CBA Record September-October 2021

CBA RECORD

T his year’s Pro Bono Week theme reminds me of the story about a seven-year-old girl who found a newspaper with a map of the world. She wanted to know more about the picture, and brought it to her father. Seizing on the teaching moment, the father took the newspaper and tore the map into pieces. He then asked his daughter to try to put it back together. Minutes later, she proudly showed her father the map patched correctly. Surprised, the father praised the girl and asked how she reassembled the map so fast. “Well, there was a picture of somebody on the back of the map. So I made that one person whole again and the world got fixed, too.” Today’s world has been torn to pieces by hosts of woes such as inequity, discrimination, broken relationships, corruption, hate, immorality, oppression, homelessness, and poverty. Lawyers have been tasked to put the pieces back together, or at least try. By standing up for those victimized by difficulties, we lawyers transform two separate and, at the same time, joined worlds—the worlds of the client and our own. According to Aristotle, our purpose on earth is to serve others and do good. In undertaking pro bono, we perform both. Indeed, making our world a better place is a duty spelled out in the preamble to the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct. The preamble presents a strong statement of personal accountability and shared obligation, directing members of the bar “to use their training, experience, and skills to provide services in the public interest for which compensation may not be available.” Later, the preamble elaborates, “An individual lawyer’s efforts in these areas is evidence of the lawyer’s good character and fitness to practice law, and the efforts of the bar as a whole are essential to the bar’s maintenance of professionalism.” To paraphrase lawyer and educator Marian Wright Edelman, pro bono service is the rent we pay for the privilege of practicing law. Making our world a better place brings about a sense of community, that we belong to a diverse collective of individuals responsible for one another. Kindness to any member of the community is kindness to the world at large. Wrongdoing directed at any member of the com- munity is wrongdoing directed to all. Dr. King recognized this when he said, “At the heart of all that civilization has meant and developed is “community” – the mutually cooperative and voluntary venture of man to assume a semblance of responsibility for his brother [and sister].” Making our world a better place also brings about a sense of interdependency, that we are all in this together. The efforts of one person can benefit (or harm) many; the efforts of many can benefit (or harm) one person. Forces exist that compromise our ability to make our world a better place, but each can be surmounted. Selfishness? Shake it off with sacrifice. Self-centeredness? Overcome it with humility. Greed? Replace it with generosity. Narcissism? Supplant it with altruism. You may wonder: What can I do? Actually, quite a lot. But it rests on a willingness to help strangers, and an impatience with the world as it is. Someone’s world needs your pro bono help now. Make their world, your world, our world, a better place, a more just place. Rehearing “If you are going to be a lawyer and just practice your profession, you have a skill—very much like a plumber. But if you want to be a true professional, you will do something outside yourself… something that makes life a little better for people less fortunate than you.” – Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg BY JUSTICE MICHAEL B. HYMAN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OnMaking Our World a Better Place EDITOR’S BRIEFCASE

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 Kaitlin King

Hart David Carson LLP Theodore Kontopoulos BKD LLP

Carolyn Amadon Samuel, Son & Co. Daniel J. Berkowitz Illinois Attorney General’s Office Amy Cook The Farmer Chef Alliance Nina Fain Janet Sugerman Schirn Family Trust Anthony F. Fata Cafferty Clobes Meriwether & Sprengel LLP Clifford Gately Hinshaw & Culbertson Jasmine Villaflor Hernandez Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office Lynn Semptimphelter Kopon Kopon Airdo LLC John Levin Kathryn C. Liss DePaul University College of Law Bonnie McGrath Law Office of Bonnie McGrath Clare McMahon Law Office of Clare McMahon 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, Saloman & Patt, Ltd. Rosemary Simota Thompson Judge E. Kenneth Wright, Jr. Circuit Court of Cook County

THE CHICAGO BAR ASSOCIATION Sharon Nolan Director of Marketing

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