gift to the child, well, that child has spent all that money down for their own care before they can qualify for any kind of governmental benefits. And the alternative set up a special needs trust, and you put it all into a special needs trust. Now that child qualifies for all the governmental benefits and whatever they don't receive from the government or whatever programs don't provide for them, the money in a special needs trust can supplement. So it's taking that $200,000 and stretching it out, hopefully, for a longer period of time to provide better care and have more assets available for your child.Ron Bockstahler  16:41  So is that going to be the case if the child's already receiving some kind of government assistance?Gregg Garofalo  16:46  Absolutely. Because if they're receiving some kind of government benefits or assistance, and you pass away, and they receive this outright gift, those those programs are usually asset and income based. And so you'll you the child will lose those benefits until the money that they received is spent down in the benefits benefits picked back up again.Ron Bockstahler  17:02  So Greg, does that included the insurance policy? So say there's a $5 million insurance policy the child is going to be the beneficiary of was that would that actually count towards that to spend that money down to also? Absolutely, yeah. So how do you get around that?Gregg Garofalo  17:15  If it goes out right to the child, then absolutely, it would be a spend down that they have to spend so how do you get around it you've just set up a trust for the child. In most situations, parents will set up in their trust distribution to the children or not outright, it's held in trust for the children and so since the children never have access to it, then they will continue to qualify for governmental benefits.Ron Bockstahler  17:38  So I'm going to tell you you and I never really talked about this as far as special needs special needs trust pride before serafina so is this something you had to go out? And you know, it doesn't seem to me like the normal area that if you're in state planning that you're really focused on and maybe I'm wrong with that but did you have to go out when you know when you went surfing, you found out serafina had autism and do a little more research and then that make you even better at setting these things up than the average estate planning attorney.Gregg Garofalo  18:04  So in my career when I was the first firm that I started working at and and why needed to do estate planning, I was kind of thrown into a state administration and guardianships pretty quickly as a practicing attorney. And so I had had a great deal of experience before serafina was born with special needs trusts and the different types of special needs trusts and qualifying for governmental benefits and you know, how do we plan to make sure we can maximize benefits all around so when serafina was born, I had a pretty good base and background in that already so we were prepared as much as you could be prepared for as a as a parent in general but as a parent with a child with special needs we were somewhat prepared for how do we plan from an estate planning perspective?Ron Bockstahler  18:46  Yeah, I think I look at it as having someone with first hand knowledge and understanding makes it a little more maybe a little more empathetic under when talking to a parent is kind of going through similar situation so that to me is a plus right deal withGregg Garofalo  18:57  that it really is I've gotten I've got I've got a lot of clients who have come to me because they know our situation I'm I don't try to hide it. Surfing is a by opinion, a beautiful, wonderful young young girl who hopefully as a as much as possible normal life. And whatever normal is I had averse, but I don't hide what her special needs are. And so I think that openness resonates with a lot of families who are faced with the same thing because they know that I know what they're going to.Ron Bockstahler  19:25  Let's kind of flip back to you live in Georgia, you have a practice in Chicago, how often you're in Chicago,Gregg Garofalo  19:30  pre COVID. I was here every week. Post COVID or in the midst of COVID I come up maybe once a month not even maybe once every other month it just depends right now with everything still kind of in flux in the court system not completely open and everything being via zoom. There's really not much of a need to be here. Most clients enjoy zoom now you know where I thought we all thought there would be this adverse I don't want to deal with that they've really taken to it. So I think that this has worked out well for me Because it's more convenient for them, Hey, can you meet at six o'clock at night after the kids have had dinner? Sure. I don't think well, it's your house. We'll jump on zoom and I can take a call real quick and we can you know, go through stuff now.Ron Bockstahler  20:10  So but you're also court appointee and many guardianship matters. You do do some litigation, probate courts not back in person doing trials, Correct. Correct. So that could change things going forward. When they do assuming they'll come back. I mean,Gregg Garofalo  20:23  well, no, no, we're doing we're doing hearings, we're doing the hearing, guardianship and probate administration is that really generally not advert is not an adverse proceeding. So a lot of the hearings and stuff we do we can do online, but what we're not doing is we've got at least two jury trials that can't be scheduled yet. We'll contest and another one disinheritance contest, and we can't schedule it, because there's no juries that are available yet for probate matters. Okay,Ron Bockstahler  20:49  so that might change a little bit. So everyone's probably wondering you Okay, you live in Georgia, come Chicago, but how's your practice doing? Are you busy, like I hear so many are you kind of things tough.Gregg Garofalo  21:00  I mean, we're busier than we've ever been. We've, you know, as much as we were prepared for this in living down in Georgia. Now, for a little over seven years, we really started to move everything from server base to cloud base. So again, we were kind of prepared for this. It didn't matter where you live, the most far my employees took their laptops went home, and they could start working at home. But we've also tried to streamline things quite a bit from a staffing perspective as well. So we're busy, we're very busy, and the staff is very busy, but things are going things are going well.Ron Bockstahler  21:29  That's good to hear. You know, I'm a big proponent of changing the way laws practice in so many ways. And I you know, if anything, COVID is bad as bad, it's really accelerated some of the changes that were kind of slowly coming our way. And I think you were on the on the forefront seven years ago when you made the move.Gregg Garofalo  21:44  Yeah, absolutely. It definitely thrown a lot of, you know, attorneys into, okay, I got to figure out this cloud thing. What is it? You know, it's quiet, it's in the cloud, it's up in the sky, you know, can't remember that movie that that that was from but yeah, they've had to sit down and say, Okay, I don't have to understand that necessarily, but I definitely have to get on board with it, figure out how to use it.Ron Bockstahler  22:04  Absolutely. And I think that's we had a webinar, I think maybe under 46, the ABA guidance that came out saying, hey, you still need to understand technology, you know, you're still it's an ethical rule, you know, ties into 1.6 rule one point 60, you still got to be able to know what you're talking about and serve your clients, which means you have to understand the technology, or at least somebody in firm needs to understand it. You're still responsible, right at the end of the day. No last question. We always like to talk. First, I'll leave it to us. Anything else you want to add about probate or estate planning that we've missed on things you want to hit on?Gregg Garofalo  22:35  Well, you know, there's, there's a lot of new hot topics, you know, people like tell me all the time well, estate planning, Greg, it's the same, it's the same as it is today, as it was, you know, 1520 years ago, and you know, it seems it's going to be you know, five or 10 years. So I have because I often tell clients, once we do your estate plan, we should still sit down once a year and see what's changed. What's changed in your life was changes. And when they tell me Well, you know, nothing's really changed. Well, yeah, a lots changed. COVID is something that definitely changed. One thing you and I were talking about at the beginning, cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrencies are something that definitely has has changed. And I think that with clients having several of our clients investing in cryptocurrencies, it's something that we need to look at your safe plan and see how that plays into it.Ron Bockstahler  23:17  Yeah, that's just yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. Because I'm thinking to myself, that is not a safe investment, as a guardian actually required to have, you know, maintain safe investments. So you fought Do you have to sell that cryptocurrency? If there all of a sudden you take overGregg Garofalo  23:29  that, you know, and that's exactly you pretty much hit the nail on the head on on, on the concerns that we have, as estate planners, and the challenges that trustees would have, generally speaking a the general rule and trust, it states that your trustee has to invest the funds pursuant to what we call the prudent investor rule, which just means it has to be reasonable, it can't be risky, etc, etc. We all know that cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile. So would your traditional trust actually tie the hands of the trustee to manage those assets? Or would they just be required to sell all the assets immediately, because they're too volatile, and they don't have the authority to manage those pursuant to the prudent investor rule. So it's, it's definitely something to look at. So that's interesting.Ron Bockstahler  24:12  And it actually gets me thinking that we recently had Steve Metro Metro financial on a webinar and talking to attorneys about how they can save more money for their retirement and shelter, their income from taxes. And one of the big things they brought up was a cash balance plan. Are you familiar with the cash balance plan? No, you can save up to 150 to $250,000 of your income each year as an attorney if you're a solo, and you know, you can if you have employees also, but also you got to contribute to their plan also, but it was really interesting to me that you can do that above and beyond a 401k plan, a five part of an IRA plan. So there's a there's definitely a way to be sheltering a lot of your money from taxes today, if you're an attorney making 500,000 a million dollars a year. You know, what just makes a lot of sense to look into that. Notice that when having Steve on the show was amazing and I'm thinking okay, if I'm doing that kind of savings, I better have a good estate plan in place right because that becomes substantial very quickly.Gregg Garofalo  25:04  It absolutely and you know to your point with having an investment advisor a lot of times if you have unique assets or you have an investment visor that you're very passionate about and you feel they do a great job a lot of times that's why we'll tell people then you we need to sit down to your safe plan and we need to work them into it in that maybe they'll be the investment advisor going forward even after you pass away because you feel very strong this person number one does a good job number two knows what you want you know you guys have usually with an investment advisor an attorney does your estate planning to have somewhat of an intimate relationship with because they know a lot about you and you know a lot about your finances your family makeup and things of that nature. So you know, Ron, you may say, this is the person I want to be my investment advisor for the trust for my kids after I passed away. So the only way to really ensure that is to make sure you have a good estate plan that dictates what your wishes are,Ron Bockstahler  25:57  it becomes more and more important so anyone listening the attorneys I know they're listening this show make sure you're getting out there talking to an estate planning attorney and getting the state in place going oh, you know, we tend not to do things for ourselves that's kind of the nature of who we are. Yeah, these things become very, very important. So definitely recommend get out there and talk to an estate planning attorney and you know, listen to Stephen Metro or guys in the financial industry to understand how you can save more money and you know, defer tax tax payments for a little bit out there. So Greg, what we just finished off of that last question, what's the one thing in the legal profession that you would like to see changed?Gregg Garofalo  26:28  The one thing in the legal profession I can see change taking the business side of or just anything, believe it anythingRon Bockstahler  26:33  I'm generally I generally focus on the business side. But if you got something other than that, bring it on. Oh,Gregg Garofalo  26:37  I don't know there's there's several different different things I can tell you from an estate planning. And this is going to send a really big thing, but with the way that the world is going and we've all had to adapt to the changes of technology and and working remotely. I personally don't feel like certain states have passed the rules and the laws that would really make it easier to keep up with technology as well. Illinois, for example, the notary law in Illinois, I don't think is where it should be in could be as compared to other states that makes it very difficult to do remote signings and things of that nature. So I would like to see that our legislators try to keep up with the changing times to make our practice easier, which really makes our practice easier, which makes it easier for our clients.Ron Bockstahler  27:20  It's interesting, you bring that up, because in many areas of law, you can actually accept the digital signature, but in estate planning, you still need to hardcopy signature you still need witnesses. So you got to get together eventually with your client at some point physically.Gregg Garofalo  27:32  Yes, yes.Ron Bockstahler  27:33  I see what you said. All right. Well, Greg, great having you on your show. Really appreciate taking the time out and look forward to talk to you down the road. Best way to reach Greg. Greg, what is your email?Gregg Garofalo  27:41  My email is Garofalo at GLG firm COMMRon Bockstahler  27:45  And we will get that out there when we post The show also, so we'll make sure you got his contact information. Great guy to work with highly recommend Greg known for a long time. So thanks for joining us on the show today, Greg. Yeah. Thanks. great having you. And thanks for. Absolutely and thanks for listening to the 1958 lawyer podcast. We'll be back in two weeks with Steve mesereau talking about you know, kind of we just brought up how you can save even more money with a cash balance plan and protect your income. Have a great day everyone.Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Attorney David L. Lee has practiced and taught law for over forty years. From 1984 to 1991, Attorney Lee was a full-time clinical professor at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law's nationally-recognized clinic on employment discrimination. Since approximately 1984, Attorney Lee has concentrated his practice on representing employees in severance negotiations, contract negotiations, discrimination claims, harassment claims, retaliation claims, wrongful-discharge claims, overtime claims, wage claims, commission claims, and employee-benefit claims. Attorney Lee is a member of the Chicago Bar Association, the National Employment Lawyers Association, and the Section of Labor and Employment Law of the American Bar Association. He speaks frequently to lawyers and human resources personnel on issues concerning employment law and is a Hearing Officer for the Cook County Commission on Human Rights and an arbitrator for the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, the National Association of Securities Dealers, and the National Futures Association. He has also published extensively on employment law, legal writing, civil procedure, and other aspects of the practice of law.

Megan O'Malley, a principal and founding member of O'Malley & Madden, P.C., concentrates her practice in the areas of civil rights and employment law. Ms. O'Malley is a former President of the National Employment Lawyers Association, Illinois Chapter and former Chair of the Chicago Bar Association's Labor & Employment Committee. She has been selected as a Leading Lawyer in the area of Civil Rights and Employment Law and as an Illinois Super Lawyer in the area of employment law. Ms. O'Malley has frequently been asked to speak at national seminars on employment law and whistleblower issues and has been an instructor at the American Bar Association Section of Labor & Employment Law's Trial Institute. Ms. O'Malley is licensed to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the Illinois Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and she is a member of the Federal Trial Bar. Learn More: https://www.ompc-law.com

Our guest Jesse Wilson is a nationally renowned trial consultant, author and communications expert.  He has helped countless trial lawyers tell their clients' stories to juries in an effective and human way, and has been "behind the scenes" of numerous multi-million dollar verdicts.  Learn techniques for formulating your case's narrative, language and themes.  Explore proven methods on how to illustrate your client's damages to the jury.  Examine your role as the storyteller and how to connect with an audience, whoever that audience may be.  This episode has it all!Host Matthew Heimlich is an attorney at Malman Law in Chicago, Illinois.  Matt's law practice is focused on the representation of injured victims and their families in nursing home negligence, medical malpractice and other personal injury cases. He is a member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.   Host John Risvold is a personal injury trial lawyer at The Collins Law Firm P.C., with offices in Naperville, Illinois.  He has dedicated his career to fighting those responsible for injuring his clients. He focuses his practice on medical negligence, nursing home neglect, and catastrophic personal injury. John is active in several professional organizations that work to ensure his clients' access to the courts remains intact, including the American Associate for Justice, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, and the Chicago Bar Association.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.  Email us at ontrialpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @OnTrialPodcast

Megan O'Malley, a principal and founding member of O'Malley & Madden, P.C., concentrates her practice in the areas of civil rights and employment law. Ms. O'Malley is a former President of the National Employment Lawyers Association, Illinois Chapter and former Chair of the Chicago Bar Association's Labor & Employment Committee. She has been selected as a Leading Lawyer in the area of Civil Rights and Employment Law and as an Illinois Super Lawyer in the area of employment law. Ms. O'Malley has frequently been asked to speak at national seminars on employment law and whistleblower issues and has been an instructor at the American Bar Association Section of Labor & Employment Law's Trial Institute. Ms. O'Malley is licensed to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the Illinois Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and she is a member of the Federal Trial Bar. Learn More: https://www.ompc-law.com/

This episode we welcome Patricia Gifford of Malman Law who provides incredible insight into the business of running a law firm.   Learn about actions she has taken to solidify and improve firm leadership, values and operations that have been key to Malman Law's expansion and continued success during COVID.  This unique episode shines a light on how to take a vision for a firm and put it into practice.Host Matthew Heimlich is an attorney at Malman Law in Chicago, Illinois.  Matt's law practice is focused on the representation of injured victims and their families in nursing home negligence, medical malpractice and other personal injury cases. He is a member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.   Host John Risvold is a personal injury trial lawyer at The Collins Law Firm P.C., with offices in Naperville, Illinois.  He has dedicated his career to fighting those responsible for injuring his clients. He focuses his practice on medical negligence, nursing home neglect, and catastrophic personal injury. John is active in several professional organizations that work to ensure his clients' access to the courts remains intact, including the American Associate for Justice, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, and the Chicago Bar Association.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.  Email us at ontrialpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @OnTrialPodcast

Attorney Mark DeBofsky is a member of DeBofsky Sherman Casciari Reynolds P.C. as well as an adjunct professor of law at University of Illinois-Chicago John Marshall Law School. He is a prolific author who has written many journal articles and has been a regular columnist for the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin since 2004. Mark DeBofsky is also an annual contributor to the ERISA Survey of Federal Circuits published by the American Bar Association and served for many years as a senior editor of Employee Benefits Law published by Bloomberg. Mark DeBofsky is also a frequent speaker and has lectured at conferences sponsored by many organizations, including the American Bar Association, the American Association for Justice, the Illinois State Bar Association, Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education, Chicago Bar Association and LexisNexis/Mealey's. Many of his cases have resulted in precedent setting decisions issued by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Circuits. In 2008, he was nominated as a finalist for LexisNexis' Insurance Law Center Policyholder Attorney of the Year award. Attorney DeBofsky is proud to have been recognized by his peers in the legal profession with the coveted AV® PreeminentTM Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell®. He was named a Super Lawyer in Employee Benefits/ERISA in every year since 2009, and since 2011, he has been listed among the Top 100 Lawyers in the State of Illinois and among the Top 10 in Illinois in 2017. Recently, the National Trial Lawyers has named him one of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers in the State of Illinois. He has also been ranked by the Leading Lawyers Network.

Jordan Powell of Passen & Powell in Chicago joins us to discuss his recent jury trial in DuPage County, Illinois.  He provides invaluable information about trial logistics, jury selection and lessons learned him his experience.  This is a must-listen episode as the courthouses continue to open up and we begin trying cases again!Host Matthew Heimlich is an attorney at Malman Law in Chicago, Illinois.  Matt's law practice is focused on the representation of injured victims and their families in nursing home negligence, medical malpractice and other personal injury cases. He is a member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.   Host John Risvold is a personal injury trial lawyer at The Collins Law Firm P.C., with offices in Naperville, Illinois.  He has dedicated his career to fighting those responsible for injuring his clients. He focuses his practice on medical negligence, nursing home neglect, and catastrophic personal injury. John is active in several professional organizations that work to ensure his clients' access to the courts remains intact, including the American Associate for Justice, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, and the Chicago Bar Association.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.  Email us at ontrialpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @OnTrialPodcast

My guest today is Catherine Sanders Reach who is the Director of the Center for Practice Management at the North Carolina Bar Association. You may not recognize Catherine’s name immediately, but if you’ve sat through a technology-related CLE conference or session in the past 10 years, there is a very good chance you’ve benefitted from Catherine’s expertise and practical training. I first connected with Catherine back in the early 2000’s when she was the Director of the Legal Technology Resource Center at the ABA. Then she moved to the Chicago Bar Association where we worked together several times. Catherine has also served on several Planning Boards for the annual ABA TECHSHOW Conference, including my Board in 2015, and then she led her OWN Planning Board in 2020! (which was the last in-person event I attended before the world imploded, and it was a GREAT event!) Some of the tips covered in the podcast: Always read the reviews! Treat your phone as an $800 disposable device! Don’t ignore OS or app updates! Know how to find your device! Some of the apps covered in this podcast: Lookout for Android and iOS Device Care for Android SMS Backup and Restore for Android (free) SMS Backup and Restore for Android ($4.49) Your Phone from Microsoft for Windows 10 Where you can find Catherine: North Caroline Bar Association Center for Practice Management Catherine’s LinkedIn Profile

John and Matt return to discuss techniques for taking effective depositions of defense medical experts.  Learn tips and tactics for discrediting expert opinions, undercutting common defenses, qualifying your medical testimony and more!Host Matthew Heimlich is an attorney at Malman Law in Chicago, Illinois.  Matt's law practice is focused on the representation of injured victims and their families in nursing home negligence, medical malpractice and other personal injury cases. He is a member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.   Host John Risvold is a personal injury trial lawyer at The Collins Law Firm P.C., with offices in Naperville, Illinois.  He has dedicated his career to fighting those responsible for injuring his clients. He focuses his practice on medical negligence, nursing home neglect, and catastrophic personal injury. John is active in several professional organizations that work to ensure his clients' access to the courts remains intact, including the American Associate for Justice, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, and the Chicago Bar Association.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.  Email us at ontrialpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @OnTrialPodcast

And we're back!   After a long (too long) break, John and Matt return to discuss mediation tips, tactics and tried and true methods to get your clients maximum results.Host Matthew Heimlich is an attorney at Malman Law in Chicago, Illinois.  Matt's law practice is focused on the representation of injured victims and their families in nursing home negligence, medical malpractice and other personal injury cases. He is a member of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.   Host John Risvold is a personal injury trial lawyer at The Collins Law Firm P.C., with offices in Naperville, Illinois.  He has dedicated his career to fighting those responsible for injuring his clients. He focuses his practice on medical negligence, nursing home neglect, and catastrophic personal injury. John is active in several professional organizations that work to ensure his clients' access to the courts remains intact, including the American Associate for Justice, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, and the Chicago Bar Association.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.  Email us at ontrialpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @OnTrialPodcast

This week, your hosts Steve Lowry and Yvonne Godfrey interview Ian Alexander, Katrina Taraska, and Joseph Preiser of Goldberg & Goldberg (https://www.chicagomedicalmalpracticefirm.com/).   Remember to rate and review GTP in iTunes: Click Here To Rate and Review   Episode Details: Chicago trial lawyers Ian Alexander, Katrina Taraska, and Joseph Preiser of Goldberg & Goldberg share how they successfully represented 25-year-old model Irma Sabanovic's grieving family after Irma drove her car over an unmarked curb and drowned in the Chicago River. In May 2011, Irma drove her Ford Focus to Goose Island to pick up her boyfriend from a late-night performance at a nightclub and got lost on a dead end street bisected by the Chicago River. Due to the City of Chicago's failure to maintain barriers or provide warnings to motorists --despite knowledge of a similar incident that occurred more than a decade earlier -- Irma unknowingly drove her car over the curb and into the water. After an extensive search, her body was discovered nine days later in her vehicle. At trial, the defense attempted to blame Irma for her own wrongful death, insinuating she was drunk, driving impaired and not paying attention. In May 2016, a Cook County, Illinois jury awarded Irma's family $13,890,000 in damages, delivering the #6 verdict in Illinois in 2016.  Click Here to Read/Download the Complete Trial Documents   Guest Bios: Katrina M. Taraska Born Staten Island, New York, 1968; Admitted to bar, 1995, Illinois. Education: University of Illinois, Bradley University (B.S., 1991), Widener University School of Law, Wilmington, DE (J.D., 1995). Originally from the East Coast, Katrina M. Taraska grew up in a family of seven in Peoria, Illinois. Her mother was a language teacher proficient in French, Italian and Spanish who devoted her time to the enrichment of the lives of her students while teaching at area schools. Her father, a dedicated pathologist, was one of the four original founders of the Midwest affiliate of St. Jude Children's Hospital, which provides care to children with childhood diseases. Unique to Ms. Taraska's chosen career in personal injury law, she was the victim of a propane gas explosion, in which a commercial building collapsed on her, her mother, brother and a close family friend. The explosion left Taraska with extensive second and third degree burns early in her life. She was hospitalized for 3 months, during which she underwent skin grafting of her arms, legs, hands, and chest. Incredibly, a year prior to the explosion, Ms. Taraska's father and a reconstructive surgeon opened the only downstate burn unit in Peoria where she was successfully treated despite the severity of her burns. It is this life changing event that has played a significant role in Ms. Taraska's career of representing the injured. After graduating from law school Ms. Taraska has successfully represented clients and their families in complex litigation. In 1995, Katrina Taraska began practicing law in downstate Illinois where she grew up. In 2000 she became a partner with a Peoria law firm where she enjoyed the privilege of advocating for her clients in their respective claims for personal injuries, medical negligence, workers compensation, and employment discrimination. She frequently appeared before the Circuit Court of Peoria County, Illinois, the Illinois Department of Human Rights, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Employment Security, and in the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois. In 2009, Ms. Taraska joined the Chicago law firm of Goldberg & Goldberg, where she continued her professional experience as a Plaintiff's lawyer in tort litigation. As a focus of her practice, she concentrates on representing individuals and their families in catastrophic medical malpractice and wrongful death claims. Her cases have involved spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, complications from surgical procedures, cardiovascular injuries, birth injuries, interventional radiology, infections, negligence in the diagnosis and treatment of injuries involving alleged abuse and neglect, gynecological and obstetric injuries, and products liability cases. Ms. Taraska also represents individuals involved in transportation accidents (railroad grade crossings, motor vehicle accidents, and semi-truck collisions), as well as premises liability claims, and injuries from assault, battery and false imprisonment. Throughout her career Ms. Taraska has been active in professional organizations including the Peoria County Bar Association, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, the American Inns of Court (Abraham Lincoln Chapter), the National Employment Lawyers Association, and the Chicago Bar Association. She has been guest writer for the Peoria Woman Magazine and enjoys mentoring younger lawyers in their professional endeavors. Ms. Taraska is a member of the Catholic Church and is active in the service of those individuals in need in the local community. Read Full Bio   Ian R. Alexander Mr. Alexander concentrates his practice on representing the victims of catastrophic injuries in the areas of medical malpractice and complex personal injury litigation.Mr. Alexander first joined Goldberg & Goldberg in 1999 and became a partner in 2004. Mr. Alexander has tried to verdict and/ or settled numerous medical malpractice, product liability, aviation, railroad, construction negligence and other complex personal injury cases. Mr. Alexander has been appointed to the plaintiff's steering committee in the litigation arising out of the Amtrak-Bourbonnais Train Disaster, the Hinkley Air Disaster and the Oshkosh Mid-Air Disaster, among other litigation. Mr. Alexander has published articles regularly on issues pertaining to medical malpractice litigation. Mr. Alexander was raised in north suburban Chicago and attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his legal education at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. Mr. Alexander is admitted to practice before the Illinois Bar and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He is also a member of the Federal Trial Bar.Mr. Alexander is married and has two children. He resides with his family in Highland Park, IL. Read Full Bio   Joseph Preiser Born in Chicago, Illinois, Joseph M. Preiser grew up in the suburbs of Oak Park and River Forest. Joseph's father, a personal injury attorney, unintentionally set Joseph on a path toward a career in law. From an early age, often unbeknownst to his father, Joseph read his father's books authored by prominent trial attorneys including, Gerry Spence, Robert Shapiro, Irving Younger, and Vincent Bugliosi, sparking Joseph's interest in law and justice. After graduating from Oak Park-River Forest High School, Joseph attended the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. While pursuing his undergraduate degree, Joseph began to hone his skills as a trial lawyer by participating on the University of Illinois' Mock Trial team. During his senior year, Joseph's team won the Regional Mock Trial Championship and competed in the Mock Trial National Championship in Des Moines, Iowa. In 2006, after working for a year at a large Chicago law firm, Joseph received an Honors Scholarship and enrolled at Loyola University in the Juris Doctorate and MBA programs. While attending law and business school, Joseph worked as a judicial extern for Cook County Circuit Court Judge Thomas L. Hogan and as a traffic prosecutor for the City of Chicago, where he prosecuted over 185 bench trials to verdict. In 2009, Joseph graduated with a joint J.D./M.B.A. degree. While earning his degrees, Joseph obtained recognition on the Dean's List, was a participant on the Health Law Moot Court team, assisted at Loyola's Business Law Clinic, obtained his M.B.A. with honors, and became a Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society member. After graduation, Joseph immediately went to work for the Cook County State's Attorney's office as an Assistant State's Attorney. In his first year, Joseph authored and filed more than 30 appellate briefs in the Illinois Appellate Court, First District. Notably, Joseph authored the State's brief in People v. Tripp, a matter of first impression in Illinois, in which the Appellate Court agreed with Joseph's position and published an opinion in his favor. Joseph also argued on behalf of the State before the Illinois Appellate Court in People v. Primbas, an animal cruelty case that resulted in the death of a Rottweiler, where the Appellate Court again agreed with Joseph and published an opinion in his favor. For the following four years, Joseph worked in the Traffic Division where he prosecuted DUIs and represented the victims of automobile crashes. During his time in the Traffic Division Joseph refined his skills in the courtroom, prosecuting over 600 trials to verdict including 14 jury trials.. In recognition of his performance and dedication the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists awarded Joseph with a Certificate of Recognition and Achievement. In late 2014, Joseph was assigned to the State's Attorney's Office's Felony Review Unit. During his time, he spoke to victims of crimes, Mirandized and obtained statements from violent offenders, reviewed evidence, and provided consultation on charging decisions to law enforcement agencies throughout Cook County. In 2015, Joseph joined Goldberg & Goldberg where he has continued his practice as a civil trial lawyer with a concentration in representing the victims of medical malpractice. Joseph is involved in all matters related to the trial of these complex civil litigation matters, including taking and defending depositions, drafting and arguing contested motions, attending court, and assisting on all of the firm's catastrophic medical malpractice and wrongful death claims. Joseph has specialized knowledge in Illinois Traffic Law and crash investigations, particularly as they affect victims in car crashes, motorcycle crashes, and pedestrian injuries. Dedicated to the needs of all of his friends and clients, Joseph is willing to lend his assistance on any law related matter. Joseph relishes the opportunity to work with and learn from the other talented lawyers at Goldberg & Goldberg. Joseph appreciates the firm's devotion to their clients, their comprehensive commitment to preparation, and their unrelenting fearlessness in the courtroom. Read Full Bio Show Sponsors: Legal Technology Services - LTSatlanta.com Digital Law Marketing - DigitalLawMarketing.com Harris, Lowry, and Manton - hlmlawfirm.com   Free Resources: Stages Of A Jury Trial - Part 1 Stages Of A Jury Trial - Part 2

John Mitchell is a lawyer, leader, and the Owner of KM Advisors and Quandary Consulting. John is also a Member of the Core Faculty for the Fellows Program at the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity and an Advisory Board Member and Co-Creator of the CBA Leadership Institute for the Chicago Bar Association.  Known as “The Purple Coach,” John specializes in helping lawyers and unsung leaders discover and maximize their leadership potential to continuously develop themselves in pursuit of changing the world. In addition to helping individuals, John also works with organizations to create and maintain a culture that attracts and retains the best talent in the industry. In this episode… What does resilience look like to you? Is it the ability to roll with the punches? To keep your head above water? To persevere no matter what? More importantly, how are you and your team staying resilient in the face of the current social, medical, and global crises?  For most people, the answer is pretty simply: resilience is the ability to bounce back. But, John Mitchell's take goes a bit deeper. John explains that resilience is the ability to move forward and end up in a better place after your setback. He's focused on helping his clients not just overcome the challenges of the past year, but become better leaders because of them. How can you apply this definition of resilience to your team, so you can grow stronger in the new year? In this episode of The Lawyer's Edge, Elise Holtzman sits down with John Mitchell, a lawyer, leader, and the Owner of KM Advisors and Quandary Consulting, to talk about building resilience in the face of adversity. John discusses the successes and failures he's seen in the leadership response to COVID-19, the various ways technology can help—and harm—company culture, and the importance of taking care of your mental health. Keep listening for more of John's winning leadership strategies!

You could say Daniel A. Cotter has had an accomplished 26 years so far as an attorney. He's worked in-house and as outside counsel, taught Insurance Law at the John Marshall Law School, published a book about the Chief Justices, been an Illinois Leading Lawyer and Super Lawyer for four years, and he is active in the Chicago Bar Association and American Bar Association alike. But Dan also makes sure to mention his son benches more than him, the kid he tutors has more intensive math skills, and his marriage is 31 years strong. If you pay attention, life has a way of rounding you out, even as a busy attorney. Key moments:Cybersecurity and insurance insights, from an Insurance Law professor (07:35)Technology discrepancies in small firms versus Big Law (16:59)“The Chief Justices,” meeting RBG, and charity work (25:58)What Daniel Cotter wants to see changed in the legal profession (38:54) MEMORABLE QUOTES“Companies need to think through ‘what's the ramifications of having all of our people work from home?' Right, ‘is it our responsibility if something happens to Dan Cotter while he's at his house,' or you know, does he need to look at his own insurance policy and does he need to notify his insurance company that he's working from home?”“I've seen programs that talk about artificial intelligence and how it frees up the attorney and, you know, it's great, and then the cost is prohibitive for many [private practice attorneys]….Their needs can't be met because the cost is so prohibitive.”“I'm a big proponent of belonging to the bar association of your choice. Whether it's the state bar or the city bar, an affinity bar. I just find that bar membership has been rewarding… and I can say that it's probably provided me with work over the years.”“I am passionate about the law, and optimistic, but also concerned about the challenges, especially for graduates. In the last decade, it's been a tough road with a major recession in 2008 and then 2013 again. And now the pandemic.” CONNECT WITH DANIEL COTTERDaniel A. Cotter is Attorney and Counselor at Howard & Howard Attorneys PLLC. Dan focuses his practices in a variety of areas of corporate law and litigation, including insurance law, complex business disputes and counseling, employment law, corporate transactions, corporate governance and compliance, and cybersecurity and privacy law. His clients benefit from his diverse professional experience, which – in addition to his years serving as trusted outside counsel – includes positions as a corporate accountant and an in-house attorney. Dan has been working in cyber and privacy since the late 1990s, before cyber was a thing.Twitter: @scotusbiosFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/SCOTUSlyYoursLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cotterdan/Howard & Howard: www.howardandhoward.com CONTINUE EXPLORING“The coasts are alive with the sound of privacy enforcement” Daniel A. Cotter Chicago Daily Law Bulletinhttps://howardandhoward.com/user_area/pdf/CDLB_Cotter_Coasts%20Alive%20with%20Sound%20of%20Privacy%20Enforcement_8-24-20.pdf“The Chief Justices: The Seventeen Men at the Center Seat, Their Courts, and Their Times” Daniel A. Cotter Twelve Tables Presshttps://www.amazon.com/Chief-Justices-Daniel-Cotter/dp/194607425XLawyers Lend-a-Hand to Youthhttps://www.lawyerslendahand.org/ If you're interested in getting involved with Lawyers Lend-A-Hand, or simply want to connect, reach out to Dan at DAC@h2law.com!Have comments, questions, or concerns? Contact us at feedback@1958lawyer.com

Today, Casey and Rosezena Pierce, The Queen of the Trademark Jungle, chat about trademarking and entrepreneurship, intellectual property, and the importance of operating at a high level from the very beginning of your business journey. The ladies go deep into how to do business in a way that will set you up for success, from figuring out what works best for your life and business, to building a team to help you operate at your highest level. If you are currently an entrepreneur or have ever thought about starting a business, this is not an episode that you want to miss!   Subscribe Website | Apple | Stitcher | Spotify   Meet our Guest Rosezena I Pierce is a Chicago native, Entrepreneur, Wife and mother who is very passionate about educating her clients and entrepreneurs by providing trademark legal services to protect their brand and the value of their artistry and business. Rosezena loves working with people in the beauty industry and small business owners. Some of her clients consist of hip hop recording artists, stylists, salon owners, restaurant owners, fashion designers, artist managers, entrepreneurs, bloggers, community activists, music producers, photographers, videographers, coaches and many more.   Rosezena has been practicing and serving as an entrepreneur for almost 7 years now. In 2019, she was named as one of the Top 100 Trademark Attorneys in the US. She has filed over 800 Trademarks to date. Rosezena is licensed to practice law by the State of Illinois. Rosezena is a proud member of the Chicago Bar Association of Chicago (IPLAC), and Black Entertainment and Sports Law Association (BESLA). She also is dedicated to community service and serves on the Board of Directors for Lawndale Christian Legal Center. Connect with Rosezena Instagram Website Email   Show Notes [4:46] – The Interview Begins.      [5:28] – Rosezena tells us a little bit about herself and how she landed on trademark law.   [10:52] – Rosezena elaborates on her deep passion for IP law for small businesses and how she ended up as an entrepreneur herself.   [22:02] – Casey asks Rosezena to talk about common issues that come up when business owners are reactive instead of proactive with getting a trademark.   [29:46] – Here Rosezena talks about the benefits of having a trademark for your business.   [36:26] – Casey asks Rosezena to break down the trademarking process.   [43:20] – Rosezena goes over the costs that are associated with filing a trademark application.   [54:12] – Rosezena gives tips for entrepreneurs and talks about the importance of having a team.   Meet Our Host  Casey is an entertainment and digital media law attorney who helps influencers and creative entrepreneurs who struggle with navigating the legal side of their businesses and brands, specifically as it relates to contracts. She prides herself on helping creatives negotiate fair deals with Fortune 500 companies and leading entertainment brands, all while helping them build legally sound businesses that are built for generational wealth and impact. Here on the podcast, she normally does that through sharing the stories of successful entrepreneurs and influencers to help you learn from their mistakes. But occasionally, like today, switches things up and highlights popular culture.    Subscribe Website | Apple | Stitcher | Spotify

On this episode, John walks us through what he did to achieve a settlement of more than 3 times the insurance policy limits on the eve of trial.   He goes through how to set up insurance companies for bad faith, use that leverage to open up the policy and get full value on cases with big injuries and small insurance limits.  Take notes and follow John's steps to unlock the potential in your cases when insurance companies aren't treating your clients fairly!Host Matthew Heimlich is an attorney at Walsh, Knippen & Cetina, Chartered, with offices in Wheaton and Chicago, Illinois.  Matt's law practice is focused on the representation of injured victims and their families in nursing home negligence, motor vehicle collision, medical malpractice and other personal injury cases. He is a member of the DuPage County Bar Association, Illinois State Bar Association, Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.   Host John Risvold is a personal injury trial lawyer at The Collins Law Firm P.C., with offices in Naperville, Illinois.  He has dedicated his career to fighting those responsible for injuring his clients. He focuses his practice on medical negligence, nursing home neglect, and catastrophic personal injury. John is active in several professional organizations that work to ensure his clients' access to the courts remains intact, including the American Associate for Justice, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, and the Chicago Bar Association.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.  Email us at ontrialpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @OnTrialPodcast

My next guest is Skylar Young. Skylar is a University of Illinois at Chicago’s John Marshall Law School student and a “Virtual” Law Clerk with Vandenack Weaver LLC located in Omaha, NB (that is two states or 450+ miles away!). Skylar is the 2020 recipient of the McCready Law Cyberbullying Awareness Scholarship and former legislative liaison for the Chicago Bar Association’s Cyber Law & Data Privacy Committee. Based on Skylar’s background, we discuss the following three questions that Lawyers and Law Firms should consider when looking for and working with paralegals and law clerks: 1. What are three pieces of Software/Hardware that Attorneys Can Use to Screen and Hire Support Staff? 2. What are Three Pieces of Technology/Software Attorneys Can Use to Keep Communications Consistent Within and Outside the Firm? 3. What are Three Areas of Technology/Software that Law Firms Need to be Aware of When Hiring New Law Graduates? Where you can find Skylar: LinkedIn Links to Products Discussed in This Podcast:Avo AWS Backblaze Citrix Dropbox Help Prevent Your Law Office's Data Loss! Hot Docs LinkedIn Premium Microsoft Teams Practice Masters Prozone Cloud Desktop Quip Slack TSL.P’s “3-2-1 Backup” Discussion. Worldox Zoom

This week, your hosts Steve Lowry and Yvonne Godfrey interview Joseph Power, Jr. and Larry Rogers, Jr. of Powers Rogers, LLP (https://www.claggettlaw.com/)   Remember to rate and review GTP in iTunes: Click Here To Rate and Review   Episode Details: Accomplished Chicago trial lawyers Joseph Power, Jr. and Larry Rogers, Jr. of Powers Rogers, LLP explain how they secured justice for the families of two attorneys and a law office secretary who were shot by a disgruntled client who gained unauthorized access to the office due to the failure of building security officers to follow established safety procedures. On December 8, 2006, Joseph Jackson entered a 41-floor professional building at 500 West Madison Street in Chicago, held Allied Barton Security Services officer Robert Brown at gunpoint and demanded to be taken to the 38th floor, where patent lawyer Michael McKenna's office was located. A client of Michael McKenna and an inventor seeking a patent, Joseph Jackson mistakenly thought Michael McKenna had sold his idea and owed him money. Supervising security officer Sidney Chambers knew that Joseph Jackson had been loitering in the building for hours and had suspiciously interacted with officer Robert Brown, but failed to take action. Robert Brown did not follow safety protocol, utilize officer codes to alert his supervising officer to the situation or employ restraint techniques designed to defuse the situation. Instead, he tried to flee the scene and save himself when Joseph Jackson began firing his gun in the law office, fatally shooting Michael McKenna and Allen Hoover and wounding office secretary Ruth Lieb. In 2017, a Cook County, Illinois jury delivered a verdict against Allied Barton Security Services, Sidney Chambers and Joseph Jackson, assigning 60 percent of the responsibility to the deceased Joseph Jackson and 40 percent to Allied Barton in a $30,650,000 verdict.      Click Here to Read/Download the Complete Trial Documents   Guest Bios: Joseph Power Jr. Joseph A. Power, Jr. is the founding partner of the Power, Rogers, LLP law firm in Chicago, and a prominent trial lawyer focusing on cases involving medical malpractice, trucking collisions, wrongful death, product liability and catastrophic personal injuries. Power received his undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1974 and his Juris Doctor degree from Loyola University of Chicago in 1977.  Power was named as partner in 1984 and the firm became Hayes & Power.  In 1993, the firm became Power, Rogers & Smith, and has recently become Power Rogers, LLP. At the age of 28, Power became the youngest lawyer in the country to obtain a jury verdict in excess of $1 million for his client.  Power was the lead attorney in a trucking case which led to seventy-six criminal convictions, including the former governor of Illinois in the “licenses for bribes” scandal, which triggered the retesting of over 2000 truck drivers has obtained over 200 verdicts and settlements over $1,000,000.  He has the largest jury verdict in Illinois history for a contested liability personal injury case, and in addition, has the largest medical malpractice jury verdict in Illinois history.  In the last two years alone, he has been to verdict in six cases, all leading to seven and eight million-dollar recoveries. As a leader among personal injury lawyers, Power has been listed in the Harvard Law graduates Naifeh and Smith book, The Best Lawyers in America, every year since 1987. The National Law Journal recognized him as one of the top ten litigators in the United States and he has been listed in Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in America and Who's Who in American Law.   Additionally, Power has been repeatedly selected as one of the top lawyers by LawDragon, a group which selects the top 500 lawyers in the country.  He has been named a top personal injury and consumer lawyer based upon polling of fellow lawyers in the Leading Lawyer Magazine since 2009 and is one of Super Lawyers Magazine's top ten lawyers in Illinois. He has consistently been named in Chicago Lawyer Magazine, including the “30 Tough Lawyers” where he was named one of the 30 toughest lawyers in all fields in Chicago.  Those listed are, according to the magazine, attorneys you want “for you, not against you.”   Power is involved in many professional organizations.  He is currently the immediate Past-President of the Inner Circle of Advocates which is an organization consisting of the top 100 Plaintiff Trial Lawyers in the country, and Past President of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, Public Justice, Celtic Legal Society and ABOTA (Illinois Chapter).  He is a fellow with the International Academy of Trial Lawyers as well as the American College of Trial Lawyers.  He is also a member of the Irish Legal 100, the Chicago Bar Association, the Illinois State Bar Association and the American Bar Association.   Power was appointed to the Illinois Supreme Court Rules Committee in 1993 and served as Chairman from 1995-2003 during which the committee promulgated the new discovery rules and mandatory voir dire.  Due to his professional expertise, Mr. Power has been honored in such publications as Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Law, Who's Who in the World and Who's Who of emerging Leaders in America. He has been recognized by several organizations for his work as a trial lawyer.  Power was awarded “Protector of the Working Man” by the Illinois State Crime Commission, “Citizen of the Year” by the City Club of Chicago and “Board Member of the Year” by the Little City Foundation.  Additionally, he was awarded the Civil Justice Foundation's Special Commendation Award for his thoroughness, tenacity and courage in uncovering and disclosing the “license for bribes” scandal. He received the Medal of Merit and Distinguished Award for Excellence from the Illinois State Bar Association and the Medal of Excellence by the Loyola University of Chicago School of Law.  He was awarded the Tribute for Leadership on behalf of social justice and progressive change by US Action and US Action Education Fund, as well as the prestigious  Leonard Ring Award  which is awarded to someone who has devoted, as Leonard Ring did, a substantial part of their life and their practice to the Illinois Trial Lawyers, someone who has done more than is called for, and to someone who has the standards, work ethic and commitment to the Illinois Trial Lawyers that Leonard had. Most recently, Joe Power was awarded the Justice John Paul Stevens award which is presented annually by the Chicago Bar Foundation and Chicago Bar Association to attorneys who best exemplify the Justice's commitment to integrity and public service in the practice of law.   Active in many charitable organizations, Power, his wife Susan and/or the Power Family Foundation regularly contribute to Leo High School, the University of Notre Dame, Loyola University of Chicago School of Law, the Greater Chicago Food Depository, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Misericordia, Catholic Charities, Mercy Home for Boys and Girls, Free Spirit Media, Big Shoulders, the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation, St. Gabriel's Grammar School, St. Clement Church and DePaul University. Power is married to Susan Power and they have four sons and three grandchildren.  He and his wife live in Chicago. Read Full Bio   Larry Rogers Jr. Larry R. Rogers, Jr. is a trial lawyer with over 25 years of experience advocating for victims.  As a trial attorney and partner at Power Rogers, LLP, Mr. Rogers, Jr. has successfully settled and tried to verdict many multi-million dollar results for his clients in medical negligence, trucking, product liability and civil rights litigation.   He is a member of the Inner Circle of Advocates an invitation-only group of trial lawyers from across the country invited and admitted based upon their results and commitment to representing victims.    Mr. Rogers Jr. was recognized by Crain's Chicago Business as one of the top personal injury lawyers of a new generation of trial attorneys.    Mr. Rogers, Jr. has been involved in a number of significant high-profile matters, including the investigation of what happened to Sandra Bland a Chicagoland resident who was found dead in a Texas jail cell after an unlawful traffic stop.  He represents families in several civil rights and police brutality cases including the tragic shooting of Bettie Ruth Jones on the west side of Chicago which he recently resolved for a record 16 million dollars.  He has been a frequent guest on local and national radio and television shows to discuss events affecting the citizens of Chicago and the country. Mr. Rogers, Jr. and the attorneys at Power Rogers have represented victims against some of the most powerful interests in the country and have been ranked at the top of their field, with 11 consecutive 1st place rankings from 2010 to 2020in the Chicago Lawyer Annual Settlement Survey which ranks firms based on their results. Read Full Bio   Show Sponsors: Legal Technology Services - LTSatlanta.com Digital Law Marketing - DigitalLawMarketing.com Harris, Lowry, and Manton - hlmlawfirm.com   Free Resources: Stages Of A Jury Trial - Part 1 Stages Of A Jury Trial - Part 2

On this episode, we turn back the clock to 2019 to reflect on a verdict achieved by Matt Heimlich and his firm on behalf of an 84 year-old nursing home resident who suffered a fall and hip fracture due to the facility's failures in  care.  John and Matt discuss the strategy behind some of the key decisions made before and during the trial that ultimately led to a successful outcome.  What worked?  What didn't work?  What are the takeaways that you can apply to your practice?  Listen to find out in this in-depth discussion on the application of tactics and advocacy in a real trial setting.Host Matthew Heimlich is an attorney at Walsh, Knippen & Cetina, Chartered, with offices in Wheaton and Chicago, Illinois.  Matt's law practice is focused on the representation of injured victims and their families in nursing home negligence, motor vehicle collision, medical malpractice and other personal injury cases. He is a member of the DuPage County Bar Association, Illinois State Bar Association, Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.   Host John Risvold is a personal injury trial lawyer at The Collins Law Firm P.C., with offices in Naperville, Illinois.  He has dedicated his career to fighting those responsible for injuring his clients. He focuses his practice on medical negligence, nursing home neglect, and catastrophic personal injury. John is active in several professional organizations that work to ensure his clients' access to the courts remains intact, including the American Associate for Justice, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, and the Chicago Bar Association.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.  Email us at ontrialpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @OnTrialPodcast

Class actions and mass torts often grab headlines due to their profound impact on large numbers of people.  On this episode, John and Matt are joined by David Neiman and Bryce Hensley, both of Romanucci and Blandin in Chicago for a roundtable discussion about all things aggregate litigation.  This is a must-listen for anyone interested in what goes on behind the scenes of some of the biggest cases out there.Host Matthew Heimlich is an attorney at Walsh, Knippen & Cetina, Chartered, with offices in Wheaton and Chicago, Illinois.  Matt's law practice is focused on the representation of injured victims and their families in nursing home negligence, motor vehicle collision, medical malpractice and other personal injury cases. He is a member of the DuPage County Bar Association, Illinois State Bar Association, Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.   Host John Risvold is a personal injury trial lawyer at The Collins Law Firm P.C., with offices in Naperville, Illinois.  He has dedicated his career to fighting those responsible for injuring his clients. He focuses his practice on medical negligence, nursing home neglect, and catastrophic personal injury. John is active in several professional organizations that work to ensure his clients' access to the courts remains intact, including the American Associate for Justice, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, and the Chicago Bar Association.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.  Email us at ontrialpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @OnTrialPodcastIf you like what you hear, please rate and subscribe on your preferred podcast platform.  

Join us for a conversation with attorney Christopher Norman, a true subject matter expert in the area of birth injury litigation.  Chris touches on everything from what to look for during a case intake and evaluation, to the various experts that need to be retained to prove all the elements of your case and everything in between.  For anyone involved in this high-stakes subset of medical malpractice, this is a must listen!Host Matthew Heimlich is an attorney at Walsh, Knippen & Cetina, Chartered, with offices in Wheaton and Chicago, Illinois.  Matt's law practice is focused on the representation of injured victims and their families in nursing home negligence, motor vehicle collision, medical malpractice and other personal injury cases. He is a member of the DuPage County Bar Association, Illinois State Bar Association, Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.   Host John Risvold is a personal injury trial lawyer at The Collins Law Firm P.C., with offices in Naperville, Illinois.  He has dedicated his career to fighting those responsible for injuring his clients. He focuses his practice on medical negligence, nursing home neglect, and catastrophic personal injury. John is active in several professional organizations that work to ensure his clients' access to the courts remains intact, including the American Associate for Justice, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, and the Chicago Bar Association.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.  Email us at ontrialpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @OnTrialPodcastIf you like what you hear, please rate and subscribe on your preferred podcast platform.  

In our latest episode, John goes in depth attorney Jay Stefani about all things regarding commercial motor vehicle and trucking litigation.  From the importance of acting quickly upon retention to preserve evidence to proving your case using federal regulations and state CDL manuals, Jay provides tremendous insight into this complex area of injury law.Host Matthew Heimlich is an attorney at Walsh, Knippen & Cetina, Chartered, with offices in Wheaton and Chicago, Illinois.  Matt's law practice is focused on the representation of injured victims and their families in nursing home negligence, motor vehicle collision, medical malpractice and other personal injury cases. He is a member of the DuPage County Bar Association, Illinois State Bar Association, Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.   Host John Risvold is a personal injury trial lawyer at The Collins Law Firm P.C., with offices in Naperville, Illinois.  He has dedicated his career to fighting those responsible for injuring his clients. He focuses his practice on medical negligence, nursing home neglect, and catastrophic personal injury. John is active in several professional organizations that work to ensure his clients' access to the courts remains intact, including the American Associate for Justice, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, and the Chicago Bar Association.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.  Email us at ontrialpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @OnTrialPodcastIf you like what you hear, please rate and subscribe on your preferred podcast platform.  

The Chicago Bar Association hosts an Illinois Supreme Court candidate forum moderated by WGN-TV political analyst and anchor, Paul Lisnek. This program was recorded by Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV).

Craig Dellimore speaks with Maryam Ahmad of the new president of the Chicago Bar Association. Ahmad talks about her experiences, what the CBA is, and the significance of her position.

The Chicago Bar Association is teaming up with several Chicago law firms to offer free estate planning services for doctors, nurses, and others. Chicago Bar Association incoming President Maryam Ahmad joins John.

What do you do when you are trying to get divorced and the world is shut down? What about if you are already divorced and you need to adhere to a divorce decree or parenting arrangement. Join us for an amazing discussion with Divorce Legal Pro Kathryn McMahon Vivanco from Katz & Stefani for a discussion on the changing face of divorce in the world of COVID-19.Also joining the discussion are Amy Schillinger from Balance Stress ManagementAbout KathrynKathryn McMahon Vivanco advocates for her clients and helps to eliminate any uncertainties throughout the divorce process. Kathryn focuses on the specific needs of each individual client, and she has been successful in gaining favorable outcomes for her clients when resolving complex financial and child-related disputes.Kathryn is a Fellow of the Collaborative Law Institute of Illinois (“CLII”) and a member of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (“IACP”). Kathryn represents clients in family law matters in the collaborative law process, a team based approach to dispute resolution and an alternative to litigation. Kathryn also completed the 40 hour mediation training and certification and is a trained mediator.Kathryn is a member of the American Bar Association, the Illinois State Bar Association and the Chicago Bar Association. She is also a founding member of the Illinois Chapter of the American Academy for Certified Financial Litigators (AACFL). She is proficient in French and is currently studying Spanish.Kathryn is a member of the Lookingglass Theatre Associates Board and is the former Vice President of the Madhatter’s Club and former Co-Chair and Vice President of Membership. Kathryn is also a member of the events committee of the Lilac Tree (a nonprofit organization located in Evanston, Illinois, offering programs, events, support groups, and information sessions to individuals going through the divorce process).While in law school, Kathryn received a certificate in tax law and focused her studies on family law, taxation, and trust and estate planning. She was a member of the Loyola University Chicago School of Law mediation team and was an associate editor of the Loyola University Chicago International Law Review. Kathryn received the CALI Excellence for the Future Award in appellate advocacy.Before law school, Kathryn worked for a family law attorney in Wisconsin, and while in law school, she continued her training in matrimonial and family law as a law clerk for Katz & Stefani and another prominent family law firm in Chicago. Kathryn also gained litigation experience in Illinois state court as a judicial extern for the Honorable Donald J. O’Brien, Jr. (retired), Circuit Court of Cook County, Law Division, and in federal immigration court as a legal intern at the United States Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Office of the Chief Counsel.Kathryn joined Katz & Stefani in 2012. She was recognized as an Illinois Rising Star by Super Lawyers for the past 7 consecutive years (2014-2020); the designation is limited to less than 2.5% of lawyers who are fewer than 40 years of age or who have been practicing for 10 years or less in the State of Illinois. She was also named an Emerging Lawyer by Leading Lawyers in 2017-2019 and was named in the 10 Best Attorneys – Illinois by the American Institute of Family Law Attorneys in 2017.Also let us know if there are questions on divorce, separation and starting over that you want our need answered at info@splitready.com.Are you considering divorce? Get split ready at www.splitready.com Getting Split Ready is produced by Ernie Scatton and EAS Productions.For information on launching your own podcast, contact EAS Productions at 708.989.3985 or erniescatton@gmail.com

What do you do when you are trying to get divorced and the world is shut down? What about if you are already divorced and you need to adhere to a divorce decree or parenting arrangement. Join us for an amazing discussion with Divorce Legal Pro Kathryn McMahon Vivanco from Katz & Stefani for a discussion on the changing face of divorce in the world of COVID-19.Also joining the discussion are Amy Schillinger from Balance Stress ManagementAbout KathrynKathryn McMahon Vivanco advocates for her clients and helps to eliminate any uncertainties throughout the divorce process. Kathryn focuses on the specific needs of each individual client, and she has been successful in gaining favorable outcomes for her clients when resolving complex financial and child-related disputes.Kathryn is a Fellow of the Collaborative Law Institute of Illinois (“CLII”) and a member of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (“IACP”). Kathryn represents clients in family law matters in the collaborative law process, a team based approach to dispute resolution and an alternative to litigation. Kathryn also completed the 40 hour mediation training and certification and is a trained mediator.Kathryn is a member of the American Bar Association, the Illinois State Bar Association and the Chicago Bar Association. She is also a founding member of the Illinois Chapter of the American Academy for Certified Financial Litigators (AACFL). She is proficient in French and is currently studying Spanish.Kathryn is a member of the Lookingglass Theatre Associates Board and is the former Vice President of the Madhatter’s Club and former Co-Chair and Vice President of Membership. Kathryn is also a member of the events committee of the Lilac Tree (a nonprofit organization located in Evanston, Illinois, offering programs, events, support groups, and information sessions to individuals going through the divorce process).While in law school, Kathryn received a certificate in tax law and focused her studies on family law, taxation, and trust and estate planning. She was a member of the Loyola University Chicago School of Law mediation team and was an associate editor of the Loyola University Chicago International Law Review. Kathryn received the CALI Excellence for the Future Award in appellate advocacy.Before law school, Kathryn worked for a family law attorney in Wisconsin, and while in law school, she continued her training in matrimonial and family law as a law clerk for Katz & Stefani and another prominent family law firm in Chicago. Kathryn also gained litigation experience in Illinois state court as a judicial extern for the Honorable Donald J. O’Brien, Jr. (retired), Circuit Court of Cook County, Law Division, and in federal immigration court as a legal intern at the United States Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Office of the Chief Counsel.Kathryn joined Katz & Stefani in 2012. She was recognized as an Illinois Rising Star by Super Lawyers for the past 7 consecutive years (2014-2020); the designation is limited to less than 2.5% of lawyers who are fewer than 40 years of age or who have been practicing for 10 years or less in the State of Illinois. She was also named an Emerging Lawyer by Leading Lawyers in 2017-2019 and was named in the 10 Best Attorneys – Illinois by the American Institute of Family Law Attorneys in 2017.Also let us know if there are questions on divorce, separation and starting over that you want our need answered at info@splitready.com.Are you considering divorce? Get split ready at www.splitready.com Getting Split Ready is produced by Ernie Scatton and EAS Productions.For information on launching your own podcast, contact EAS Productions at 708.989.3985 or erniescatton@gmail.com

Welcome to On Trial!  In our first episode, hosts John Risvold and Matt Heimlich have a free-flowing discussion about working remotely during coronavirus, starting and specializing your personal injury practice, how our experiences as defense attorneys have improved our ability to represent injured plaintiffs, and more! Host Matthew Heimlich is an attorney at Walsh, Knippen & Cetina, Chartered, with offices in Wheaton and Chicago, Illinois.  Matt's law practice is focused on the representation of injured victims and their families in nursing home negligence, motor vehicle collision, medical malpractice and other personal injury cases. He is a member of the DuPage County Bar Association, Illinois State Bar Association, Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.   Host John Risvold is a personal injury trial lawyer at The Collins Law Firm P.C., with offices in Naperville, Illinois.  He has dedicated his career to fighting those responsible for injuring his clients. He focuses his practice on medical negligence, nursing home neglect, and catastrophic personal injury. John is active in several professional organizations that work to ensure his clients' access to the courts remains intact, including the American Associate for Justice, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, and the Chicago Bar Association.  A link to his firm's website and biography and be found here.  Email us at ontrialpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @OnTrialPodcastIf you like what you hear, please rate and subscribe on your preferred podcast platform.  

Ryan's career as an Assisted Reproduction Technology attorney was born of a personal, four-year infertility struggle shared with his wife. This challenging experience to start his own family gives Ryan a unique perspective - one of an intended father, a party to a gestational surrogacy agreement, and an experienced attorney - to fully understand the emotional, practical, and legal issues facing patients when pursuing infertility treatments. Ryan earned his J.D. from The John Marshall Law School in Chicago and Bachelor's Degree in Finance from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. Ryan is a professional member of RESOLVE, the American Bar Association, the Illinois State Bar Association, and the Chicago Bar Association. Listen to Ryan as he discusses with Ellen and Jenn: • Ryan’s background. • The start of his and his wife’s infertility journey. • Their loss of their first pregnancy and realizing that surrogacy is their only option. • Preparing for their first egg retrieval. • Beginning the process of trying to find an agency to find a surrogate. • Some requirements they had when searching for a surrogate. • Matching with their superhero surrogate. • The birth of their healthy baby boy. (Yay!) • The impact of his infertility journey and deciding to change careers. • Becoming an active advocate for others struggling with infertility. • RESOLVE Advocacy Day and how you can get involved. Want to share your story or ask a question? Call and leave us a message on our hotline: 303-997-1903. Learn more about our podcast: https://iwanttoputababyinyou.com/ Learn more about our surrogacy agencies: https://www.brightfuturesfamilies.com/ Learn more about Ellen’s law firm: http://trachmanlawcenter.com/ Learn more about Ryan’s law firm: https://www.ryanferrantelaw.com/ Learn more about Resolve: https://resolve.org/

Jeff is a retired litigation attorney, Jeffrey H. Bunn, who practiced in both State and Federal courts for nearly 40 years, and was previously member of a three-person Management Committee for a Chicago law firm. He represented clients in a variety of civil matters. He's a regular meditator, trained in the Vipassana tradition, and schooled in Mindfuless-Based Stress Reduction ("MBSR")”. Jeff was prior chair of the Chicago Bar Association (“CBA”) and more recently, the founder and initial chair of the Chicago Bar Association committee on Mindfulness and the Law. He has presented on matters concerning the incorporation of mindfulness and meditation into the practice of law for the CBA, Chicago Volunteer Legal Services (“CVLS”), the State Bar of Nevada and the National Association of Bar Executives (“NABE”), as well as other professional organizations. Please enjoy! Please visit https://nishantgarg.me/podcasts for more info. Follow Nishant: Instagram: instagram.com/garg_nishant Facebook: facebook.com/nishant.garg.5245 https://www.facebook.com/NishantMindfulnessMatters/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nishant-garg-b7a20339/

"Punch 164 before you head out the door. " In this week's episode, Justice Cobbs has joined the podcast to speak about her being elected as the first African American woman to hold a seat in the Illinois Supreme Court. (YAY!) In this episode, Courtney and Justice Cobbs discussed how this would be a historic feat, why representation matters in all forms (gender, ethnicity and georgraphic location) and the importance of voting, Justice Cobbs encourages us to use our voice in the election & on all matters. Justice Cobbs' Bio: Justice Cynthia Y. Cobbs was appointed by the Supreme Court of Illinois as a justice on the Illinois Appellate Court in January 2015. Prior to her appointment to the appellate court, Justice Cobbs was appointed as a circuit court judge in September 2011. Having been evaluated and found qualified by the Chicago Bar Association and the Alliance of Bar Associations, she was slated by the Cook County Democratic Party and won election to the circuit court seat in 2014. Early in her legal career, Justice Cobbs served as senior judicial law clerk to Supreme Court (Chief) Justice Charles E. Freeman, the first African American judge to serve on the state's Supreme Court. Justice Cobbs thus became the first African American to serve as a senior judicial law clerk on the state's highest court. - Contact & Support for Justice Cobbs: PUNCH 164 “Don’t Go Out the Door, Without Punching 164" website — www.justicecobbs.org. Join the campaign and donate, & learn more at the website e-mail address: justicecobbs@justicecobbs.org Facebook & Instagram - @JusticeCobbs2020 Events: http://onesun3flowers.eventbrite.com Black History Gear: https://onesun3flowers.com/collections/woke Want to advertise with us? Email us at onesun3flowers@gmail.com If you're looking for a tribe to continue to connect with please find us on ourpodcastpageinstagram.com/onesun3flowerspodcast or visit our company page instagram.com/onesun3flowers. To keep discussing today's topic and other topics discussed on the podcast, join our Facebook group at OneSun3Flowers . Our store is open and selling shirts to empower women, girls and the entire tribe. Shoponesun3flowers.myshopify.com to grab a new tee. If you have questions or would like to discuss podcast sponsorship, email us at onesun3flowers@gmail.com The hashtag for the podcast is #onesun3flowerspodcast. Make sure to follow us on social media: Twitter: twitter.com/onesun3flowers Instagram:instagram.com/onesun3flowerspodcast Facebook: facebook.com/onesun3flowers Book, Flowering Yourself- bit.ly/flowering_yourself

A common view of divorce is one of animosity. Two people duking it out in bare-knuckled conflict to win. While this can sometimes be the case, it does not need to be. In fact, a bit of civility injected into the process can often help with better outcomes and a better relationship post-divorce. Join us for a discussion on civility in divorce with Tanya Harvey from Ward Family Law. Other Panelists - Joyce Marter - Author, Blogger and Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor - Matthew Carroll from Keystone Mediation About Tanya Tania K. Harvey has exclusively practiced in the matrimonial and family law field for over 14 years, which experience includes court appointments as a child representative and guardian ad litem along with earning her certificates in mediation and collaborative law. She has written numerous appellate briefs, argued before the Appellate Court and also appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court. Ms. Harvey earned her Juris Doctor from the John Marshall Law School in June, 2003. Ms. Harvey earned her Bachelor of Science in Business from Miami University of Ohio in June, 2000, with a minor in criminology. Ms. Harvey is very active with the John Marshall Law School Alumni Association and is an adjunct faculty member, since 2008. Ms. Harvey is currently a member of the Illinois and Chicago Bar Association of Illinois. Ms. Harvey was the Co-chair of the Young Lawyer’s Section of Family Law of the Chicago Bar Association for two years and served as a Special Projects Coordinator for the Chicago Bar Association. Ms. Harvey is also a fellow of the Collaborative Law Institute of Illinois. Ms. Harvey has also been selected by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017 and was included on the Emerging Lawyers list for Leading and Emerging Chicago Area Divorce Lawyers for 2016, 2017 and 2018. Also let us know if there are questions on divorce, separation and starting over that you want our need answered at info@splitready.com. Are you considering divorce? Get split ready at www.splitready.com Getting Split Ready is produced by Ernie Scatton and EAS Productions. For information on launching your own podcast, contact EAS Productions at 708.989.3985 or erniescatton@gmail.com

A common view of divorce is one of animosity. Two people duking it out in bare-knuckled conflict to win. While this can sometimes be the case, it does not need to be. In fact, a bit of civility injected into the process can often help with better outcomes and a better relationship post-divorce. Join us for a discussion on civility in divorce with Tanya Harvey from Ward Family Law. Other Panelists - Joyce Marter - Author, Blogger and Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor - Matthew Carroll from Keystone Mediation About Tanya Tania K. Harvey has exclusively practiced in the matrimonial and family law field for over 14 years, which experience includes court appointments as a child representative and guardian ad litem along with earning her certificates in mediation and collaborative law. She has written numerous appellate briefs, argued before the Appellate Court and also appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court. Ms. Harvey earned her Juris Doctor from the John Marshall Law School in June, 2003. Ms. Harvey earned her Bachelor of Science in Business from Miami University of Ohio in June, 2000, with a minor in criminology. Ms. Harvey is very active with the John Marshall Law School Alumni Association and is an adjunct faculty member, since 2008. Ms. Harvey is currently a member of the Illinois and Chicago Bar Association of Illinois. Ms. Harvey was the Co-chair of the Young Lawyer’s Section of Family Law of the Chicago Bar Association for two years and served as a Special Projects Coordinator for the Chicago Bar Association. Ms. Harvey is also a fellow of the Collaborative Law Institute of Illinois. Ms. Harvey has also been selected by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017 and was included on the Emerging Lawyers list for Leading and Emerging Chicago Area Divorce Lawyers for 2016, 2017 and 2018. Also let us know if there are questions on divorce, separation and starting over that you want our need answered at info@splitready.com. Are you considering divorce? Get split ready at www.splitready.com Getting Split Ready is produced by Ernie Scatton and EAS Productions. For information on launching your own podcast, contact EAS Productions at 708.989.3985 or erniescatton@gmail.com

Meditation is undoubtedly and indisputably beneficial to its practitioners. While the specific techniques and intensity can vary substantially, the benefits remain constant. These benefits include stress reduction, positive mood and outlook, better sleep and clearer decision making. These can help in every day life, but they can be especially helpful during divorce. Join us for a discussion with Patrick Kalscheur from Kalscheur Conscious Family Law about how he has integrated meditation into his practice and the positive impact that doing so has brought. About Patrick Kalscheur Patrick has been a leader in the Chicago Collaborative Law community for several years. He has been on the board of directors of the Collaborative Law Institute of Illinois from 2015 to the present, and has written articles and moderated discussions with the Chicago Bar Association and the DePaul College of Law on the benefits of the collaborative process. He is also active in local bar associations, including the Illinois State Bar Association and Chicago Bar Association—where he was the chair of the domestic relations committee (2013-2014); He currently serves on the boards of community organizations (Chicago Bar Foundation and DePaul College of Law Family Law Center); and he has been recognized by his peers as an exceptional family law attorney (Super Lawyers Rising Star (2016, 2017), Leading Lawyer (2016, 2017), and Emerging Lawyer (2016, 2017) Prior to opening Kalscheur Conscious Family Law, Patrick worked for one of Chicago’s largest and most respected family law firms for high net worth individuals, and one of the country’s best and largest general litigation law firms. These experiences inform his understanding of what is right and wrong about our court system and its approach to family law disputes. He helps my clients avoid the pitfalls in the system, and he can offer these services to an economically diverse clientele. He received his Juris Doctor degree from DePaul University College of Law, where he received many distinctions, including graduating Order of the Coif and Summa Cum Laude. He also has numerous additional training and certifications in Collaborative Law, Mediation, and Litigation. Also let us know if there are questions on divorce, separation and starting over that you want our need answered at info@splitready.com Are you considering divorce? Get split ready at www.splitready.com Getting Split Ready is produced by Ernie Scatton and EAS Productions. For information on launching your own podcast, contact EAS Productions at 708.989.3985 or erniescatton@gmail.com

Meditation is undoubtedly and indisputably beneficial to its practitioners. While the specific techniques and intensity can vary substantially, the benefits remain constant. These benefits include stress reduction, positive mood and outlook, better sleep and clearer decision making. These can help in every day life, but they can be especially helpful during divorce. Join us for a discussion with Patrick Kalscheur from Kalscheur Conscious Family Law about how he has integrated meditation into his practice and the positive impact that doing so has brought. About Patrick Kalscheur Patrick has been a leader in the Chicago Collaborative Law community for several years. He has been on the board of directors of the Collaborative Law Institute of Illinois from 2015 to the present, and has written articles and moderated discussions with the Chicago Bar Association and the DePaul College of Law on the benefits of the collaborative process. He is also active in local bar associations, including the Illinois State Bar Association and Chicago Bar Association—where he was the chair of the domestic relations committee (2013-2014); He currently serves on the boards of community organizations (Chicago Bar Foundation and DePaul College of Law Family Law Center); and he has been recognized by his peers as an exceptional family law attorney (Super Lawyers Rising Star (2016, 2017), Leading Lawyer (2016, 2017), and Emerging Lawyer (2016, 2017) Prior to opening Kalscheur Conscious Family Law, Patrick worked for one of Chicago’s largest and most respected family law firms for high net worth individuals, and one of the country’s best and largest general litigation law firms. These experiences inform his understanding of what is right and wrong about our court system and its approach to family law disputes. He helps my clients avoid the pitfalls in the system, and he can offer these services to an economically diverse clientele. He received his Juris Doctor degree from DePaul University College of Law, where he received many distinctions, including graduating Order of the Coif and Summa Cum Laude. He also has numerous additional training and certifications in Collaborative Law, Mediation, and Litigation. Also let us know if there are questions on divorce, separation and starting over that you want our need answered at info@splitready.com Are you considering divorce? Get split ready at www.splitready.com Getting Split Ready is produced by Ernie Scatton and EAS Productions. For information on launching your own podcast, contact EAS Productions at 708.989.3985 or erniescatton@gmail.com

This episode is raw audio from a presentation I gave to the Chicago Bar Association’s Mindfulness Committee. I discussed “Emotional Intelligence: Skills Every Lawyer Needs Now.” In this age of dramatic change and dissatisfaction with the practice of law, clients are demanding more, technology is replacing many tasks that we previously performed, and lawyers are increasingly depressed and susceptible to substance abuse. Lawyers can no longer rely solely on traditional legal skills to succeed; rather, we must add emotional intelligence to our skillset. Once we learn the skills of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management, we can build a practice that is sustainable, successful, and profitable. This talk will show you the practical steps you can take to develop these vital skills and how to transfer these skills to your day-to-day practice of law. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/attorneydsy/message

In this episode, we will be exploring the murky waters of the unlicensed practice of law and the minefield it presents to the unwary.  Our featured guest, Scott A. Kozlov, is a lawyer who investigates other lawyers (and those pretending to be lawyers) to promote and protect the integrity of the legal profession. You will hear how, in 2011, Scott assisted in writing a Supreme Court rule that effectively gave the Illinois Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission (ARDC)  the power to safeguard against the unlicensed practice of law. Scott also discusses how, as Senior Counsel and the Director of Unauthorized Practice of Law Litigation for the ARDC, he examines, investigates, and when necessary prosecutes the misconduct of attorneys and attorney imposters.  A graduate of Valparaiso University School of Law and Eastern Illinois University, Scott’s career has taken him from being an investigator with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, to a court coordinator with the Circuit Court of Cook County, to an associate with general practice law firm in Arlington Heights, to an Assistant Public Guardian in Cook County, and finally to the ARDC.  Scott is also an Adjunct Professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law  and teaches professional responsibility. Scott has also served and continues to serve the legal community and the public by volunteering his time and knowledge with several legal organizations.  In 2004, he chaired the Chicago Bar Association’s Government Service Committee.  Since 2007, he has been the Chair of its Unauthorized Practice and Multidisciplinary Practice Committee.  Since 2009, Scott has been appointed to the Illinois State Bar Association’s Task Force on the Unauthorized Practice of Law. In 2015 and in 2017, he was the Chair of the American Bar Association’s Unauthorized Practice of Law School, which trains attorneys on various aspects of investigating and prosecuting unauthorized practice of law.  He also currently serves on the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Client Protection and is the Chair of the Northwest Suburban Bar Association’s Ethics Committee.  In addition to his involvement in the legal community, Scott was a nationally ranked competitive figure skater, and he still finds the time and energy to be a professional skating instructor, which he has done for over two decades for several suburban park districts.

Episode 7 Lovita Alize Jenkins: Authenticity in the Workplace Co- Hosts Michelle Jenkins and Shelley Whitehead sit down with guest, Victoria Watkins, Senior Advisor to Mayor R. Emanuel and Co-Founder of Project Style. The three chat about the added challenge Black women face in their attempts to be palatable in predominately white spaces and give tips on how-to introduce unfamiliar audiences to your personal style/ personality. Guest Spotlight: Victoria R. Watkins currently works for the City of Chicago in the Office of Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Victoria serves as Senior Advisor, leading efforts related to external affairs, legislative issues, neighborhood policy, and overall City priorities. Previously, Victoria was Deputy Director in Legislative Counsel & Government Affairs, leading the City's efforts on all state government-related initiatives. In her role, she was the main conduit between the priorities of the City and state government, dealing directly with elected officials, state agencies, and related stakeholders. Prior to joining the City, she served as Assistant Counsel to House Speaker Madigan, advising State Representatives on legislation and procedure. In addition to her legislative law work, Victoria counsels, researches, and writes on fashion law, entertainment and sports law, copyrights and trademarks, and other related fields. She is the Chief Editor and Creator of B.A.F.F.L.E.D. (Business Advice, Fashion Facts, Law & Entertainment Domain), a lifestyle blog on the topics she loves most. She has spoken on panels on fashion law for the Beverly Hills Bar Association, Chicago Bar Association, John Marshall Law School Fashion Law Society, and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Victoria is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and earned her Juris Doctorate from DePaul University College of Law. Book Mentioned: Beauty Sick - How the Cultural Obsession with Appearance Hurts Women and Girls -by Renee Engeln

Deborah Knupp has worked globally with CEOs, managing partners and professionals as a coach and business executive for 25 years. She has helped leaders in the legal, accounting and financial services fields align their people and business objectives to create cultures based on the principles of accountability, integrity and authentic relationships.Her work focuses on making the work environment a place where the best employees want to work, where profitable clients want to buy, and where inspired leaders want to serve a bigger purpose in their communities. Prior to joining GrowthPlay, Deborah founded Akina, a national consulting, training and coaching firm that helps professionals rethink relationship building to increase sales and organizational effectiveness.Akina spent the last decade as an industry leader in business-development training and coaching for lawyers, successfully training and coaching thousands of attorneys at over 150 law firms worldwide. Akina also served insurance advisors, financial advisors, accountants and management consultants. Prior to founding Akina, Deborah was a front-line sales and human resources executive with Alcan Packaging, Frito-Lay and Pearle Vision. Her diverse background ranges from general management of a $75 million business unit to facilitating strategic global leadership and culture-change management initiatives. Deborah is a highly sought after international speaker in business development, relationship building, culture and leadership, having been a superior-rated speaker for organizations including the Legal Marketing Association, Association of Accounting Marketing, National Conference of Bar Foundations, National Conference of Bar Presidents, American Bar Association, Chicago Bar Association, Association of Legal Administrators, The Coalitions for Women’s Initiatives in Law Firms, Empowering Women Network, Loyola University, IIT – Chicago Kent School of Law, Lex Mundi, Meritas and US Law.

When faced with a legal issue, many people don’t turn to an actual lawyer. Instead they choose to seek answers on their own. In this report from On The Road, host Patrick Palace talks to Catherine Sanders and Nicole Bradick about how lawyers and law firms can thrive amidst the rising popularity of self-help legal technology. They discuss the services clients seek from a firm, providing “freemiums” or free perks in order to build trust with potential clients, and how to customize company websites that cater to client needs. Nicole Bradick is a former lawyer and the founder and CEO of Theory and Principle, a legal technology product development firm. Catherine Sanders Reach is the director of Law Practice Management and Technology for the Chicago Bar Association.

Welcome to The Chicago Bar Association’s @theBar, a podcast where young and young-ish lawyers have interesting and unscripted conversations with their guests about legal news, events, topics, stories and whatever else strikes our fancy. The guests are prominent figures from the legal community, and legally related communities, and the discussions are informal, like you would have at a bar. Tune in to hear more about this brand new show.

In this episode, I am excited to have Chelsey Lambert on the show to speak on different technology and products for lawyers and her website, lextechreview.com. Chelsey is a Legal Technology Specialist, published author, and CLE speaker. As a former Practice Management Advisor for the Chicago Bar Association and executive for legal technology companies, she has seen our industry from many angles. She recently founded the legal technology blog LexTechReview.com, where she reviews products lawyers can use to run their business and teaches tech training classes.   Topics Covered Chelsey opens with talking about her thoughts on being one of the few women in the male-dominated field of law technology and how her time invested in the field has paid off. Why so many firms are afraid of adopting new and pioneering technology out of fear of change, and the benefits of taking the leap into new technology to keep your firm running as efficiently as possible. The importance of needs assessments, and investing the time and money into learning how to utilize the programs and have it ready for you. The differences between legal-specific tech and tools to non-legal specific, and the importance of the distinction depending on where your firm is and it's specific needs.For more information on Chelsey, find her at the following sites: Twitter: @chelseylambert             @lextechreview Website: www.lextechreview.com   Questions? Comments? Email Jeena! hello@jeenacho.com. You can also connect with Jeena on Twitter: @Jeena_Cho For more information, visit: jeenacho.com Order The Anxious Lawyer book — Available in hardcover, Kindle and Audible Find Your Ease: Retreat for Lawyers I'm creating a retreat that will provide a perfect gift of relaxation and rejuvenation with an intimate group of lawyers. Interested? Please complete this form: https://jeena3.typeform.com/to/VXfIXq MINDFUL PAUSE: Bite-Sized Practices for Cultivating More Joy and Focus 31-day program. Spend just 6 minutes every day to practice mindfulness and meditation. Decrease stress/anxiety, increase focus and concentration. Interested? http://jeenacho.com/mindful-pause/ Transcript Intro: [00:00:18] Welcome to The Resilient Lawyer podcast. In this podcast, we have meaningful, in-depth conversations with lawyers, entrepreneurs, and change agents. We offer tools and strategies for creating a more joyful and satisfying life. And now your host, Jeena Cho.   Jeena Cho: [00:00:40] My friends, thanks for being with us today. In this episode, I am delighted to have Chelsea Lambert who is a legal technology specialist, author and speaker as a former practice management adviser for the Chicago Bar Association and executive for legal technology companies. She's seen in our industry from so many different angles. She recently founded the legal technology blog LexTechReview.com where she reviews products lawyers can use to run their businesses, and teaches tech training classes. And I know that I can certainly use Chelsea's help like so many other solo attorneys, because I sometimes feel like managing my technology for my firm is like a full-time job in itself. So I'm really excited to have Chelsea share her wisdom and her knowledge on this topic. [00:01:31] Before we get into the interview, if you haven't listened to the last bonus episode, go back and check it out. It was a few episodes ago, I shared a six-minute guided meditation practice, to help you let go of stress and anxiety. And it's particularly great for this time of year because I know for me it's always a stressful time. And so often I hear from lawyers that they know they should meditate and practice mindfulness, but they just don't have the time. And I always tell them you know what, just start with six minutes. Start with just .1 hour. All the hours you dedicate to your clients, work, and others, don't you deserve to have just one .1 hour for yourself? And so I created a program, it's called Mindful Pause and it's designed for lawyers like you so that you can fit it into your very hectic schedule. So head on over to JeenaCho.com to learn more. That's "J-E-E-N-A-C-H-O" dot com. Or you could also look at the show notes.  And with that here is Chelsea. Welcome to the Resilient Lawyer podcast. Chelsey Lambert: [00:02:50] Oh thank you so much for having me. And for all that you do, of course, they provide it's been a great service and help to a lot of similar space that just you know need some more balance and an A level that reset button every now. Jeena Cho: [00:03:05] Thank you so much. So let's start by just having you give us a 30-second overview of who you are and what you do. Chelsey Lambert: [00:03:14] Yeah absolutely. So I have a legal technology blog called Lex Tech Review. My passion is training and providing education on ARIAD solutions that we work within our daily lives at the office and also schools and apps that we use to help. The US get more done in our inner lives at home. So I provide webinars. I write articles and reviews. I recently published the legal technology buyer's guide which is another shopper's handbook for anyone who's trying to navigate this. Crazy ocean of providers that we have now there are over 700 solutions available in different categories whether it's case management virtual receptionist's services or even courses like yours is listed in the guide. So if anybody is in that shopping's days right now they might want to check that out and then try and teach as often as I can online or at a bar association. Jeena Cho: [00:04:18] So you know we've sort of bumped into each other in the legal tech space or that world. And we met one family one of those conferences and I think that I'm often just so surprised to see as just how male tremendous field is the legal tech space and I've written articles just this is where I go on my crisis as so many legal technology conferences are just like you know white male techs that seem to just completely dominate this base of any age and it's totally crazy. [00:04:59] So yeah I mean I'm just curious like what is it like to be one of the few. I mean I know I can probably count and like one or two hands just a number of women that are in that in the space of Biegel technologies so you know what is that like. Chelsey Lambert: [00:05:16] Yeah. So you know I was really fortunate to have kind of fallen back into this space when I was 22 and did my first stage show that year. And you know my perspective there is a tremendous amount of opportunity to make a name for yourself and establish a personal birthright mountains and really come into your own as a woman in the legal tack. If you have the determination persistence and just straight up grit to make it happen because there is you know you're going to get there there's that you know you're going to get the conversation that you don't want to hear you're going to. [00:06:05] Be judged based on how you look you're going to get that leg just naturally because you're one in a sea of like tens of thousands. Right. So that's a nice starting so young in this space I think was helpful because I knew that this is where I wanted to invest my career. Like I love working with law firms and solo lawyers like I can. My parents were small business owners and I think in so many of the challenges that solo and small firm attorneys faced the challenges that my family went through when I was growing up like when you. Have that at the office it doesn't work like they're raving about it at the dinner table at all. I've lived that before I was even in that space so you know over the years I think some of the challenges that you have to overcome is. [00:06:54] Unfortunately just proving that you are actually smart. You know like having people like I worked I worked almost every single conference in the legal space all over the country. You know trekking boxes and trade show materials all over the place in my heels and you know breaking nails and putting bulls together you know and all of that stuff. [00:07:17] And that's part of my journey. And you know as hard of it as it was it is forbidden to say it's time to get in front of thousands of attorneys to meet and build relationships with bar associations all over the country. And you just have to. For me at least I just have to really keep at it. And once I you know like he was talking before we started. Once you kind of climb that mountain and you establish credibility and you build a reputation of integrity and. Respect and trustworthiness in this space and you kind of cross the cement on the other side of that mountain that is just killing fields like the amount of opportunity for women who build a name for themselves in the legal tech community is pretty astounding. Namely because quite honestly we have a crazy diversity problem. [00:08:18] So oftentimes like I wonder if I'm getting picked for the panel based on the fact that we need a woman to feed their diversity in my mind is actually valuable which like I would love to believe that I'm providing really useful material to my audience and it's actually a motivator for me to do that. Like I always have to make sure you know my presentations are on point and that I'm giving like so much value that people are coming up afterward you know asking for a follow-up call or something like that Rick. I just want them to be overwhelmed with information and resources. But also you know I've been lucky enough over the last few years to finally crest you know the summit and I feel like I'm on the other side of that hill climb. [00:09:04] Now when you're going through the climb you just got like you know you're going to have to have a little bit of a thick skin because as much as I don't want to admit it or talk about it and I don't want this to be the focus of the call there is still kind of like that mentality like you know you get asked like oh he work outside the home or like you know where is her husband and that has evidence. Like a person. Who somehow. So there's still a little bit of that it's much much better now and I have to say that it was five or ten years ago we were dramatically different. [00:09:40] I feel like it's the playing field is leveled out much more so than it was 10 years ago and I think that also has to do with just maturity and may not be 20 20 years. Jeena Cho: [00:09:56] Feel like your whole different standard as. And like all taxpayers other. Chelsey Lambert: [00:10:05] I feel like it is whether it's self-imposed. You know look I'm a pretty critical of myself and just think that Taipei you know OCV no personality. My mom hires brutes just would also show that I feel like I impose my own. Expectations on myself. Because I don't want there to be an opportunity for anyone to take a jab or discredit me in it. Like I don't want to give that opportunity outright. And then also I know like the standard I feel like women in general. [00:10:49] Are critical of themselves. Like there's so much in the media. You know I have this conversation like I have I'm very lucky to have a social circle and purposefully so of really successful. You know also the women who you know professionally have done very well for themselves because we can relate to each other. And I feel like we're the pressures that we impose on ourselves. Like ok well I have to make sure that I'm dressed appropriately and that I'm working out that I'm eating healthy and then I'm also like on top of my game from a work perspective that oh my gosh there's and if there is a typo newsletter. You're like really about it like a day. [00:11:35] You know you're going to get that attorney that comes back you know highlights a paragraph of something that you wrote it rips it to shreds and here goes. You know you internalize a lot of it because I feel like we have we imposed in some cases a double standard on ourselves of. You have to be perfect in every area of your life. And it's you know in your professional career as well. And so. I do feel those pressures my related to the industry. We work with attorneys and it's who some argue for a living and that's really where you know just coming back to that thick skin. I know that there's always going to be in a room of four or five hundred people there's going to be that one or that two that comes up to me and tells me how I should talk my second. [00:12:27] I'm ready for it. Like I'm just ready for it. And like you also have to have to have an open mind because those are also opportunities to work. Like maybe I could have done better. So to answer your question I think we-we I personally impose a higher standard and level of expectation on myself because I am fearful of a situation occurring where you know I would be I would be put on the spot and made an example of because you know I'm a woman. And it's also it also varies depending on where you are working you know like I said I've spoken in. [00:13:11] States all over the U.S. and you will see a different viewpoint when you will you know speaking in Texas or Mississippi or Florida or you know California. You know it does very much differ based on how progressive the geographic location. Jeena Cho: [00:13:30] One my reasons is legal and all male speakers have sort of response and I often get as well we just couldn't find any that they wanted the best speakers. And I'm suggesting that somehow I've invited a woman or person of color that they would be lowering their standards like that you know that in fact, they couldn't find anyone to speak on that particular topic. That is either a man or a person of color. Like. How did how do you respond to that? Chelsey Lambert: [00:14:09] So it's an unfortunate you know I put the last two conferences that aren't attended. I think even at one point took a picture of the states when they brought all the speakers up because it was you know like 10 for 10 or 12 or 12 all you know the typical white male speaker and you know it's just kind of disappointing get in the audience. I could have picked out like three women that were that great. I think that is something that we can acknowledge. But at the same time where is from my perspective. Where is that expert? Where should that effort the spent and I come from you know like sales and an entrepreneurial background? [00:14:53] So my attitude around it is while I'm just going to flood the market with so much content and so much value and I'm going to reach out to a bar association for a month and know that I'm available and me and build relationships with these conferences so that when it does come time to speakers that I've best positioned myself to be chosen because I think it's like if I dedicate that energy to trying to make an issue out of it I think it needs the issue more than it does the solution right now. You know that's really the struggle that I have with you I recognize that it is happening. [00:15:39] Absolutely. I think that you know Adriana Artist as actual chair did and the rideable job of really changing the percentage and profile of the overall tech faculty. I mean that there were more women speakers at a tech show last year than I think that I've ever seen previously and it was something that just kind of happened under you know behind the scenes that weren't like a calling it out. But it was just almost every room that I would walk in it was like oh that's refreshing. [00:16:10] Oh wow. Hey, it was kind of like this women's day like tomorrow we're going to be all guys I know it was just it was prevalent through the whole thing and that was really refreshing. I mean it's horrible that you know we have to call it out and say that but that's really what I see is that it's not true. [00:16:29] You know women like us in the industry to really push forward and get on as many panels as we can and provide as much content as we can and flood the marketplace with quality material so that it was an inspiration and a motivator for other women to get involved because we are also responsible for mentoring and grooming and being you know the role models for the ones that are going to come after us. And you know I jumped at the opportunity to help another woman making a name for her in this space cause. Jeena Cho: [00:17:14] We make sure we slammed the door behind us. And I think as women and we have an obligation to make sure that the people that are perhaps even more marginalized like women lawyers of color and other folks also kind of get their fair share of you know time and space and have their voices be heard because we really need just more diversity and inclusiveness in our profession than we care and it's just often just feels like it's an echo chamber. And I actually just stopped. Like and so like for me personally I'm like when I see the lack of diversity like I will just e-mail the organizers off the line and say like hey I just noticed that I know it's an attendee at your conference. You had you know male speakers to women speakers and none of them was a color. [00:18:06] As a woman of color. It makes me feel like I don't belong with that I don't have a place in your confidence and that's something you might keep in mind for future conferences and most of the time they're very appreciative and nice I will change. And then if they don't know if it's like a persistent continuing problem then maybe I'll write an article about it because I don't like advocacy and I'm certainly not suggesting like this suddenly that everyone should do. That's something that I choose to do. I'm going to call bullshit. I see. And you know and I'm not going to be like I'm just going to play nice and pretend that this isn't happening. It's just so obvious and blatant. [00:18:49] So now you know and I think that's also where being an ally is really important that if you're a male and like you know you might think like well you know I'm just so white do. Like what can I do to be part of the part of this solution? And that's also something that you can do is if you go to a conference and there are so many well it's you know there's a disproportionate number of white males speaking you might just say hey you know what I attended your conference and I noticed that there is a lack of women and black people of color at the conference and I think that actually is perhaps more powerful than a woman or person of color short of men it could be perceived as just like whining or complaining about you know not having your fair space. Whereas I think it's a white male coming stepping forward and saying that it can be more powerful. Chelsey Lambert: [00:19:40] So I mean just yeah it and it was you know my first positions on 88 committees. You know I was nominated by my met. So you know you really have to. And my mentor you know all of my mentors almost all of my mentors support to have. And you have to have good friends versus well throughout your career but you have been men and so you have to as you know to seek out people who proactively you have to grow actively seek out people who recognize they you have the value and intelligence and you know a lot to give and contribute in this space. [00:20:25] And then you have to ask like I think that there is one thing that really you know it's like you read Sheryl Sandberg's book Lean In. It's you know you are responsible for going to taking your seat at the table. You know so it's I really cannot hammer that point home enough. You know we are responsible. Everything in your career and life. It's really cool. It's a sale of some kind. [00:20:49] I know that as lawyers and we you know we don't always like the word selling we don't like the word sale but you are not leaving yourself every step of the way and it's your responsibility to find those advocates and you ask like an equal who is reasonable and blatant about it. Like I want to be involved in this magazine. I want to speak at this conference. All right. You know what do I need to do to get there and then I'll wavering we persisted until you get to the other side because that's the whole climb you know and that's really it for me. That was kind. It was just constant you know constant accent constant you know but when you ask you are show up and you know that's the other part of it too is the follow through. [00:21:39] So if you ask for the world and somebody gives you an opportunity then you better you know put up when you get there. You know that's the last thing that they want is open the door and then you don't do anything which I've also you know just really are. I've also done that for quite a few women where they you know complain about a problem or they're citing an issue and I go out of my way to make an introduction and give them an opportunity and then they dropped the ball and then I'm like they are you for real. That's right. You know so it goes both ways. Two of you know one thing you have to have to do the ask because you're never in life didn't get anything that you don't ask for. [00:22:25] And then you go out or show up and do the work. So you're willing to do those two things like you know take this problem take this challenge that we have into your own hands and force your way into this space. Because I promise you from personal experience once you go through that process. The opportunities are endless and by that, you have earned such a heart. And I know it's kind of messed up to say this but you have earned such like are one level of respect from the people around you-you know like. And to this day have people come up to me and say wow you know like from 10 years ago like here actually really smart like I thought you were just like a day like I don't know what a backhanded comment or like what I do with that. [00:23:13] You don't but I mean that goes to show that 10 years of like burning my way. You know that's just you know. So I still get a little bit of that and it doesn't make me upset and it doesn't make me angry but it does. Just like you just got to continue to push and push and push. But when you get to the other side I mean there's I've been booked for speaking engagements last week. Right. So then all of a sudden it's this windfall of our approach you know which I am very grateful for very grateful. And there are you know it's like the SES is. [00:23:52] It has a diversity problem. But there are also some really amazing awesome people and I think we might share the same philosophy of knowing you. You pick your family and you choose who you are who you choose to allow into your life and the ones who are supportive. I mean like you've got some real like amazing rock stars like Conrad Saam of Mockingbird marketing and Aaron 3 of the lawyer and the attorney saying and leaders of the case management for writers know like Larry Ward and the time of rock matter and practice and there it's like these are like you know the leaders of these tech companies. Jack wouldn't you know it's the leaders of these soccer fans has been very welcoming very supportive and you would never hear anything like that out of their mouth. [00:24:46] So it's kind of like surround yourself with the people who they don't walk through those glasses and that's you know another way that you can really give yourself a nice lake more you know wildling environment to do your work. Jeena Cho: [00:25:03] I'm shifting gears of technology now. You work with saws and small law firms and helping them sort of manage the technology helping them choose the best solutions for them. You know what do you think holds back so many fans and lawyers from adopting technology are trying that. Chelsey Lambert: [00:25:29] Change can suck. Really bad. It's a scary thing. And you know I always say solo and small firms. Two things. One software companies you know coming from working within it in one and being a marketer or a tech you know technology firms are. Just as much in competition with a solo or small firms open Amazon shopping cart as you are. You know other competitors are only 40 or so if I had to put a number on it. [00:26:05] 40 percent of the overall market actually adopted some type of case management or software solution to this because it's easier to keep doing things the way that we are great. It's just that well you know my business didn't fall apart yesterday. So why should I invest in this today? And it's also you have to make a commitment and you have to be accountable because once you buy that solution and starts hitting your credit card every single month are you actually using it. And if you have a single aide or you have it in enough cases to use the payment processing tool or whatever it is you have to be accountable to yourself. So it's one you know acknowledging that you need to better your business and make a change. And like I personally you know just signed up for a very intense 90-day program for my own business. And then when I did it I was like oh look this is going to be one of the hardest 90 days. [00:27:07] You know lay in it. But you really want the things that you say you want managed to do well that should be your motivator to make that change. What is that goal that is going to be you know we see all of these like marketing terms like it's going to make you more productive and it's going to make you more efficient? That's going to do. And yes that will do all of that stuff that absolutely. But what is it really good for you. [00:27:32] Can I help you bring in an extra two or three you know ten thousand dollars or two cases a month so that you can take your family on vacation. You haven't done in five years. What is that? What is that all. And I think that that's what we need to tie you to technology to be not just necessarily like oh it's going to make you more productive and more efficient. What's the person driving motivating factor for making that investment and I feel like that's kind of like the missing puzzle piece when it comes to Barclay. The solution is you know it is a really getting home early and you know are you really going to do that or are you just going to fill your time with. So tying those two things together getting over the change and making that commitment which is one of the hardest things and this is 21 days 41 days to make a habit so we can get them through the first 21 days of usage. That that's always the hardest. And 90 days to really see true results and are alike. Jeena Cho: [00:28:33] All right. You know if you notice suspension notices when I have like I stole some piece of technology that's supposed to do like whatever unless it's posted right. But like I can't seem to integrate it and actually make making a habit of using it because you can buy the best technology in the world. But if you don't integrate it into your daily life and actually use it it's actually not going to be really effective so no thoughts about selecting ones that are going to be easy to integrate into your backpack. And also just sort of making and part of your daily life. Chelsey Lambert: [00:29:09] Yeah. And I can actually use an I can use a recent console that I did with a law firm. So the software that came through my Web site entered their contact info and said you know we're looking to choose between I think it was like Zola's sweet rocket batter and caused all that's really the case manager at the writer Sitka on the fall at the firm and they say. Okay, what. You know I'm like What are the most important things to you. [00:29:36] They're like Okay we're really you know we want them all and want an accounting. We also want built-in. We also want slick ease of use because we're not tech savvy. The third one being the most important thing and we had a long talk. We narrowed it down to two and my homework for them as I want you to go and do these two actions. I want you to go and send your group e-mail inbox. And I want you to go and issue a bill and you know go through the process like building your time and showing the invoice they came back to me after they had demo both solutions and I said so which one feels like home. And it was a night and day difference between that two because you know and really like it wasn't even at that point like we went it has signed up as soon as we finished the job because they knew right away. [00:30:30] And I feel like a train which is the reason why I wrote this buyer's guide. I feel like attorneys have been trained to shop based on a feature checklist, not SSN. I mean that is how tech-savvy at my water the things that are most important to me and my career. It's like they're going around with a with a clipboard. And I know because I work in a trade show who has to go through this is they come to you with like a clipboard with a feature checklist and they say okay well for 50 dollars per user per month. Do you have that? And they go through this whole thing. Right. And it shouldn't even matter. You know what the money that you're spending per month is I mean obviously like I understand that we need to be budgeting conscious but you don't lose it. It's not going to matter if you're saving 13 dollars a month or you're paying an extra 30 dollars. [00:31:21] Why is that it should feel like home. And that's what you should. There should be usability there where you feel like people just jump in and move around and find things. And we're all different types of learners. You know there are visual learners there are auditory learners also barring technology and not making time training. [00:31:40] So if you're going to go about it on your own do a needs assessment and then the second bit of advice that I would have is and I do this with my own business. I use consultants freelancers who know contractors that are specific in what they do to help me with this stuff because this is what happens here by piece of technology just like you said I needed to integrate with X Y Z and it becomes one of those things on your to do list where it's like I'll do it tomorrow I'll do it tomorrow and all the sudden it's next week and all of a sudden its next month and now you've been paying this thing for like a month or two months and you still haven't done anything with it. Just go ahead and spend the extra money like we're there a few hours of somebodies time which in some cases will be like ten dollars an hour. And just how to have them get you a jumpstart right. And then once you know you've got a little bit of information it could be as simple as like going there. And you know one of your kids come in on the weekend like set up my address is set up. You know this is that and the other thing I'm not like if they're like 5 or 6 or 8 but you know if you have a teenager or so they can help you. [00:32:50] You know it's just taking that little bit of extra effort to have it ready for you. And all of these providers too. I mean I can honestly say that there is not a provider in this space right now that doesn't have a day isn't jumping over you know bending over backward to deliver exceptional training because space is that competitive where they have to. Jeena Cho: [00:33:17] Think about lawyers. I actually found this to be nice for myself is that actually there's a lot of technology out there that is not here specifically towards the lawyers right. I mean things like Sword like just you know how each other and I don't know that it been so often mentioned like no I have to find which specific program. [00:33:37] And I always found that to be really puzzling because it's like you know for example like CMOC just like there are so many better client management programs out there that are designed for nonlawyer it's just designed for like the average you know solo printer or whatever but like they want to like try to do the voice-specific program. So what are your thoughts on that? Is it really necessary for employers to have a more specific program specifically designed for employers and when it is an appropriate practice kind of looking at more programs that are designed for the general you know School of Business Owner? Chelsey Lambert: [00:34:17] Yeah absolutely. So coming back to that needs assessment. Let's start with you know what type of law that you practice and that type of cases that you serve. So I've seen law firms where they. And there is there's also the front office and the back office. So if you're going to give you kind of two different scenarios if you are a business law attorney who is a very heavy marketer you know marketing to startups in your area sending newsletters you know using e-mail marketing automation tools and forms connected to your Web site. [00:34:56] You very well might be investing in something like Inseam or hot spot to handle all of that. Like you said they see around the contacts is more relationship management system and marketing to try business into your firm and then in the back office, you would use tools for filing and form creation. You know make a legal link by Legal Aid. You're not going to be very hard for anybody in this space to find an all in one tool that is also legal specific. So it means that in a lot of situations I'll recommend that they run. And you'll see this when firms search grows to be midsize which is around like 30 employees. They'll start using nonlegal tools. [00:35:52] You'll start seeing them use like a sales force or a marketing tool for the front office and then back office will be delivered through something like a Clio Or a or in other case management system also practice areas specifically that to me in the back office environment. That is where those practice areas specific tools down and make the biggest difference. Like Cate's here for a personal injury like you'd be hard-pressed to find you know a better case management system than one that is specifically built for practice area because that's all that it does. [00:36:32] So finding a back office tool that can handle the case management that's the Civics' your area of law that has document automation that has really complex billing tools is going to be a solution that makes the office function very well and run like a well-oiled machine and actually equate to a better quality of life for employees whereas those nonlegal specific tools for the front office tasks like client communication or marketing you know things like that might be better serves you know in the front of the House and really I mean if you're looking at the spacewalk Secede is born are the only solutions that bridge the gap between that initial leak capture wind generation taking care of. It's like a sales force and then moves it over into your practice management system like Puleo. So you're starting to see those two sides of the business be a little bit more divided as far as technology options are concerned. [00:37:40] And the Chinese adopting things to serve the front end of marketing the generation the web them the advertising and then using the back office schools to actually manage the delivery. And that's really where I see the differences. And then also you know if you want to open it up to nonlegal tools I mean that could take years because there are so many thanks so much. [00:38:05] News coming out of the startup community now that you can barely keep up with it. So just be mindful that if you're going to use something that's not legally specific your shopping list of potential options gets exponentially longer. Jeena Cho: [00:38:25] Yeah. So when someone comes to you and says you know how when crafting timeline time entry. Now Clutterham might be like what design journey and most likely. Where does the inquiry begin? And how do you how the lawyers find the best solutions for them? Chelsey Lambert: [00:38:49] So I go through the kind of a series of questions of how many people do you have in your office. You fill your time on a flat fee or an hourly basis. How often are you sending those out? Are you transactional or are you-you know continued the base? There's a lot of variables in there. What's the level of tech savvy you were on a Mac or a PC? Are you looking at new forms driven by document automation is something where there are only a few providers that actually have it built in and do it well. So there might be a little you know kind of like nugget of information like oh where we primarily use florals and that's like really where we spend a majority of our time and it's there. [00:39:37] It's about understanding that workflow in the locker room and where a majority of time is spent because if you're spending your time tracking hours and belittles then we're going to go with lists of recommendations that are stronger in that time and billing category. Maybe they have tiered rates maybe they have like contingency fee tracker and projection tool. Just let to go to the bank and borrow money against the cases they have open that it's settled like there's a lot of nuances isn't there. [00:40:11] Whereas if you were to have the need to do a lot of corms creation then I would and you were a Mac or a PC then it was like OK well then maybe we should focus on attacking our dimension. Built-in because you're going to be able to eliminate the work of you know two days' worth of paralegal time per week just automating these forms and you will have any errors. So where is the bulk of the work in the firm and how you leverage technology to eliminate or is it up as much of that as possible and site that? Jeena Cho: [00:40:52] Yeah I think that's an issue it's really kind of figuring out what it is that you do and finding solutions that are appropriate for what it is that you need rather than just being ikons hands and chai and then maybe just working with someone like you can really help to speed up that time not having to test 15 different products to make sure that to find the one that's actually going to market for you. [00:41:16] So I highly recommend working with you know consultants. I mean I don't know and I also like it's so we think there is this mentality like that we should do it all and we should know at all and we're very like a dense. Oh, so I know the listeners out there like crazy to go out there and like you know to get help when you need it out there and like you know consultants and experts like you that 10 million make lives easier for employers. Chelsey Lambert: [00:41:45] Yeah and it's really not as painful as it sounds. I mean most of the costs also that I do like this is the level of involvement I will submit as contact information for them through my website. [00:41:56] We get on the phone for about a half hour to an hour and then I give you a list of solutions and potential consultants work with because some people are with certified. Some people work with tabs. Some people are implementing Cosmo flex so you know here's your list of solutions that I think would fit into what you might best be suited for. Now your homework is to go demo them so that you don't have to demo you know the 27 different case management systems that are out there or you know if you're looking for a virtual receptionist you know now we've got a whole handful of virtual receptionists services it used to just be Hruby now there is answer 1. Now there is at Live Now there are other occasions that say even that space is starting to expand. [00:42:42] So you know and for some of those integrate you know it's like what's your end goal. OK. This is your potential stack. Like that's kind of what I like to call it it's like this is your software stack that you're going to run your business off of. And I recommend that you go talk to these people and here you know are your contacts that which like a lot of them on a first name basis with so I'm going to save you the trouble of having to go through the whole sales you know rigmarole go to these three companies come back to me if you have any questions and it's very rare that after that initial call someone backed me and says I need more help because in just that that talking out loud with someone who's seen a lot of these different tools we can arrive at a short list of options for you that make this selection process a lot easier. [00:43:31] So it's not even like I'm in intensive. You don't get involved with the consultant. And then once you have made your decision then I 1000 percent recommend especially if you've got a migration that needs to happen or you've got like a lot of custom fields that you want to invest the money in a consultant someone like Adriana Lin or as for global macro I.T. or affinity consulting or Yon's square one or like one of the hundreds of Clio consultants that they have all over the country if you're going that route or complex like all of these people have solutions and that money will be some of the best money that you have ever spent. [00:44:11] I'm a technology specialist and I pay for consultants to set my stuff up because I realize I'm like Okay we'll I can go in and I can fiddle with this for about 10 or 12 hours and it's still not going to be exactly the way that I want it where I can pay this person who does this all day for two hours of their time and it's going to be exactly how I want to know answers for me to find 10 or 12 hours over the course of you know it could take two months because you're always going to prioritize it. So finding 15-minute chunks is not an effective way to onboard into the software. Make that commitment. Spend the money to get a and then invest in using it to run your business. Jeena Cho: [00:44:56] Advise Chelsea for the listeners out there that are interested in learning more about you and your services. What are some of the best places to do that job? Chelsey Lambert: [00:45:04] Absolutely. Lax Tech Review is where you can find me. You can also find me on Twitter at Chelsea Lambert and at LAX Tech Review. There is a context for him as well as a link to my calendar. You're always more than welcome to enter your information or just go ahead. Schedule time for us chats. It's been a long 12 years in this space and any information that I can share that will help make someone else's life easier at the law firm or outside. Happy to do that. Jeena Cho: [00:45:43] My final question to you is the name of this podcast is called the resilient voice. What does it mean to be a resilient boy to you? Chelsey Lambert: [00:45:53] Oh wow. To be a resilient lawyer means to have the fortitude to continue into untap to serve the needs of your clients and to also recognize the opportunities for you to grow. Because it creates the growth creates additional resiliency in yourself and quality in the service that you provide to others. Jeena Cho: [00:46:27] Chelsea thank you so much for spending all of our time with me. I so appreciate the work that you're doing in the world. And I just appreciate you know and just great determination and thank you. Chelsey Lambert: [00:46:38] Oh thank you so much and thank you for everything that you do as well. It was an absolute pleasure to be able to include you in the book I recently published in hope that more and more juries download and learn about you as well. Closing: [00:46:56] Thanks for joining us on The Resilient Lawyer podcast. If you've enjoyed the show, please tell a friend. It's really the best way to grow the show. To leave us a review on iTunes, search for The Resilient Lawyer and give us your honest feedback. It goes a long way to help with our visibility when you do that, so we really appreciate it. As always, we'd love to hear from you. E-mail us at smile@theanxiouslawyer.com. Thanks, and look forward to seeing you next week.

In this week's episode, Catherine Sanders-Reach returns to chat about the best ways to schedule appointments with colleagues and clients.  Catherine, who is the Director of Law Practice Management Technology at the Chicago Bar Association, chats with Larry about tools like Calendly, Microsoft Bookings, and Google Calendar. WARNING: This episode of the 10 Minute Law Firm Podcast… Read More »Ep 6: The Most Efficient Scheduling Tools for Your Law Firm The post Ep 6: The Most Efficient Scheduling Tools for Your Law Firm appeared first on Rocket Matter.

This week, Larry Port is joined by Catherine Sanders Reach, the Director of Law Practice Management & Technology at the Chicago Bar Association. Catherine discusses best practices on choosing passwords, password management programs, and multi-factor authentication. The post Ep 5: Protecting Your Law Firm Against Cyberattacks appeared first on Rocket Matter.

Neil chats with Catherine Sanders Reach, an alum of the University of Alabama (roll tide), and currently the Director of Law Practice Management & Technology for the Chicago Bar Association.   Resources: Chicago Bar Association - Law Practice Management & Technology The fastest online meeting app, with powerful collaboration features and a simple interface that requires no training: https://www.join.me Make Amazing Videos with the Camtasia Video Editor Contact Catherine Twitter @catherinereach LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/catherinereach Email  csandersreach@chicagobar.org   If you've enjoyed the podcast, please head to iTunes and leave a rating & review for the show! It only takes a moment, and really helps me to reach new listeners. You can also head to the website at TheLawEntrepreneur.com for more information on the podcast and my legal services.   --   Thank you to our sponsors! Daylite by Marketcircle – business productivity apps specifically for Apple products, with cloud syncing between your Macs, iPhones, & iPads Spotlight Branding – Web presence and branding for law firms Production & Development for The Law Entrepreneur by Podcast Masters

In this episode, I am excited to have Chelsey Lambert on the show to speak on different technology and products for lawyers and her website, lextechreview.com. Chelsey Lambert is a Legal Technology Specialist, published Author and CLE Speaker. As a former Practice Management Advisor for the Chicago Bar Association, and executive for legal technology companies she has seen our industry from many angles. She recently founded the legal technology blog LexTechReview.com, where she reviews products lawyers can use to run their business, and teaches tech training classes.     Topics Covered Chelsey opens with talking about her thoughts on being one of the few women in the male dominated field of Law Technology and how her time invested in the field has paid off. Why so many firms are afraid of adopting new and pioneering technology out of fear of change, and the benefits of taking the leap into new technology to keep your firm running as efficiently as possible. The importance of needs assessments, and investing the time and money into learning how to utilize the programs and have it ready for you. The differences between legal specific tech and tools to non-legal specific and the importance of the distinction depending on where your firm is and it's specific needs. For more information on Chelsey, find her at the following sites: Twitter:@chelseylambert            @lextechreview Website: www.lextechreview.com   Questions? Comments? Email Jeena! hello@jeenacho.com. You can also connect with Jeena on Twitter: @Jeena_Cho   For more information, visit: jeenacho.com   Order The Anxious Lawyer book — Available in hardcover, Kindle and Audible   Find Your Ease: Retreat for Lawyers   I'm creating a retreat that will provide a perfect gift of relaxation and rejuvenation with an intimate group of lawyers. Interested? Please complete this form: https://jeena3.typeform.com/to/VXfIXq   MINDFUL PAUSE: Bite-Sized Practices for Cultivating More Joy and Focus   5-week program. Spend just 6 minutes everyday to practice mindfulness and meditation. Decrease stress/anxiety, increase focus and concentration. Interested? Please complete this form: https://jeena3.typeform.com/to/gLlo7b     Transcript   Thanks for joining us on the Resilient Lawyer Podcast. If you've enjoyed the show, please tell a friend. It's really the best way to grow the show. To leave us a review on iTunes, search for the Resilient Lawyer and give us your honest feedback. It goes a long way to help with our visibility when you do that so we really appreciate it.   Thank you and we look forward to seeing you next week.    

There are so many features in Microsoft Office, it’s hard to imagine how additional add-ins could be necessary. But some of these integrated applications can specifically help lawyers. In this Special Report, Legal Talk Network producer Laurence Colletti interviews lawyers and legal technology experts Bob Ambrogi and Catherine Sanders Reach about Microsoft Office tips you can use in your law practice today. The conversation opens with Catherine explaining how Microsoft Office has evolved over the years to become an incredibly robust program. The discussion then shifts with both guests providing a detailed list of must have add-ons, and tips on how to optimally use them, to help increase the efficiency and security of your practice. Bob Ambrogi is the only person to have held top editorial positions at both “National Law Journal and Lawyers Weekly USA. He writes two nationally-recognized blogs, LawSites, covering new networking sites and technology for the legal profession, and MediaLaw,” on freedom of the press. Ambrogi is a Massachusetts attorney representing clients at the intersection of law, media, and technology for his firm, The Law Office of Robert J. Ambrogi. Catherine Sanders Reach is the director of law practice management technology for the Chicago Bar Association. For over 10 years, she was the director at the ABA’s Legal Technology Resource Center and served on the ABA TECHSHOW Board from 2007-2009. Ms. Reach has given many presentations on the use of technology in law firms for national bar conferences, state and local bar associations and organizations.

At the Clio Cloud Conference, Legal Talk Network producer Laurence Colletti interviews legal technology expert Catherine Sanders Reach about technology awareness for lawyers. She explains that the ABA competence rule now expressly includes technology. Many attorneys have remained willfully ignorant of technologies such as e filing, e-discovery, and email security, but will need to change in order to stay in compliance with new regulations. Reach is the director of law practice management technology for the Chicago Bar Association and was the director at the ABA's Legal Technology Resource Center for over 10 years.

This month Sharon Nelson and Jim Calloway interview Catherine Sanders Reach Director of Law Practice Management and Technology for the Chicago Bar Association. The topic is Ethics and Technology The Rules are Changing.

Taboo Talk,a Christian talk show w/Lady Charmaine Day (Pastor, Publisher, Author,and Radio Host  www.ladycharmaineday.com). Guest Starring Attorney Lester. L. Barclay. Attorney Lester L. Barclay is the managing partner of The Barclay Law Group in Chicago, Illinois. He is also the author of "The African American Guide to Divorce and Drama: Breaking Up Without Breaking Down." A graduate of Oberlin College and Case Western Reserve University School of Law, he has practiced matrimonial law since 1985. In that time, he has earned a sterling reputation as a skilled litigator who seeks to maintain the family’s integrity during and after divorce. His passionate calling is to help children, who are so often collateral damage in custody and divorce matters. His influential and ethnically diverse law firm serves an equally diverse clientele. The firm’s list of clients has included Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., the Estate of Emmett Till, and the National Black Evangelical Association, and the handling of family law matters involving professional athletes Eddy Curry, Richard Dent, Antwaan Randle El, and Dwyane Wade.In addition to his law practice, Barclay is a legal advocate for the disadvantaged and a helpful mentor to young attorneys. He also has been actively involved in civic affairs, serving as president of both the Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture, and the Christian Community Health Center in Chicago, and a member of the Illinois African-American Family Commission. Further, Barclay is a friend and advisor to many business owners, corporate executives, pastors, and civic leaders. Generous and compassionate, and in spite of his demanding schedule, Barclay has served as a teen Sunday School teacher for more than 20 years. Barclay is a member of the National Bar Association, Cook County Bar Association, and the Chicago Bar Association. Lester L. Barclay lives in Chicago with his wife, Dr. Sue Barclay, and their three children.

Case Dismissed - Thus with the pounding of the gavel, the fate of men and women have been decided by the judge. This is the story of our legal rights, the battle to preserve and protect them, and how easily they can be lost. The program shows us just how fragile liberty and justice can be. These stories of everyday events are still interesting, even after 50 years. Stories of criminal liability, legal wills, buying on installment, and leasing an apartment. Each story is well written, and the acting, though dated and a bit hokey by today’s standards, still manages to achieve the desired effect. Not much information is available for this series, it was apparently broadcast on a limited basis, and originated on WMAQ Chicago, an NBC station. It was comprised of thirteen episodes, twelve of which are currently available, and was heard from January 30, 1954 through April 24, 1954. THIS EPISODE:February 27, 1954. NBC network, WMAQ, Chicago origination. Sustaining. Not auditioned. The program is produced in co-operation with the Chicago Bar Association. The legal problems of installment buying. Herbert Littow (director), John C. Fitzgerald (host, Dean of the Law School, Loyola University), Betty Ross (producer), Tom Evans (sound), Harold Witteberry (engineer), Robert Carmen (writer), Lee Bennett (announcer), Sondra Gair, Jack Bivens, Harry Elders, Stanley Gordon, Arthur Peterson, Charles Flynn. 28:31.

Case DismissedThus with the pounding of the gavel, the fate of men and women have been decided by the judge. This is the story of our legal rights, the battle to preserve and protect them, and how easily they can be lost. The program shows us just how fragile liberty and justice can be. These stories of everyday events are still interesting, even after 50 years. Stories of criminal liability, legal wills, buying on installment, and leasing an apartment. Each story is well written, and the acting, though dated and a bit hokey by today’s standards, still manages to achieve the desired effect. Not much information is available for this series, it was apparently broadcast on a limited basis, and originated on WMAQ Chicago, an NBC station. It was comprised of thirteen episodes, twelve of which are currently available, and was heard from January 30, 1954 through April 24, 1954. THIS EPISODE: February 20, 1954. NBC network, WMAQ, Chicago origination. Sustaining. The program is produced in co-operation with the Chicago Bar Association. A louse of a father plans to skip town to avoid paying his ex-wife child support. A program about child support and domestic relations. Harry Elders, Robert Carmen (writer), Betty Ross (producer), Herbert Littow (director), Rosemary Kelly, Muriel Monsell (?), Jack Lester, Claire Baum, Tom Evans (sound), John C. Fitzgerald (host, Dean of the Law School, Loyola University), Phillip Lord, Harold Witteberry (engineer), Lee Bennett (announcer). 29:09.