CBA Record

THANK YOU ANDWELL DONE

railroad fairs, pageants, and other diver- sions at this site. With such regular revenue flow after the Fair, power brokers and city planners resolved to build a permanent fair and exposition center by the lake. The plan’s biggest booster was Colonel Robert McCormick, editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune, which he used as a bully pulpit for pet projects. Lakefront defenders fought against the plan for years. In 1960, McCormick Place made its lakefront debut. When it burned down seven years later, detractors considered the fire as possible divine retribution for the city’s encroachment upon the lakefront. But in Chicago, politics rule, and the massive structure was rebuilt. Recently, Mayor Rahm Emanuel proposed using McCormick Place as an alternate site for the proposed Lucas Museum, so the con- troversy endures. In addition to lakefront lore, Baer had plenty of other tales of Chicago’s history, replete with fascinating characters and riv- eting stories. He concluded by noting that at the heart of these stories, one often finds a juicy legal dispute. A glance at today’s headlines concerning the Lucas Museum is proof that history often repeats itself– especially when coveted lakefront land is at stake. SAVE ON LEGAL RESEARCH AND WRITING SERVICES Tthe teamof experienced attorneys at LegalRe- search.com now offers discounted services to CBA members–on your terms, your schedule and your budget. Visit www.legalresearch. com/CBA formore information or call 844/638- 6733 for a free consultation.

At the Kogan Awards luncheon, JusticeMichael B. Hyman offered the following remarks about notable legal journalist John Flynn Rooney, who passed away from complications from Lou Gehrig’s Disease on June 30: John, we are humbled and inspired by your fortitude and attitude, and that of your loving family. Two years ago this month, May 2014, John Flynn Rooney announced in the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin that ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease, had claimed him as it had his mother. Then,

last August, John’s byline appeared above an article entitled, “A Farewell to the Legal Community.”After 33-year career in journalism, 27 of them with the Law Bulletin Publishing Company, John notified his readers that the time had come for him to retire. Today, the legal community, formally and publicly, says to you, John, thank you and well done. If something involved law, John reported on it. John was our eyes and ears up and down LaSalle Street; in and around the public and private corridors of our courthouses, and throughout the Bar associations and law schools. Every evening, I’d always look forward to reading whatever John wrote for that day’s edition. I was not alone. John’s writing has a way of making you feel as if John is talking to you as a friend. John told stories, our stories, and he told them with incisive writing, insight, and intelligence. That John is not a lawyer is hard to believe, except for the fact, fortunately, that he never wrote like a lawyer. No detail seemed too minor to escape his attention. No question appeared too tough to ask. No story was too big or too small, or too difficult, to handle. And, there never was a personal, partisan, or ulterior motive when it came to the way John practiced journalism. A true professional, John was always friendly, down to earth, and reassuring. On deadline, he projected a level of calmness whatever the circumstances, which a lot of lawyers would not mind having themselves. When John started at the Law Bulletin, an editor asked if he was passionate about the law. John said he didn’t know. Soon enough, a passion about the law fueled a career. It did not take long for the legal community to reciprocate–here was a journalist we could respect, trust, and most of all, like. No one has ever said a bad word about John’s reporting or John…a feat even the legendaryWalter Cronkite never achieved. John, on behalf of the Kogan Award Committee, the Chicago Bar Association, and the legal community, a heartfelt and grateful thank you. Thank you for your 27 years of keeping us“in the know“ and connected to our professional world. Thank you for putting up with us all those years. And thank you for caring so much about the law, the legal profession itself, and, especially, about all of us. We care about you. God bless. –Justice Michael B. Hyman

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