Mary Robinson, Sari Montgomery, and Jim Doppke are featured authors in the recently-published IICLE® handbook Inside and Outside the Jury Box: Effective Trial Strategies, 2019 Edition. They were pleased to co-author the chapter entitled “Ethical Considerations in Jury Trials,” which covers such diverse issues as the use of social media in selecting juries; the pitfalls of contacting jurors during and after jury trials; and the ethics of mock juries. RSMD hopes that those discussions…

Sari Montgomery was a featured presenter at the ABA’s June 6, 2019 Young Professionals Event. She participated in a panel discussion on the professional responsibility implications of evolving technologies. Sari was pleased to be among other distinguished speakers, including Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and to help provide professional guidance to young practitioners.…

by Jim Doppke In this post, we’ll take a look at two orders recently entered by the Supreme Court that affect the ARDC and its operations. One of the orders also affects lawyers who are being or have already been prosecuted, and the other affects lawyers who may be at risk of becoming the subject of an investigation. Amendments to Supreme Court Rules 767 and 773 In its May 23, 2019 order, the Court…

by Jim Doppke As Rhys Saunders recently posted, the ARDC released its 2018 Annual Report a couple of weeks ago. I’m still digesting some of the information in it, but there are some observations about the Illinois disciplinary system that can be gleaned from the basic data. Number of Investigations Continues to Decline This year, the Administrator of the ARDC docketed 5,029 investigations. Last year, there were 5,199. The year before that: 5,401. The Report…

by Jim Doppke No. 6: What do you want?No. 2: Information.No. 6: Whose side are you on?No. 2: That would be telling. We want information…information… information!!!No. 6: You won’t get it!– Opening Sequence, The Prisoner Supreme Court Rule 766 provides that several phases and kinds of Illinois disciplinary proceedings “shall be private and confidential” – including the approximately 5,200 investigations the Administrator initiates per year. Seems simple enough: the investigations are confidential, and the formal…

by Jim Doppke In my last blog post (further installments of which will appear here, on our new firm’s website), I discussed proposed Supreme Court Rule 781, which sets forth the responsibilities and authority of designated representatives of another lawyer’s practice in the event of that lawyer’s disappearance, death, disability, or other such event. In this post, I will examine how the proposed Rule could raise questions about the potential disciplinary liability of the…