Sponsor(s): Pincus Professional Education
Date: 08/02/2012 -07/02/2012
Time: 09:00AM - 04:45PM
Location: Hotel Allegro 171 West Randolph Street, Chicago, IL
Speakers: Multiple (see below)

Pincus Professional Education has generously donated several scholarship spaces to the CBF Legal Aid Academy. Interested legal aid attorneys should register on the calendar on www.IllinoisLegalAdvocate.org or contact Kelly Tautges (ktautges@chicagobar.org) with any questions. Other attorneys should visit www.pincusproed.com for more information and to register. 

Legal Editing: Improve your work and that of those who work for you
August 2, 2012, 9:00 a.m. to 4:45 (lunch on your own)

Course Summary

The law itself is a collection of words, and the practice of law consists of properly assembling those words to create a compelling argument.

One of the most important and most ignored components of good legal writing is editing. Learn to edit to achieve the right tone for your target audience. You will learn that effective editing converts words to tools, how to edit for the little stuff and big stuff, tricks for effective proofreading, and more.

Writing is winning: Poorly written product can mean losing a case, losing a client, and losing fees.

What You Will Learn if You Attend This Seminar

Why good legal editing skills are critical to winning, what courts have said
What are your goals when editing
How to identify and apply the proper editing techniques for different audiences
How to edit for your target audience
How to adopt the right editing tone
Edit the really little stuff
Edit the really big stuff
Proofreading is an essential skill which, if ignored, threatens to undermine all of your effort
Proven editing tips
Interpersonal skills and techniques for giving and receiving criticism

Instructors

Ellen M. Avery, Esq.
Principal Assistant Attorney
 

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago
Ellen Avery is an in-house attorney for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. Ms. Avery concentrates her practice in the litigation and government contracting sections of the District’s Law Department confronting a variety of issues facing Chicagoland’s sanitary and stormwater management authority. Before joining the District, Ms. Avery spent 7 years in private practice focusing mainly on commercial litigation and employment disputes. Ms. Avery received her law degree from IIT-Chicago Kent College of Law in 2000.

Bruce Nelson, Esq.

Bruce C. Nelson earned his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science in 1983 from Northwestern University, and his Juris Doctorate in 1991 from the Boston University Law School. Upon graduating from BULS in 1991, Mr. Nelson moved to Chicago and began his legal career as an associate in the litigation department of the law firm then known as Rudnick & Wolfe (now, DLA Piper), and became a partner in that firm in 1998. In 2002, Mr. Nelson moved his practice to the Chicago office of the firm then known as Vedder Price Kaufman & Kammholz (now, Vedder Price), where he practiced as a litigation partner for the next 6 years. In March 2008, Mr. Nelson resigned from Vedder Price and retired from the full-time practice of law, in order to pursue teaching opportunities, non-legal writing and a variety of other interests. Mr. Nelson remains licensed to practice law in Illinois and is admitted to practice before various federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court.

At present, Mr. Nelson engages in a variety of part-time pursuits. He provides legal counsel and business management advice to a few Chicago-area businesses; he teaches legal writing and oral advocacy at John Marshall Law School; he tutors law firm associates in legal writing and other matters germane to law firm practice; he provides pro bono legal services to a Chicago area community center and its constituents; and, he continues to write and lecture on legal topics.

Throughout his 21-year legal career, Mr. Nelson has focused his practice on business litigation, handling trial and appellate court cases in the areas of contracts, torts, healthcare law, constitutional law, employment law, real estate law, insurance law and municipal law. As part of that practice, he participated in the 1996 landmark physician-assisted suicide litigation before the United States Supreme Court. Further, in 2006-07, Mr. Nelson served on an interim basis as Vedder Price’s lead Loss Prevention Counsel (a/k/a General Counsel to the firm). At both of the law firms at which he worked, Mr. Nelson actively created and conducted litigation training exercises for associates.

Jane M. Simon, Esq.
Founder, LawWriter, LLC

Jane M. Simon is the Founder of LawWriter.com, a writing and research legal process outsourcing (LPO) provider. Jane provides a variety of litigation support services, including drafting motions, briefs, and contracts for lawyers and in-house counsel. Jane also coaches and tutors law students, lawyers, and law firms on writing, advocacy, and other legal skills. In addition, for the past six years, Jane has taught legal writing and appellate advocacy at Notre Dame Law School.

Jane served as a law clerk to the Honorable Wayne R. Andersen of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Prior to that, she practiced law in the litigation department of McDermott, Will & Emery, specializing in business, employment, and intellectual property matters at both the trial and appellate court levels.

Jane earned her J.D. cum laude from Indiana University School of Law in Bloomington, where she served as Executive Editor of the Indiana Law Journal.

Kim R. Walberg, Esq.
Shefsky & Froelich Ltd.

Kim Walberg concentrates her practice in commercial litigation, including shareholder disputes, class action defense, construction litigation, zoning litigation, commercial lease disputes, and enforcement of restrictive covenants, as well as defending municipalities in Section 1983 civil rights litigation.

For the past five years, Kim has defended the City of Chicago and the Chicago Police Department in multiple class actions alleging due process violations based on the purported deprivation of money and other personal property. Kim has achieved successful resolutions of these cases at the district court level, involving issues which have been appealed and affirmed by the United States Supreme Court.

Kim also represents the Chicago Park District against opponents of the relocation of the Chicago Children’s Museum from Navy Pier to Grant Park. Kim successfully defended the Park District’s position at both the circuit court and appellate court levels, taking on legal precedent from the 1800’s concerning Chicago’s Lakefront.

Nadine J. Wichern, Esq.
Office of the Illinois Attorney General

Nadine J. Wichern recently returned to the Office of the Illinois Attorney General in Chicago. Previously, she was Assistant Corporation Counsel in the Appeals Division of the City of Chicago Department of Law. In that capacity, Nadine represented the City, its officials, and its employees in cases before state and federal reviewing courts. Nadine previously served for five years as an Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Appeals Division of the Illinois Attorney General's Office.

In March 2005, Nadine completed a term as a United States Supreme Court Fellow through the National Association of Attorneys General in Washington, D.C. As a fellow, she participated in moot courts, attended oral arguments, and filed an amici curiae brief on behalf of twenty-one states regarding the dormant commerce clause in ATA v. Michigan Public Serv. Comm'n.

Nadine has also taught appellate advocacy, a required course for second-year law students at Loyola University School of Law, for seven years, and has taught a legal writing course at DePaul University College of Law.

Immediately after graduating from law school, Nadine served as a law clerk to the Honorable William J. Bauer of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. During law school, Nadine also externed for Judge Bauer for two semesters, was awarded six CALI awards, was chosen for Order of the Coif, and was the Managing Editor of Notes and Comments for the DePaul Law Review. Prior to attending law school, Nadine earned her bachelor's degree in both history and political science, with a minor in English.

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