Articles Posted in Firm News

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On September 8, 2021 the Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois held the Federal Reentry Second C.H.A.N.C.E. Graduation ceremony at the Union League Club of Chicago. Mayor Lightfoot was the keynote speaker. The Union League Club’s Administration of Justice subcommittee has been an active supporter of the Federal Reentry Second C.H.A.N.C.E programs. Robert D. Kreisman of Kreisman Law Offices, the chair of the Administration of Justice subcommittee was presented with a Certificate of Appreciation on behalf of the committee.

The Certificate of Appreciation was presented by federal judges Susan F. Cox, Sara L. Ellis, and Sharon Johnson Coleman. The graduation of 11 individuals was attended by many, including the Northern District’s Chief Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer, with special recognition to Former Chief Judge Ruben Castillo, Former Magistrate Judge Sidney J. Schenkier, Karen White, US Probation, Nicole Roman, US Probation, Lisa Palmer, US Probation, and Former Assistant US Attorney, Tobara Richardson.

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Sara Agate, who was the winner of the Kreisman Law Offices scholarship for the year 2019, has been hired as an associate attorney in the health-care and life sciences practice group of the law firm Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff, LLP.  The Benesch law firm is a national law firm with multiple offices across the United States, including an office in Shanghai, China.

The Kreisman Law Offices law school scholarship is awarded each calendar year to applicants who have displayed exceptional academic skills, writing ability and legal reasoning.  Sara Agate was Kreisman Law Offices’ proud winner of this coveted award.

Sara is a cum laude graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law of the Illinois Institute of Technology. In addition, Sara has a master’s degree in health policy and administration from the University of Illinois at Chicago as well as an undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

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On June 14, 2018, the Union League of Chicago’s Public Affairs Committee’s Administration of Justice Subcommittee, chaired by Kreisman Law Offices’ principal Robert D. Kreisman, visited the Restorative Justice Community Court (RJCC), a criminal court in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood.

Members of the committee observed a court session and met with RJCC Judge Colleen Sheehan. They discussed how this alternative court gives youth ages 18 to 26 in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago who are charged with non-violent offenses an opportunity to turn their lives around through this program.

The restorative justice idea is to not just punish those who have committed a crime and are convicted. The idea is restore these individuals to a way of life that can be productive for the community in which they reside, in this case the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago.  Education, job training, resume development and drug treatment are avenues available to those who agree to pass through this system.

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Robert D. Kreisman of Kreisman Law Offices has donated the hardbound books of the Illinois Reports and volumes of the Illinois Digest to the Illinois Department of Corrections located at Stateville, Ill.  Arrangements for the donations were made by the John Howard Association in coordination with Mr. Kreisman.

The Illinois Department of Corrections Stateville Prison has a law library, but it prevents inmates from accessing the internet to conduct their own legal research. Accordingly, these law books should be useful for those interested in reading Illinois case law and accomplishing legal research utilizing the encyclopedia-like Illinois Digest.

A total of 16 banker boxes representing these 327 volumes were delivered by agreement of the principals of the Illinois Department of Corrections on Feb. 8, 2018.

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The John Marshall Law School becomes the first Chicago law school to be inducted into the LGBT Chicago Hall of Fame. According to the report of this honor, the designation identifies the law school as one of “non-LGBT-identified individuals and organizations that have contributed to the quality of life of the city’s LGBT community.”

A ceremony will be held in November that will make the LGBT Hall of Fame induction official. The designation for The John Marshal Law School will be as a “Friend of the Community.” The law school has a long history of supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students as well as its current educational offerings and services that impact the LGBT community.

“The school has been really a gay-friendly center of scholarship and community,” said John Marshall’s professor Mark E. Wojcik who is gay and was inducted into the Chicago’s LGBT Hall of Fame in 2010.

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The U.S. Supreme Court invalidated a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which had required states with a history of discrimination –most of them in the South — to get advanced federal approvals to allow election laws to be amended. Much of this changed after the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision and the rise in Republican-controlled state legislatures. Voter access was limited by new laws that restricted early voting and same-day registration and that required special identification cards at polling places. These restrictions mostly disenfranchised or affected the voting opportunities of minorities, the elderly, the disabled and the poor in these 17 states.

The U.S. Justice Department challenged voter ID laws in many of these states including North Carolina, Virginia, Wisconsin, Ohio, Arizona and Georgia. Recently, federal courts have temporarily staved off some of the toughest requirements made into law in North Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin after these federal judges found no evidence of what was called “rampant voter fraud.”  In fact, there is essentially zero in-person voting fraud in the more than half a billion votes that have been cast in the U.S. in the last 4-6 years.

With the Nov. 8, 2016 presidential election and other important federal and statewide elections on the horizon, litigation regarding voter restriction laws in these many states remains knotted up, with U.S. Supreme Court appeals likely. The legislation in the GOP-led Congress to restore the Voting Rights Act to its previous form has stalled.

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Robert Kreisman has been named to the Super Lawyers list as one of the top attorneys in Illinois for 2013. No more than 5 percent of the attorneys in the state are selected by Super Lawyers. Kreisman has consistently been named as a Super Lawyer.

Super Lawyers, a Thomson Reuters business, is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The annual selections are made using a rigorous multiphase process that includes a statewide survey of lawyers, an independent research evaluation of candidates and peer reviews by practice areas.

Super Lawyers magazine features the list and profiles of selected attorneys and is distributed to attorneys and the general public in the state or region and the ABA-accredited law school libraries. Super Lawyers is also published as a special section in leading city and regional magazines across the country. The Super Lawyers list was first published in 1991 and by 2009 the rating service was expanded nationwide.

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Robert D. Kreisman of Kreisman Law Offices has been appointed the newsletter editor for the Professional Negligence Section of the American Association for Justice.

The American Association for Justice works to promote an effective justice system and to support attorneys in their efforts to ensure that any person who is injured by the misconduct or negligence of others can obtain justice in America’s courtrooms, even when taking on the most powerful interests.

The association was formed in 1946. Today, the AAJ is the world’s largest trial bar. It AAJ promotes justice and fairness for injured persons, safeguards victims’ rights–particularly the right to trial by jury–and strengthens the civil justice system through education and disclosure of information critical to public health and safety. With members worldwide, and a network of U.S. and Canadian affiliates involved in diverse areas of trial advocacy, AAJ provides lawyers with the information and professional assistance needed to serve clients successfully and protect the democratic values inherent in the civil justice system.

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The AV premium rating is the pinnacle of excellence earned through strenuous peer-review ratings according to Martindale-Hubbell, legal resource provider. Chicago attorney Robert D. Kreisman of Kreisman Law Offices has been bestowed with this honor after 25 consecutive years of receiving the highest rating from the organization.

In 1987, after the peer review of other professionals and attorneys rated Robert D. Kreisman at the highest level of achievement, he received the AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell. He has maintained that level throughout his years of practice.

Robert D. Kreisman of Kreisman Law Offices has been handling client matters in medical malpractice, product defect matters, and commercial matters for individuals, families and businesses for more than 35 years in and around Chicago, Cook County and surrounding areas, including Zion, Winfield, River Forest, Peoria, Elk Grove Village, and Mundelein, Illinois.

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The November 2011 issue of the Illinois Bar Journal contains an article entitled “Creditors Are Not Freeloaders: The Common Fund Doctrine Does Not Apply to Hospital Lienholders.” The law article was written by Kreisman Law Office principal Robert D. Kreisman. Kreisman has been representing Illinois plaintiffs in personal injury and medical malpractice lawsuits for over 35 years in the Chicago and Cook County areas.

The Illinois Bar Journal article analyzes a recent Illinois Supreme Court decision in Wendling v. Southern Illinois Hospital Services, 242 Ill.2d 261, 950 N.E.2d 646 (2011). The Wendling case was significant in that the court’s decision removed any doubt as to whether or not the common fund doctrine applies to a healthcare services lien; the Supreme Court determined that the common fund doctrine does not apply.

In litigation, the general rule is that each party is responsible for paying his or her own attorney fees and costs. However, the common fund doctrine is an exception to that general rule. Under the common fund doctrine is applied when a common fund is created through the efforts of the litigant’s attorney, which in turn ends up benefiting a third party. When this occurs, the attorney who created the common fund can recover reasonable fees and costs from the third party, even though he/she is not technically the attorney’s client.

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