Another one for the planners out there....

Actually, the date for the Illinois Judicial Council's 44th Annual Installation and Scholarship Reception is only about 60 days hence.

For me, now, no longer engaged in the hurly-burly of a litigation practice, 60 days seems like a fairly spacious interval of time -- and it is: A whole lot of things can happen in 60 days' time. Germany invaded France on May 10, 1940; France surrendered on June 22. That was only 43 days -- 46 if you count all the way to June 25, when the surrender went into effect.

On a more positive note, the gestation period for a litter of puppies or a litter of kittens is also about 60 days, give or take, depending on the breed.

But I am not so far removed from the active practice of law that I no longer recall that, for a lot of lawyers, 60 days is pretty much equivalent to 'tomorrow' for persons in other walks of life. Jones is unavailable for her deposition in the Smith v. Jones case? Get another date... and, by the time everyone compares calendars, the new date is at least 60 days out.

Actually, there was one time... I was on the phone with opposing counsel and she was pressing for the deposition of my client. I don't remember why the client was never available, whether it was a chronic problem, or just a string of unhappy coincidences that he was always unavailable on any of the various dates set for him to be deposed. We were talking about still another date, but now I had a problem: "My wife is expecting, and the date you're proposing is right around her due date."

Opposing counsel was not buying. "No chance I'm falling for that one," she fumed, "you've used this excuse on me before. Last year. Same case. Same deponent."

"Yes," I admitted -- counsel had not misremebered our prior discussions -- "but this is a different baby."

As it happens, my oldest two kids are 15 months' apart.

(In any event, counsel gave in on a longer date and, eventually, we settled the case. I don't remember if we ever did produce the client for his deposition.)

And, of course, such conversations could never, ever happen now -- I'm here recalling events that took place in the 1980s -- which to my ear sounds less terrible than saying that this phone conversation occurred more than 40 years ago -- and certainly the pace of litigation drastically increased in the intervening years.

But even at the modern, increased tempo, 60 days for lawyers isn't that long at all. I'll try and remember to be less snarky about 'planners' going forward....

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Basket of puppies photo by Chathura Anuradha Subasinghe (@chathuraanuradha)

Decalogue Society Annual Installation & Awards Dinner set for July 29

The Decalogue Society of Lawyers will hold its 92nd Annual Installation and Awards Dinner on Wednesday, July 29, starting at 5:00 p.m., at the Old Post Office, 433 W. Van Buren.

Tickets for the event are $275 each ($225 for Decalogue members). Students can purchase tickets for $36 apiece. Tickets are available at this link.

Judge Lori Rosen will assume the presidency of the Decalogue Society at this event. The DSL will confer the following awards:

• Courage in Advocacy Award: Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton
• Hon. Charles E. Freeman Judicial Merit Award: Judge Timothy C. Evans
• Award of Excellence: Representative Tracy Katz Muhl
• Presidential Citation: Robert M. Karton
• Intra-Society Award: Kim Pressling
• Hebrew University Fellowship Award: Judge Barry Goldberg

And, of course, there are a host of sponsorship opportunities available. A complete list may be found by clicking here. The deadline for sponsorship registration is July 24.

A real opportunity to be heard...

The Chicago Bar Association Chorus is seeking new members. All the pertinent information is contained in the flyer above, including the email address of the contact person, Erin Perkins.

One caveat: If crows flock when you sing in the shower, you may wish to take up bowling instead. The CBA is not promising to provide vocal transformations. Thus, as you will note when you review the flyer carefully, while the CBA Chorus is not requiring auditions, they do tactfully suggest that some previous experience might be helpful... probably for everyone concerned.

Happy Birthday, America!

On this 250th anniversary of American independence, I have nothing to give my country but my gratitude. Gratitude to my ancestors for coming to this great land. Gratitude to the United States of America itself, the greatest nation in the history of the world.

I doomscroll too frequently on X (or Twitter, if you must) and, in many posts on that site, I have confronted the notion that some Americans are not patriotic; indeed, there is allegedly a belief that patriotism is a mere partisan construct; that only members of one party may be partiotic, whilst members of the other party, if they express the barest patriotic sentiment at all, must, in the same breath apologize for our country's shortcomings.

I realize that, in a nation of 342 millions, there must be some who harbor such stupid opinions. Some academic poseurs were spouting this kind of nonsense when Nixon was still in the White House. There are undoubtedly more such misguided persons these days, since the balanced teaching of history and civics, with any sense of context or perspective, has gone the way of the horse and buggy.

Yes -- granted -- America is not perfect. It has not always lived up to its highest ideals. Neither have you. Because you are human. Humans are imperfect. Things that humans make, like governments and nations, are necessarily imperfect, too. Only God is perfect. All we mere humans can do is strive to do better. And, in the course of its 250 years of independence, America has gotten better and better. Not in a straight line, perhaps, and we can have an honest debate on where we have faltered and where we have surged ahead. But, on balance, we live in the greatest nation that has ever been.

I sincerely believe that, the negative types notwithstanding, most Americans -- the vast majority -- are as proud and grateful as I am today, on America's 250th birthday. May God continue to bless our beloved nation, and may we continue to be worthy of the blessings received.