CBA Record September-October 2021

either the ABA’s form or some variation of it. Illinois Supreme Court Rule 756(f ) requires lawyers to report annually the number of pro bono hours they performed during the past year, along with reporting the number of dollars they donated to pro bono organizations. Because of this man- datory reporting rule, we know that even without the encouragement provided by Model Rule 6.1, 33% of Illinois lawyers performed nearly two million hours of pro bono service in 2020. Illinois attorneys also donated over $17 million to pro bono orga- nizations. These numbers are, of course, self-reported, and the donation numbers include the monies that all Illinois lawyers contribute to legal aid through payment of their annual registration fee ($95 per person). If this pro bono issue inspires you to donate a few hours to a person who needs legal assistance, the Illinois rules provide a handy tool for you in IRPC 6.5. In 2010, the Illinois Supreme Court adopted Rule 6.5, which provides that, when working with a nonprofit organization or a court- annexed limited legal service program to provide short term pro bono work, lawyers can employ a shortened conflict review pro- cess.This is meant to expedite the process of allowing attorneys to provide limited scope representation to a client without providing further consolation. If you’re interested in providing this kind of pro bono representa- tion and don’t know where to start, I urge you to consider your own “new beginning” and call the Chicago Bar Foundation, who will point you in the right direction. Retiring sole practitioner in Jo Daviess County (NW Illinois) looking to sell or merge established general practice focused on real estate, estate/trust plan- ning & administration, and municipal law with unlimited potential to expand the practice in areas of family law, crimi- nal/DUI & traffic, and misc. litigation. The office has experienced staff and an appreciative client base. Owner willing to remain in “of counsel” capacity to bridge the transition. Send inquiries to lawpracticefor- sale2021@yahoo.com. CLASSIFIED ADS

PRACTICAL ETHICS BY TRISHA RICH

NewBeginnings W elcome to Practical Ethics . Since this is our first column together, please allow me a brief moment to introduce myself. I am a partner at Holland & Knight, where I am a legal ethicist and professional responsibility attorney. I co-chair Holland &Knight’s national Legal ProfessionTeam, which services lawyers, law firms, in-house counsel, and legal technology companies. But probably the only thing you really need to know about me is that I love – love – legal ethics and professional responsibility law, and I’m very excited to be here. As only the third legal ethics columnist in the history of the Record , I recognize that I have big shoes to fill. As longtime readers will know, George Overton started this column in 1987 in the Record’s first issue. When he retired in 2003, my immedi- ate predecessor John Levin took over the column. For nearly two decades, John wrote about important developments during a transformative period in the profession. Together, the two leave a daunting legacy. I wasn’t a reader in the earliest days; in fact, I was a second grader living in rural Michigan. But I have read this column since I started practicing law in 2006 and have learned a lot here over those years. To join Overton and Levin as the Record’s legal ethics columnist is a significant professional honor. I have spent many otherwise billable hours thinking about what this column should look like, what it should provide,

and what I should call it. I finally decided on Practical Ethics , because that is what I want lawyers (and maybe even some law students) to take from it. I hope readers will review this column with interest and leave with some piece of information they can perhaps integrate into their practices as a risk management tool, or understand a rule application that was previously unclear, or learn about a new development that impacts the legal profession. In short, I want this to be a useful exercise for us both. I also hope that this will become some- thing of a dialogue. My email address is below, or you can connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, or other social media platforms. I love talking about legal ethics, so I will always welcome feedback or a dis- cussion about something you liked or didn’t like or didn’t understand in a column. I would also love to hear your ideas for future columns – if there are things that would be helpful to your practice, let me know! Finally, and in the interest of sticking at least a bit to this issue’s theme of pro bono month, let’s talk about the intersection of legal ethics and pro bono service. ABAModel Rule 6.1 provides guidance on voluntary pro bono service, instruct- ing that every lawyer “has a professional responsibility to provide legal services to those unable to pay” and providing that lawyers should each “aspire” to provide 50 hours of pro bono service each year. Illinois has not adoptedModel Rule 6.1, but many other jurisdictions have adopted

Trisha Rich is a litigator and legal ethicist at Holland &Knight. You can reach her at trisha.rich@hklaw.com or on Twitter @_TrishRich.

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