Spring 2010

Featured Story

Our Good Nature | Community-Focused Items

Everybody Wins! Atlanta Office Volunteers "Do Lunch" and Promote Literacy

Power lunches are routine for members of Schiff Hardin's Atlanta office. Each week, several attorneys and staff members spend their lunchtimes mentoring students through Everybody Wins! Atlanta. The organization — a local affiliate of the national non-profit Everybody Wins! — promotes literacy by pairing students who are at risk for academic failure with volunteers from the business community.

Schiff Hardin associate Tamera Woodard volunteered with EW before joining the firm. She recently recruited attorneys Laura McGuffey, Wendy Hart and Danielle Cook, and staff members Chris Washington and Hope Gant to "do lunch." By volunteering with EW, they are helping to bridge the literacy gap, one student — and sandwich — at a time.

Soaring to New Heights | Appointments, Awards and Honors

Sahar Dar Appointed President Elect of Just the Beginning Foundation's Associate Board

Sahar Dar, an associate in Schiff Hardin's Corporate and Securities Group, has been appointed President Elect of Just the Beginning Foundation's Associate Board. Ms. Dar will be sworn in as president on July 1, 2010 and will serve a one-year term.

Women Partners at Schiff Hardin Among Those Recognized as Top 50 Women Super Lawyers

Patricia Brown Holmes and Patricia Costello Slovak were listed as Top 50 Women Illinois Super Lawyers in Illinois Super Lawyers magazine for 2010.

Seeds of Interest | Articles and Publications

"Indubitably Holmes: How Patricia Brown Holmes Beat Death"

Diagnosed with stage-four lymphoma, she was given six months to live. As this sank in, Holmes thought about her four kids, who need a mom, then explained to the doctor that she wasn't going anywhere. Schiff Hardin partner Patricia Brown Holmes featured in Illinois Super Lawyers magazine.

International Companies Must Know About Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

Valarie Hays and Patricia Brown Holmes, attorneys in Schiff Hardin's White Collar Crime and Corporate Compliance Group, collaborated on two articles for Risk & Compliance, a major Bloomberg publication that deals with the risk of criminal prosecution and civil liability for companies and their officials when conducting business overseas.

Grease Payments are a Thing of the Past as the Reach of the FCPA Continues to Expand
Corporate Officials Beware: Knowledge May No Longer Be Required for FCPA Liability

Ethical Issues for Lawyers Practicing Across State Lines

Schiff Hardin partner Janet Johnson has written a paper she will be presenting at The John Marshall Law School's Center for Real Estate Law Real Estate Ethics and Professionalism Seminar on May 6 in Chicago. Her paper "Ethical and Practical Issues in Multijurisdictional Real Estate Practices," discusses the new Rules 5.5 and 8.5 adopted by the Illinois Supreme Court and in other states that affect transactional lawyers involved in multi-state deals.

Bird's Eye View | Events and Speeches Past and Present

Upcoming Event: May 24, 2010 | Poised for Leadership: Women's Leadership Coaching, Inc. and Schiff Hardin LLP co-sponsor a women's leadership training seminar in San Francisco

Women's Leadership Coaching, Inc., will present a day-long seminar in the San Francisco office of Schiff Hardin LLP. Jo Miller, CEO and chief presenter, is renowned for her practical approach to training early to mid-career women interested in professional advancement. Do you know a Bay Area woman who might benefit from this training? Encourage her to register on-line.

This training is proudly co-sponsored by the Schiff Hardin LLP Women's Networking Group.

Upcoming Event: June 26, 2010 | Schiff Hardin's Parenting Group Event at Ravinia Festival

Schiff Hardin's Parenting Group will once again provide its attorneys, clients, referral sources, and friends with an opportunity to network and have fun with their families at Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois. We will enjoy a concert by Chicago-based and nationally-recognized children's band Ralph's World (www.ralphsworld.com), crafts, lunch, and children's programming. If you are interested in attending with your family and are located in the Chicago area, please e-mail Therese Squillo for more information. Our Parenting Group's mission is to provide parenting resources to its attorneys throughout the year, and the group also sponsors this hugely successful annual event at Ravinia. The Parenting Group is co-chaired by David McHugh and Kelly Warner.

Upcoming Event: July 16, 2010 | Judith Roth at Intellectual Property Symposium

Schiff Hardin's Judith Roth will speak at the Third Annual Quad City Symposium, hosted by the Cincinnati Intellectual Property Law Association. Ms. Roth will speak on "Fashion, Copyright and the Proposed Design Piracy Prohibition Act."

Past Event: April 29, 2010 | Patricia Dondanville at Energy Bar Association's 64th Annual Meeting

Patricia Dondanville, a partner in Schiff Hardin's Energy and Public Utilities group, spoke at the Energy Bar Association's 64th Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. She participated in a panel titled "CFTC Proposed Regulation of Energy Markets." The discussion centered on potential conflicts between two government regulators — the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission — in attempts to regulate the over-the-counter derivatives market, particularly the market for energy commodities and derivatives.

Past Event: April 28, 2010 | Summit for Women In-House Counsel

Schiff Hardin's Patricia Slovak co-chaired the Summit for Women In-House Counsel. The Summit brought together in-house counsel from across the country to reinforce the power of in-house counsel to effectuate and promote change in the legal profession. Ms. Slovak is a past chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Labor and Employment Law, which has more than 20,000 members, and is currently a member of the Commission on Women in the Profession. The Commission is comprised of 12 members appointed by the ABA President. Its mission is to secure the full and equal participation of women in the ABA, the legal profession and the justice system.

Past Event: April 15, 2010 | Chemical Industry Council of Illinois Hot Topics Seminar

Kathleen Bassi, Of Counsel with Schiff Hardin's Environmental Practice Group, discussed how Illinois industry will be affected when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalizes new ozone standards later this year.

Past Event: April 7, 2010 | Heidi Oertle at DRI Products Liability Conference

Schiff Hardin partner Heidi Oertle presented at the DRI Products Liability Conference in Las Vegas. Her talk: "What Happens in Vegas Doesn't Stay in Vegas When You Tweet About It: Using Social Networking to Defend Your Case."

Past Event: April 1, 2010 | Former Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears Delivers the Keynote Lecture on Legal Issues in the Arts at SCAD

Schiff Hardin attorneys participated in the Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears Lectures on Legal Issues in the Arts at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Named in honor of Schiff Hardin Partner, former Georgia Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears — the first African-American female chief justice of a state in the United States, first woman and youngest person to sit on the Supreme Court of Georgia — the lecture explored a broad range of legal issues that affect artists and their art. Schiff Hardin panel participants included Judith Roth, Eric L. Barnum and Brian Gannon.

Past Event: March 13, 2010 | "Nurturing Families, Shaping Communities:" the BAPS Women's Conference

Schiff Hardin partner Renee Cipriano attended this International Women's Day conference at BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, a Hindu temple in Bartlett, Illinois. She spoke on the importance of women's efforts in protecting the global environment.

Past Event: March 7, 2010 | Sahar Dar at Educational Awareness Dinner for Apna Ghar

Schiff Hardin associate Sahar Dar co-chaired this event in Oak Brook, Illinois, designed to raise awareness about domestic violence. Ms. Dar is Treasurer of Apna Ghar's Associate Board as well as of the national Pakistani-American Bar Association (PABA), a co-sponsor of the event. Apna Ghar provides culturally appropriate, multilingual services to survivors of domestic violence with a primary focus on South Asian and other immigrant communities.

Past Event: February 3, 2010 | A New York View

The WNG held its second annual networking event in NYC. The evening event featured a private visit to two major photography galleries on 57th Street in midtown Manhattan. The two female gallery owners/directors narrated the exhibitions — one by well-known contemporary photographer Massimo Vitali that depicted contemporary European scenes, and the second by Homer Page, which provided a fascinating look at New York in the 1940's in iconic black and white images. The program concluded with brief remarks about collecting modern and contemporary art, given by Lacy Davisson Doyle, a Schiff Hardin client, art advisor and private curator to numerous individual and corporate collections. A full house of more than 50 attendees enjoyed wine and a selection of cheeses crafted by female cheesemakers.

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