The 2007 ARDC Registration Form should be somewhere in your "to do" pile. Your due date is January 1, 2007. There are lots of "M" words. No Sir, I don’t mean "maybe". Looking at mine, the word "mandatory" is most prevalent. If "every member matters" then let’s make sure we don’t lose one of "us" for failure to follow all the "M"s.

No, we are not yet at the point where we all must have malpractice insurance. However, pursuant to SCR 756(e) we must report whether we do or don’t. Failure to answer the question and you will be "deemed to be not registered for the year". SCR 756(g). If you answer "YES", you must retain your insurance policy and coverage information for at least seven years in the event of an ARDC Audit. If you answer "NO", nothing bad will happen to you except that your clients or potential clients may find out if they look. Whether you have malpractice insurance or not, you must honestly answer the question posed.

The Supreme Court recently amended Rule 756 and now requires attorneys to disclose client trust account information as part of the annual attorney registration process. A lawyer engaged in the private practice of law that handles any client or third party funds must maintain a separate trust account. Since 1983, the Illinois Supreme Court has adopted the "IOLTA Rule" which requires attorneys holding nominal or short term client funds to place those funds in a pooled interest bearing trust account, commonly known as an "IOLTA Account". Illinois RPC 1.15(d). Interest on those accounts is paid to the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois, a not-for-profit organization making charitable contributions to not-for-profit agencies providing legal aid to the poor.

In the 1980’s, I set up my first IOLTA Account with the Gary-Wheaton Bank. They were bought out by a Chicago Bank which merged with a Detroit Bank and then was acquired by a New York Bank. Looks like I’ve run out of real estate heading east. What could be next…Bank of the Atlantic, Lloyds of London or the Great Bank of Tokyo?

I’ve decided to bring my IOLTA Account home to Winfield Community Bank (WCB). WCB is on the Lawyers Trust Fund "Honor Roll of Banks". Only about half of all IOLTA participating banks are on the "Honor Roll". Banks such as WCB which are on the Honor Roll have shown themselves to be responsive to their attorney customers, to the concerns of the legal profession and to the needs of the legal community. (I didn’t make that up – see, Lawyers Trust Fund web-site).

WCB is convenient for me, located just east of County Farm Road on Geneva Road in the Winfield Pointe Shopping Center. It’s a nice little plaza with a mail and copy store, coffee, donuts, pizza, a cleaners, WCB and a liquor store. Talk about your multi-tasking. WCB also sponsors a number of clubs and organizations in the community and is a Premium Corporate Sponsor of the DCBA. Ralph Treccia is President and Chairman of the Board. When you walk into WCB you can say, "Hi Ralph". Alternatively, you can introduce yourself to Ralph at our Mega Meeting. Ralph’s Assistant, Jennifer, was friendly and efficient. It was an easy transfer of my old IOLTA Account. I’m sure that New York Bank must have some Jennifers, but I don’t know any of them and they don’t have Ralph. It’s nice to be back home.

Effective this year, you must report whether or not during the past 12 months you’ve provided any pro-bono legal services to persons of "limited means" as defined by the Rule. Here are some answers to the most frequently asked questions on the topic:

The ARDC also wants to know what monetary contributions you have made within the past 12 months to "an organization which provides legal services to persons of limited means or which contributes financial support to such an organization". The DCBA makes an annual contribution to Legal Aid of at least $65,000.00 or more. Additionally, our Judge’s Nite proceeds have gone to Legal Aid. Our membership has also contributed another $13,000.00 with their membership dues and countless members have contributed to various Legal Aid fundraising efforts.

I spoke with the ARDC on this issue and they advised me that because the DCBA "contributes financial support" to Legal Aid, each and every dues paying member of the DCBA can insert all of his or her dues paid behind the $ in answering question 2. You have contributed to an organization which in turn supports pro bono legal services. Feel better?

The newest "M" is not yet on your current ARDC Notice. Articles I’ve read elsewhere say that the "M" before "CLE" is for minimum and not mandatory. In reality, it’s an M & M. There is a minimum and it’s mandatory. The DCBA is doing its darnedest to help you satisfy that biggest "M" of them all.

Congratulations go to John Panegasser who was sworn in as our newest Associate Judge on November 30, 2006. John attended St. Patrick High School in Chicago, DePaul University where he received a B.S. in Accounting and Chicago Kent School of Law. John has been a member of the DCBA since 1973 and has been practicing law in DuPage County for 33 years. John has had an extensive and diverse general practice primarily focused on Civil Litigation. He has continuously been rated as "Highly Recommended" by our Judiciary Committee and is a welcomed addition to what already is the finest County Judiciary within the State of Illinois. What I didn’t know about John until recently was that he was an owner of a couple of professional boxing management companies. He has some interesting stories as a result. Let’s just say that John knows how to get off the deck and come up swinging.

The DCBA Criminal Law Committee Chairperson and DuPage County Public Defender, Robert (Bob) Miller, is inviting any criminal defense lawyer on trial at the DuPage Judicial Center to "set up camp" in his office area. Call Bob (407-8302) to make arrangements. While there, take a few minutes to "talk shop" with the Assistant PD’S. It’s more fun than lugging your stuff in and out of the parking garage everyday.

Scott Mitzner of Hinsdale is my mandatory mattering member of the month. Scott has been a long standing contributing member to our Publication Board. He reminds all of you that we are in substantial need of substantive law Brief Articles. A letter after "M" is "P" and that stands for PLEASE. Satisfy a bunch of your mandatory minimum CLE requirements by submitting an article on a matter of your choice. Scott also set us up with a group of Bulls tickets for King Day which SOLD OUT fast. Now, all we need is the bus.

Is it true that Neal Cerne complained about going to too many Holiday parties? The December 7, 5:30 p.m., DCBA Holiday party at Arrowhead Country Club will feature a bout. In the red corner, dressed in red with a white beard is our very own Santa Claus. In the green corner, will be the Grinch. Ding, ding, ding. Let the war of words begin. You be the ringside judge.

The holiday season is upon us. Whether as counselors, litigators, legislators or just as patriarchal and matriarchal members of one’s own family, lawyers have such capacity and the opportunity to make a positive difference. Regardless of your religious beliefs or persuasions, I say to you "SHALOM". In using that term for this season, I call upon the words of Presiding Episcopal Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, from her Investiture Sermon given at the Washington National Cathedral on November 4, 2006:

"Where is home for you? How would you define your home?"

* * * *

In Death of the Hired Man, Robert Frost said that ‘home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in.’ We all ache for a community that will take us in, with all our warts and quirks and petty meannesses – and yet they still celebrate when they see us coming!

* * * *

There’s a wonderful Hebrew word for that vision and work – shalom. It doesn’t just mean the sort of peace that comes when we’re no longer at war. It’s that rich and multihued vision of a world where no one goes hungry because everyone is invited to a seat at the groaning board. It’s a vision of a world where no one is sick or in prison because all sorts of disease have been healed. It’s a vision of a world where every human being has the capacity to use every good gift that God has given. It is a vision of a world where no one enjoys abundance at the expense of another. It’s a vision of a world where all enjoy Sabbath rest in the conscious presence of God. Shalom means that all human beings live together as siblings, at peace with one another and with God, and in right relationship with all of the rest of creation. It is that vision of the lion lying down with the lamb and the small child playing over the den of the adder, where the specter of death no longer holds sway.

* * * *

That homecoming of shalom is both destination and journey. We cannot embark on the journey without some vision of where we are going even though we may not reach it this side of the grave. We are really charged with seeing everyplace and all places as home, and living in a way that makes that true for every other creature on the planet. None of us can be fully at home, at rest, enjoying shalom, unless all the world is as well. Shalom is the fruit of living that dream. We live in a day where there is a concrete possibility of making that dream reality for the most destitute, forgotten, and ignored of our fellow travelers – for the castaways, for those in peril or just barely afloat on life’s restless sea.

* * * *

As long as children live exposed on the streets, while seniors go without food to pay for life-sustaining drugs, wherever peoples are sickened by industrial waste, the body suffers, and none of us can say we have finally come home.

What keeps us from the tireless search for that vision of shalom? There are probably only two answers, and they are connected – apathy and fear. One is the unwillingness to acknowledge the pain of other people, the other is an unwillingness to acknowledge that pain with enough courage to act. The cure for each is a deep and abiding hope.

* * * *

Let us join the raucous throngs in creation. The sea creatures and the geological features who leap for joy at the vision of all creation restored; restored to proper relationship to all creation come home at last….

….Shalom, chaverim, shalom, my friends, shalom".

Glenn R. Gaffney is the principal of Gaffney & Gaffney aka Gaffney and Son in Glendale Heights, concentrating his practice on employment law litigation. He received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Marketing from the University of Illinois Champaign/Urbana and a J.D., cum laude, from Southern Illinois University School of Law.