CBA Record

PRESIDENT’S PAGE BY PATRICIA BROWN HOLMES Membership & Inclusion: A Call to Action

EDITORIAL BOARD Editor-in-Chief Amy Cook CBA RECORD

Amy Cook LLC Features Editor Justin Heather

The Quinlan Law Firm, LLC Summary Judgments Editor Pamela S. Menaker Clifford Law Of À ces YLS Journal Editors-in-Chief Jonathan B. Amarilio Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP Geoff Burkhart American Bar Association

that bar associations provide to underpin the administration of justice in our state. In addition, Illinois’ fiscal problems are likely to have a significant impact on legal service programs throughout our city and state. My number one leadership goal for the CBA this year is the “Call to Member- ship and Inclusion” campaign and I am calling on all of our members to help. Notre Dame’s legendary football coach, Lou Holz, said that “…leadership is all about getting people involved and if we get enough people involved we can solve almost any problem.” I have a five-point plan that I am asking each member to pledge to support this year. In order to be successful, I need your leadership and commitment to assist me in achieving the following plan: • I am asking every member to recruit five newmembers to the Association during the coming bar year. Each of us comes in contact with lawyers every day and it is easy enough for us to ask them if they are a CBAmember. The leadership, business development and networking opportunities for members are almost endless, and the friends that you will make through your bar association involvement will last a lifetime. Becom- ing a member is easy and convenient by visiting the CBA’s website at www. chicagobar.org. Please remember to be inclusive in your recruiting efforts. • I am asking each committee member to reach out to five recently dropped CBA members and to encourage (convince) them to rejoin the Association and to join one of our 92 standing committees and/or one of the Young Lawyer’s Sec- tion’s 22 committees. Our membership

Carolyn D. Amadon Shannon R. Burke American Bar Association Anne Ellis Proactive Worldwide, Inc. Clifford Gately Heyl Royster Angela Harkless The Harkless Law Firm Jasmine Villaflor Hernandez Cook County State’s Attorney’s Of À ce Michele M. Jochner Schiller DuCanto & Fleck LLP Ruth J. Kaufman Stacey R. Laskin Illinois Attorney General’s Of À ce John Levin Bonnie McGrath Law Of À ce of Bonnie McGrath Clare McMahon Law Of À ce of Clare McMahon Peter V. Mierzwa Law Bulletin Publishing Company Kathleen Dillon Narko Northwestern University School of Law Adam J. Sheppard Sheppard Law Firm, PC

I t is an honor for me to serve as the 139 th president of The Chicago Bar Associa- tion and I am especially honored to be the second African American woman to lead the Association. Our Association is among the leading metropolitan bar asso- ciations in the country and our services to the court, the bar and the public are outstanding. A strong and vital bar association is essential to our city and state’s legal com- munity. Bar associations are guardians of the law providing essential services to our state and federal courts, to the legal profession, and to the greater Chicago community. To be sure, these are difficult and challenging times for the legal profes- sion, law firms and law schools, and it is especially important now to keep and get more lawyers actively involved in bar association work. Without a strong and vital bar association, the legal profession will inevitably falter because no law firm, large or small, and/or law school, will be able to provide the wide array of services

Rosemary Simota Thompson U.S. Department of Justice William A. Zolla II The ZOLLaw Group, Ltd.

THE CHICAGO BAR ASSOCIATION David Beam Director of Publications Joe Tarin Advertising Account Representative

6 JULY/AUGUST 2015