CBA Record March-April 2023

CBA RECORD

EDITOR’S BRIEFCASE BY JUSTICE MICHAEL B. HYMAN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Advice for Young Lawyers (and Not-So-Young Lawyers) T here’s no instruction manual on how to thrive after law school. Each of us must learn for ourselves through experience (a/k/a “practice”), which leads to awareness, and then understanding, and maybe, possibly, hopefully, translates to realizing our best self. What it takes has remained true for generations of lawyers—being an honorable and kind person. Sacrifice of personal or professional core values for temporary gain often comes with consequences that impact relationships and career. Sure, a lawyer can be greedy, condescending, narcissistic, a bully, a hypocrite, etc., and still succeed, but at what cost? Is it worth the inevitable damage to stature in the legal community? To trust worthiness? To self-esteem? Over 2,000 years ago, Cicero said, “If you pursue good with labor, the labor passes away but the good remains.” Here is some more advice that applies to lawyers at any stage of their career. Find caring and talented colleagues and friends who have much to teach if asked or observed. Seek to imitate lawyers and judges who excel. Also, acquire a mentor or two. I have been fortunate to have had mentors throughout my life, including today. Since graduating law school, my mentors have been incredibly wise women and men who shared their passion for law, for equity and inclusion in all facets of society, and for maintaining the highest professional and ethical principles. Mentors should be lawyers you can count on to say what you need to hear, even if you don’t want to hear it. A mentor is coach and cheerleader; guidance counselor, teacher, and advice-giver; and sympathetic ear and patient shoulder. In the words of Michelle Obama, “Find people who will make you better.” Integrity and honesty are other essential characteristics. The legal system depends on lawyers embodying both traits. Yet situations arise, especially for less experienced lawyers, that can test their resolve to act in accord with the ethical rules and their conscience. Making the right decision can be challenging. But no case, no transaction, no client, no legal victory, no amount of money, and no job is more important than your license and your self-respect. Have the courage to stand firm when convinced of your rectitude. Dishonesty tends to beget more dishonesty; a lie tends to require more lies. Like integ rity, once tarnished, a lawyer’s character stays suspect. Finally, I offer a string of advice that I have held onto tightly since the beginning: • Welcome challenges as opportunities to stretch yourself. • Far better to ask than to assume. • Profit from mistakes; draw strength from adversities. • Compromise is winning, not losing. • Performing pro bono lifts people, you most of all. • Two words that describe the duty of every lawyer: “Give back.”

EDITORIAL BOARD EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Justice Michael B. Hyman Illinois Appellate Court

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Anne Ellis Proactive Worldwide, Inc.

SUMMARY JUDGMENTS EDITOR Daniel A. Cotter Howard and Howard Attorneys PLLC YLS JOURNAL EDITORS Jacob B. Berger Tabet DiVito & Rothstein LLC Theodore Kontopoulos FORVIS Nikki Marcotte Tabet DiVito & Rothstein LLC Carolyn Amadon Samuel, Son & Co. Daniel J. Berkowitz Aronberg Goldgehn Amy Cook Amy Cook Law LLC Nina Fain Janet Sugerman Schirn Family Trust Anthony F. Fata Kirby McInerney LLP Clifford Gately Quarles & Brady Judge Jasmine Villaflor Hernandez Circuit Court of Cook County Kaitlin King Hart David Carson LLP Lynn Semptimphelter Kopon Kopon LLC John Levin Kathryn C. Liss DePaul University College of Law Bonnie McGrath Law Office of Bonnie McGrath Clare McMahon Hoffenberg & Block LLC Pamela S. Menaker Clifford Law Offices Kathleen Dillon Narko Northwestern Pritzker School of Law Alexander Passo Latimer LeVay Fyock LLC Adam J. Sheppard Sheppard Law Firm, PC Richard Lee Stavins Robbins DiMonte, Ltd. Rosemary Simota Thompson

Judge E. Kenneth Wright, Jr. Circuit Court of Cook County

• Remember that each day is a miracle that never repeats. • A day should not end without setting aside time for yourself. • How you say something can be more revealing than what you say.

THE CHICAGO BAR ASSOCIATION Sharon Nolan Director of Marketing

4 March/April 2023