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If you are registering for the full day, choose one seminar that you wish to attend from each time slot, as well as your lunch choice.

At this time, I am looking for volunteers to serve as proctors. We cannot run this conference without volunteers and we need your help. Proctors are responsible for introducing the speaker, reading some brief announcements, passing out handouts and evaluation forms, overseeing the sign-in/sign-out process, distributing CLE certificates, and thanking the speaker. It is very simple to do, but so very important. If you would like to proctor any of the seminars that you are attending, please indicate here.

In this session we will discuss approaches to organizing and conducting effective due diligence and addressing pre and post-closing matters in transactions, including ways to address challenges, avoid common pitfalls and accomplish a robust successful due diligence and closing process.

Julie P. Roknich, Esq., Presence Health

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act or FDCPA as it is better known was passed by Congress to eliminate and curb abusive debt collection practices. If you are an individual that works for in the debt collection industry, whether it is for a collection agency, a collections law firm, or you’re simply trying to collect a debt owed to you or your company, you need to make sure that you are complying with the FDCPA. During this seminar, we will examine the FDCPA and apply it to everyday scenarios and case law to develop an understanding of this important federal law. In addition, we will also look at what can happen if you or your company violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Timothy Stephens, Paralegal

There are many documents required by the USPTO when filing a patent application and throughout prosecution. During this session we will discuss the importance of filing these documents, how to prepare them correctly, and consequences of filing such documents with errors. Despite our best efforts, filing areas do occur. Therefore, we will also discuss how to correct errors when necessary.

Joshua Bishop, Esq., Leydig, Voit & Mayer, Ltd.

Designed for “accidental project managers” – those who suddenly find themselves trying to manage projects as part of their day-to-day jobs -- this program features a highly interactive scenario-based session by immersion into an actual project. Through experiential learning, participants discover a consistent process and repeatable framework they can use to effectively manage project communications, tasks, schedule, scope, quality, and budget. Participants will leave the program with a “toolkit” containing checklists and templates they can use immediately on-the-job to improve how they manage projects in today's fast-paced legal environments. This program is appropriate for all paralegals, regardless of experience or practice area.

Trish Uhl, PMP, CPLP, Owl's Ledge LLC

Do you remember how to correctly cite to Illinois appellate court cases? Have you mastered the "new" public domain format? Can you correctly cite to a Seventh Circuit decision? When do you use parallel pin cites? Do they haunt your dreams? We will help you demystify many basic citation formats that you are likely to encounter if your firm practices in state or federal court in Illinois.

Linda Jenkins, Esq., College of DuPage and Todd Holes, Professional Tutor – Paralegal Studies, College of DuPage Tutoring Services

Legal professionals today are challenged by the vast amounts and locations of data within their organizations. To make things worse, new rules and scrutiny by both government agencies and insurance carriers adds penalties and more. Whether you’re looking at corporate transactions or the proper governance of your company’s records retention efforts, this seminar will help you understand:
• How Information Governance applies to non-litigation roles
• New rules, case law, and FRCP revisions that apply
• Best practices for managing corporate records
• And more!

Doug Kaminski, Senior Director, Consilio

Smartphones, such as iPhones and Android phones, have become ubiquitous in daily life, can be as powerful as laptop and desktop computers, and can store many gigabytes of evidence potentially relevant to civil lawsuits of all types. This class will educate students as to the important categories of evidence that can be recovered from smartphones and how these categories can be leveraged in not only a defensive manner but also an offensive manner in civil litigation. Finally, the class will provide reasonable steps one should take to protect attorney-client communications from spying.

Larry Lieb, CBE, LCE, FEXE, Scarab Consulting

Patent applicants from foreign countries or those who choose to foreign file face many considerations, beyond timing. The decision where to file first must be based on an understanding of each country’s patent and export controls laws, as some countries restrict foreign filing before a national patent application is filed or applicants receive the authorization to foreign file. Though few countries have foreign filing restrictions, those that do include many significant markets, not to mention the world’s most populous countries. In order to preserve international rights, paralegals should consider not only U.S. foreign filing laws, but also research inventorship, ownership, patent and expert controls laws of the country early in the disclosure and application preparation process.

Richard Beem, Esq., Beem Patent Law Firm

One of the basic tasks performed by the paralegal is legal writing. Accurate, concise, and professional writing is key in order to effectively represent a client. In this presentation we will discuss steps that can be taken to insure your legal writing is effective. We will begin by exploring some of the various types of legal writing paralegals are asked to perform. We will also cover common mistakes that legal professionals make in their legal writing and suggestions will be made on how to avoid these pitfalls. The presentation will conclude with tips and tricks for becoming an even better legal writer.

Susanne Kinsella, J.D., Kaplan University

SEMINAR CANCELLED

Information Governance (IG) is one of the hottest topics in the legal world today…yet is also one of the least understood. In this timely and informative session, you’ll learn how to understand IG and apply it to your litigation process to reduce the cost and risk of eDiscovery. Whether you’re in-house or at a law firm, join us and find out:

· Why judges and regulators are now pro-Information Governance
· How the FRCP changes and new case law reinforce IG
· What current and future IG trends you need to know about

As a special bonus, you’ll get a sneak peek at the upcoming primer on Information Governance being created by members of the Seventh Circuit Technology Subcommittee and their advisors. Don’t miss this important session!

Doug Kaminski, Senior Director, Consilio

Karen will present an overview of the different types of special assets and highlight key aspects of each type of special assets about which a paralegal should be aware. Cliff will present “5 Things Every Estate Planning Firm Should Know About Estates with Firearms”. Attendees will understand the differences between the main types of special assets and be able to collect information from their firm’s clients that is important to the continuing value of special assets and understand how to assist a client in deciding how best to transfer ownership and control of the owner’s special assets as part of an estate plan.

Karen R. Mills, Esq., Strohschein Law Group, LLC and Clifford R. Holm, Esq., Fuchs & Roselli, Ltd.

The evolution of technology – typewriters, dictation systems, personal laptops, iPads, cloud computer, and mobile lawyering – has transformed the legal profession and forced paralegals to apply technology skills to the modern legal practice. During this breakout session, we will explore the advantages and troubles linked to the increasing use of technology in law firms from the viewpoint of paralegals and support staff. You will learn best practices for delivering superior service to clients while supporting attorneys through the use of technology. The implementation of new legal technology seems like a daunting task, but hopefully after this session you will be able to identify solutions to help improve best practices in technology to support your law firm practice.

Tom Stephenson, ILAP, Golan & Christie LLP

Want to become more efficient and confident in your legal research, saving yourself time and your client money? This seminar will focus on becoming more proficient in crafting your research queries, using both Boolean terms & connectors, as well as plain language searching, so you are confident that you are receiving the most relevant results. There will be a demonstration on how to create alerts so that you can keep updated on the most recent legislation and case opinions that are important to you. Finally, you will learn how to organize and evaluate your research using the workflow tools provided on Westlaw.

Paul R. Lillie, Esq., Client Representative – Strategic Accounts, Thomson Reuters Westlaw

As organizations consider entering into new countries they are immediately confronted with unfamiliar processes and complexities for setting up an entity. In this session we’ll take a look at all the moving pieces that go into setting up an entity internationally. We’ll discuss the relevance of the upfront planning and the importance to understanding, early on, the answers to fundamental questions. International expansion requires more information upfront, stricter process during and concrete governance and compliance strategies going forward. Join us as we shed some light on international entity setup.

Bobby Paulus, Head of Global Corporate Services, CT Corporation

This session will focus on the evolving use of technology in the courtroom and the impact of more sophisticated demonstratives on juries and judges. Generational differences in perception and expectations will also be explored in regards to effective trial presentations. Strategies for using mock juries and how to effectively select sympathetic jurors from the available jury pool will be reviewed.

Doug Blanchard, Vice President, Business Development, Jensen Litigation Solutions

This presentation will discuss the protection that powers of attorney give everyone. It will also discuss the importance of having them from ages 18 to 118 as well as how to use POAs to help your clients and families.

Marty Fogarty, Esq., The Heartland Law Firm

Real Estate continues to provide a unique tangible investment that will produce reliable returns and wealth accumulation if not over leveraged with debt financing. This session will not require a degree in finance or accounting to understand a basic level overview of the evolution of capital investments in real estate. It will explore the pathway slowly opening from the JOBS Act of 2012 intended to allow greater access to private capital from investors previously limited to the 1% through use of social media tools. The role of a real estate paralegal will advance beyond drafting deeds, bills of sale and ALTA statements into a more creative process of entity and capital formation for real estate transactions. There is a changing landscape for more streamlined online compliance with securities laws and their SEC exemptions. These changes will create demand for cost effective paralegals that can demonstrate integrated skills required for real estate transactions funded by private capital. Investor portals for real estate investment have already found application similar to Kickstarter and will expand into the landscape with the use of new online SEC compliance rules and social media tools. The program will focus on the important new law that went into effect in Illinois as of January 1, 2016, to allow a new breed of “intrastate” exemption that can now at last be lawfully pursued in Illinois on internet based crowdfunding platforms for all of the people in the 99% as well as the 1%.

Rick Prohov, Esq., Prohov & Associates, Ltd.

Join us for a fun and informative discussion of paralegal ethics. We will explore the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, the IPA Code of Ethics, and we will discuss how they can be utilized in the daily work of paralegals. Learn how to identify conflicts, deflect potential ethical dilemmas and maximize productivity by learning what substantive legal duties paralegals can perform and the issues they may face. This session will also discuss the pitfalls of social media to the paralegal.

Sharon Patterson, Legal Assistant Supervisor, Goldberg Kohn Ltd. and Caren Mansfield, CLA, ILAP, Baker, Baker & Krajewski LLC