Around the water cooler: Divorce and publicity

Phil Collins and Orianne Cevey reportedly reached a $46.68 million divorce settlement, which went on record to be the biggest-ever celebrity payout in British legal history.

The British are not alone. Many high-profile U.S. divorces involving people like Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards, or Alec Baldwin and Kim Bassinger, have graced the covers of celebrity magazines, and national newspapers.

With talk of divorce in the headlines, family law attorney Jennifer C. Smetters weighs in on some of the complexities to celebrity divorce, and how those complexities transcend into “real people’s lives.”

“Oftentimes, the more money that is involved, the less likely the parties are to reach an amicable agreement,” said Smetters, in a press release.  “Although the money is definitely a top priority, the most important thing to consider when it comes to celebrity divorces, or any divorce for that matter, is if children are involved. Unfortunately, and especially when a lot of money is involved, high-profile divorces can put an enormous pressure and spotlight on the children, and the goal is to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

In a recent conversation, Smetters said everyday people are following celebrities’ leads and finding ways to publicize their divorces.

Everyday people use different forms of technology and the Internet, such as YouTube, Facebook, and MySpace to inform their circle of friends about the salacious details of their divorces, she said.

These actions may impact divorce or child custody negotiations because they may do it to publicly humiliate a spouse, or gain sympathy, she said.

For example, on a celebrity scale, Heather Mills took her divorce battle to the media in an attempt to publicly embarrass her husband, Paul McCartney, Smetters said. And Christie Brinkley took a similar path involving her husband Peter Cook, and their children’s custody battle.

“It is not a court of public opinion, it is a judge making a decision,” she said. “If you are going to publicly humiliate someone, it makes it very difficult to come to an agreement and sit down at a table and negotiate with somebody you are attempting to humiliate.”

Around the water cooler: Q & A with James T. Mayer

Today we talk with James T. Mayer, an equity partner at Holland & Knight, who is a director in the management of the firm, and a deputy section leader of the firm’s real estate section.

Mayer, who has been practicing since 1984, is in the real estate transactions practice group in Chicago doing purchases, sales, leasing of industrial, office, and retail properties, and lending work for commercial properties.

1.What do you find the most interesting about your practice?

What is most interesting about my practice is the variety of drafting and negotiating styles on different transactions.  You have to be a true deal junkie to enjoy this part. This ranges from a style resulting from mutual respect and a desire by all sides to get the deal closed to the yellers and screamers who want to argue about every point and issue. With the increase in billable rates and the volatility in the marketplace, the latter style is less appreciated by clients, as the amount of their bills increases exponentially and deals die or take too long.

2. What makes a good lawyer?

Assuming that legal competence is a given, I think what makes a good lawyer is the ability to listen to clients, to truly understand what they want and need from their attorney, and the ability to become a counselor to clients rather than just their attorney. You need to understand a client’s business and be proactive in assisting them.

3. What is the biggest legal news right now, and what is its impact?

The biggest legal news at this time is the collapse of the financial services industry. A clear impact is a slowdown of deal flow and deals that are stopped at any stage of a transaction.

Around the water cooler — Vedder Price forms retail industry service team

Vedder Price recently announced the formation of a Retail Industry Service Team to provide multi-disciplinary legal services to retail industry clients, with the hope of helping them enhance their business, productivity and profitability while reducing their legal exposure.

Members of the Retail Industry Service Team provide counsel and advice in key legal areas, such as labor and employment; corporate and tax strategies; zoning and land use, real estate development and finance; consumer litigation; construction litigation; leasing; brand protection; immigration; e-commerce; and franchise and distribution.

Representative clients include Big Box retailers, specialty retailers, on-line merchants, contractors, and the owners and developers of shopping centers, outlets and other mixed-use developments.

The group is comprised of attorneys from all of the firm’s offices. Timothy J. Carroll, a shareholder in the firm’s commercial litigation practice chairs the group.

Carroll said he has many retail clients and recognized that they had similar legal needs but were not attacking them in a direct way. The firm hopes that the service team will help its retail clients streamline their practices, and decrease legal costs, he said.

The law firm will become more intimate with each retail client’s business and be able to provide better service, and more institutional knowledge on the client.

The firm operates many similar service teams for areas like the healthcare industry, he said.

“We are definitely trying to take advantage of the multi-faceted structure of our law firm,” Carroll said. “If clients were not looking for this type of opportunity then there probably would be little incentive to focus on it. But we got great feedback from our clients. We are looking forward to many years of success.”

In addition to creating the service group, the firm also is in the process of joining a number of retail organizations. It also provides updates on the industry with legal tips for clients. The firm will also hold regular events to inform clients about a particular legal issue or trend in the industry.

“This will enable us to provide better service to our clients,” he said. “If we are doing their labor employment [issues] then it makes sense for us to work on their immigration, and protect them on e-discovery.”

Around the water cooler: Much Shelist’s advisory board

Much Shelist recently formed a five-member advisory board of outside business and legal experts to deliver advice and counsel to the firm’s management committee on a broad range of issues that impact legal services. The board held its first meeting in June.

David Brown, chair of the firm’s management committee, said the advisory board will help the firm study different perspectives, and improve itself as a business.

The firm purposely did not ask clients to participate because it wanted people to not be afraid to speak their minds, Brown said. Any business can learn from meeting with skilled, knowledgeable individuals who are not part of the day-to-day workings of that business, but have valuable advice to offer, he said.

The group will meet four times a year for several hours during each meeting, and will communicate from time to time when important issues arise. The firm pays each member a stipend, and half of the stipend gets donated to the charity each advisory board member chooses.

“I sit on a couple of advisory boards myself and I’ve found them extremely helpful …” Brown said. “Why couldn’t we benefit from having smart people who understand the legal business and have different backgrounds and experiences, just as companies bring in top board of directors? We’re always in a learning mode of trying to do better, and understand different perspectives.”

The following are the members of the board, which will meet on a quarterly basis:

* Karina Ayala-Bermejo
Director of Community Services, The Chicago Bar Association
Executive Director, Sun-Times Judge Marovitz Lend-A-Hand to Youth Program
* William L. Becker
General Counsel and Vice President, Harpo Productions, Inc.
* Michael D. Levin
Retired Partner, Latham & Watkins
* Alan P. Sklar, CPA
President, Overbridge Consultants Group, Ltd.
Overbridge Executive Roundtables, Ltd.
* Steve Yastrow
Author, Speaker and Business Consultant

Around the water cooler: Q & A with Meridith G. Cannon

Today Chicago Lawyer talks with Meridith G. Cannon, a partner in the corporate services group at Quarles & Brady who has been practicing for eight years.

What do you find the most interesting about your practice?

As a corporate lawyer and business adviser, I have the pleasure of working with a number of clients operating their businesses in various industries.  The variety of my client base results in different types of projects: mergers and acquisitions, commercial contract negotiation and preparation, corporate governance matters, etc.

The breadth of my practice requires me to become a mini-expert in the industries in which my clients operate, and it allows me to wear different hats depending on client needs. Sometimes I am the M&A specialist; at other times I work as an outside general corporate counsel.  I also come into contact with a number of wonderful attorneys who focus on more specialized areas of law such as employee benefits, labor, real estate and environmental matters.  When I am quarterbacking a corporate transaction, it is very rewarding to coordinate the efforts of the various specialists for the client, who is often  taking part in one of the most important events of his or her life — such as buying or selling a business.  I derive great satisfaction from playing a part in the great events of my clients’ lives.

What makes a good lawyer?

A good lawyer is a good listener with a skeptical ear. This is not to say that such a lawyer is a “deal-breaker” — it is quite to the contrary.  I believe that a good lawyer’s objectivity runs close to skepticism, and when that happens, sound legal advice can be provided to the client.

A good lawyer will help the client work through all the aspects — good and bad — of a transaction. This is an invaluable service to a client if due diligence reveals negative information or the negotiation process heads in a direction that is not in the best interests of the client. Fortunately, with respect to the vast majority of the transactions on which I work, the transaction is a positive one for the client, with few surprises, and deals are successfully closed.

What is the biggest legal news right now, and what is its impact?

Obviously, the economic downturn in the U.S. has negatively impacted the deal flow that kept so many corporate lawyers busy during the past few years.

However, due to upcoming changes in some of the accounting rules, specifically, the revised version of Financial Accounting Standards No. 141, there may be an up-tick in deal flow prior to the end of the year.  Revised FAS 141 implements an accounting move in favor of fair-value accounting in connection with business combinations so that the financial records of acquirers more accurately reflect the true value of the business being acquired.

In the past, transaction costs such as legal, consulting, banking and other professional fees were treated as part of the purchase price of the transaction. Revised FAS 141 departs from this accounting treatment and requires that the acquired assets and liabilities be recorded at their fair value as of the acquisition date, and transaction costs are to be expensed by the acquirer during the period in which they are incurred. Because the acquirer will no longer be able to capitalize such expenses, revised FAS 141 will make business combinations more expensive to an acquirer’s earnings, thus impacting the acquirer’s bottom line.

Revised FAS 141 will apply prospectively to any business combination closing in a fiscal year beginning on or after Dec. 15, 2008.  Accordingly, corporate practitioners may see an increase in deal flow from acquirers trying to close transactions prior to the time that this new rule goes into effect.

Around the water cooler: Drinker Biddle’s scholarship

In 1995, what was then Gardner Carton & Douglas, started a college scholarship for its staff members’ children, said Glenn Ferencz, a partner at Drinker Biddle & Reath.

The firm later renamed the scholarship the Stephen M. Gatlin Scholarship after Gatlin, a lawyer at the firm who died in 1997 of lung cancer, said Edwin A. Getz, a managing partner, and regional partner in charge of the Chicago office.

“Steve was really an outstanding corporate lawyer, but he was a very sort of quiet and private person and very well-liked here and very well-regarded,” said Ferencz, who was a close friend. “As we learned a little bit more about him we realized he was very involved in a number or different organizations that promoted education and helped children.

“While he was at Gardner Carton, he was a mentor for younger attorneys here and he was very free with his time to help them develop and learn about the practice of law.”

The firm announced recently that it has increased the scholarship amount from $2,500 to $5,000, and it will now go to a child of a staff member in any of the firm’s offices, Getz said.

A committee studies the different applications, and looks for not only a student’s academic success, but also a concentration on social responsibility, Getz said. While one new person receives the scholarship each year, the firm can award four in one year because the scholarships are renewable for four years if the students stays in good academic standing.

“It’s really very gratifying that it helps keep Steve’s memory intact at the firm,” Ferencz said. “It’s really very meaningful to the staff and the family who gets it …

“I’ve been involved with the award. I was very close with Steve and very good friends. We were fishing buddies, and his loss was a tremendous loss.”

Around the water cooler: Q & A with Anne Hamblin Schiave

As part of our weekly online Q & A, we talk with Anne Hamblin Schiave, a partner in corporate and mergers/acquisitions at Holland & Knight. She has been practicing for over 30 years.

What do you find the most interesting about your practice?

The people–usually clients–and the business challenges they confront. The business world is changing so radically and so fast that our clients need to identify opportunities and problems on a weekly, if not daily basis. Crafting the responses to those opportunities and problems is an ever-evolving challenge requiring an open mind, new skills, and courage. I enjoy and admire how clients evolve in response to both their personal and professional lives.

What makes a good lawyer?

All lawyers need a minimal level of substantive knowledge and skills, but what makes a good lawyer is intellectual curiosity, an ability to achieve results, and dedication to the interests of her clients. An intellectual curiosity about the context in which the legal problems arise provides a lawyer with not only alternative avenues to assist her client, but also the insights to redefine what the client really needs or wants.

To be a good lawyer, one must achieve results, which can translate into (depending on your area of practice) filing the brief on time, meeting the client on Sunday morning, biting one’s tongue with arrogant opposing counsel, anticipating the bank’s position at the closing table, finding third parties to support the client’s position, and listening to the client’s personal woes before he commits to a substantial business decision.

Finally, a good lawyer is dedicated to the interests of the client because lawyers are in the “personal service” business: a good lawyer applies her personal intelligence, skills, experience and insights into making the client look better or perform better than the client would do without her.  To me, dedication to the client’s interests does not include breaking the law, or playing loose with the rules, or sacrificing the lawyer’s integrity, because doing so will, at most, only help the client’s short-term interests.  Long-term interests of the clients always depend on compliance with the law, the rules, and integrity, and, sometimes, it is the responsibility of a good lawyer to reminder her client of that fact.

What is the biggest legal news right now, and what is its impact? 

The remaking of the financial markets: given that our legal system is based on a capitalist society, everything in the legal system is driven by the state of the economy, the direction it is moving, and the speed at which it is moving.

Around the water cooler: Law firm hosts hotline

Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon recently announced that it is one of the first Chicago law firms to host a free telephone hotline to provide legal aid to low-income residents in Cook County with a primary focus on landlord/ tenant issues.In joining the initiative, called the Go Bono Program, the firm is partnering with Coordinated Advice & Referral Program For Legal Services (CARPLS), a non-profit agency that offers free assistance for the everyday legal problems confronting low-income residents of the community.

As part of the program, Wildman Harrold attorneys will sign up to field hotline calls at the firm’s Chicago office, as their time and schedule permits. The volunteer attorneys will assist callers with basic landlord-tenant problems, such as evictions, security deposit disputes, and below standard living conditions in apartments and rental homes.

As all client engagements begin and end on the same day with the hotline program, volunteering is feasible even for lawyers with limited time to commit. In helping clients understand their rights and the remedies available to them, Wildman Harrold’s volunteers will have the additional support of CARPLS’ supervising attorneys, and, if in-court representation is required, the ability to refer callers to an appropriate full-service legal aid agency.

The Go Bono Program serves residents who are at or below the federal poverty level - about $41,300 for a family of four — and who typically cannot afford the services of a private attorney. Go Bono is an extension of Cook County’s legal aid hotline, which CARPLS operates, and which assists more than 39,000 people annually.

David Askew, Wildman Harrold’s director of pro bono and community service, said he hopes the hotline empowers people by teaching them their rights. For example, they need to know such basic tenant information as their right to receive interest on their security deposit, and why they are entitled to receive their security deposit back.

Askew said he also hopes it empowers the firm’s lawyers to participate in other pro bono projects.

“Housing is one of our life requirements,” Askew said. “Many tenants would find our legal advice to be one of the most valuable things they receive, particularly if they are being wrongfully evicted.

“It gives our attorneys a little taste of what I like to call ‘public interest law.’ To have tenants, before they hang up the phone, thank them profusely; to have that attorney come back to me and say I want do to more — that is what I want.”

He said he also hopes that other firms learn about this project and donate their time to the hotline.

Prior to taking part in the initiative, Wildman Harrold’s volunteer attorneys will undergo full training on site, provided by CARPLS. The lawyers are expected to start manning the hotline this Thursday, and will do it every Thursday, Askew said.

Around the water cooler: Q & A with John Anderson

Today we talk with John Anderson, an associate at Thompson Coburn Fagel Haber, who practices in the firm’s business litigation group.After graduating from The John Marshall Law School in 1999, he clerked for Justice Thomas L. Kilbride on the Illinois Supreme Court, and for Justice Robert C. Buckley on the Illinois Appellate Court.

He is also an elected official, serving on the Will County Board of Commissioners and the Will County Forest Preserve Board. He is also on the Board of Directors for the Lawyer’s Trust Fund.

What do you find most interesting about your practice?

I am fortunate that I often have an opportunity to work on complex cases and issues.  Often the issues are ones of first impression, or involve nebulous concepts like economic loss doctrine, restrictive covenants, or constitutional questions. My job offers a great blend of practical lawyering (such as making an argument in court or deposing a witness) and an almost academic level of sophistication. Nearly every case is unique, and lends itself to new opportunities of learning and applications of concepts.

What makes a good lawyer?

I suppose there are a lot of necessary attributes, including legal and practical skills, preparation, continuing education, empathy, integrity, and dedication, to name just a few.  The one that sticks out most in my mind, however, is a desire to serve a higher purpose.  As lawyers, we have a meaningful impact on peoples’ lives and the society in which we live. It is a real responsibility to take part in a major lawsuit, for example. I have worked on cases where the livelihood of a company and its employees (and their families) were on the line.

I’ve worked on cases involving the pensions of firefighters and police officers, and cases involving public finances and tax-dollar expenditures. These sorts of lawsuits help shape the future of our communities and our neighborhoods, and a good lawyer is cognizant of the responsibility and trust that others place on him.

What is the biggest legal news right now and what is its impact?

I was just reading about the California Supreme Court’s ruling on gay marriage. This ruling is just the latest in a recent string of cases considering the constitutional implications of gay relationships. While the cases do not impact me personally, I think they are interesting because they involve the evolution of civil rights and constitutional jurisprudence, and it is very much becoming a new civil rights movement. I was not around for the civil rights movement of the 1960s, so I think this one is interesting to watch as a lawyer, regardless of whether one views it as a good or bad thing.

Around the water cooler: Running for a cause

Each week Chicago Lawyer will highlight a different case or legal happening, and solicit your thoughts on the impact of it in the legal community.George Jackson III, counsel at Bryan Cave, plans to run not one, not two, but three marathons in October.

And he’ll be doing it in the name of charity.

He will run in the Crazy Horse Marathon on Oct. 4 in South Dakota, the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 12, and the Dublin Marathon in Ireland on Oct. 27. He will raise funds for the Chicago Legal Clinic, Inc., where he is a board member.

Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki, a founder of the clinic, will also run in the Ireland marathon. Paprocki selected the Ireland race for them to run in together, and Jackson selected the other two.

The Chicago Legal Clinic is a non-profit organization that makes the legal system accessible to the impoverished and disabled community, Jackson said. Since its inception in 1981, the clinic has served more than 155,000 clients in matters ranging from foreclosure to domestic violence.

Jackson, 48, has run marathons since 1993, and has completed 33 so far.

“Last year we raised just over $25,000 combined,” Jackson said of Paprocki and his goal. “We would like to raise at least $30,000 between the two of us.

“It’s rewarding. It gives me determination.”

The biggest challenge this year, he said, was finding the time to train.

“I don’t have an established training regime at present,” he said. “The thing is, we’ve thrown down the gauntlet this year that I’m going to beat him in Ireland. It’s not going to happen.

“I’m constantly pushing myself to find that pace that will be rewarding in the end, where I gave my best but didn’t die at the end.”

He encourages those interested in donating their cause should contact the clinic at:

Chicago Legal Clinic, Inc.

2938 E. 91^st Street

Chicago, IL  60617

(773) 731-1762

Fax (773) 731-4264

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