FALL 2020 TABLETS Fall 2020
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THE DECALOGUE TABLETS FALL 2020 TABLETS Fall 2020 Contents President’s Column 2 Building Bridges 3 President’s Column by Patrick Dankwa John 5 Judge’s Side of the Bench: The Judicial 2020 Building Bridges Awards Frontier “If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it 6 Judge’s Side of the Bench: Witness in port forever.” - Thomas Aquinas, Italian philosopher Credibility Wednesday, September 9, 2020 “The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is 7 Hon. Charles E. Freeman Memorial Service sometimes better to abandon one’s self to destiny.” - Napoleon 5:00-6:00pm 8 Case Law Update: Speedy Trial Clock This is my maiden voyage as skipper of the ship Decalogue. Even with 9 Police Brutality binoculars or a telescope, I can only see but so far ahead of me out into 11 I Can’t Breathe via Zoom the ocean. Everyone knows the Earth is round, but few realize that even with the most powerful binoculars, when standing on a ship, you can 12 Small Business Reorganization Act only see approximately 12 miles ahead. Why? Because the Earth is round, 14 COVID-19 Mental Health Consequences Register at and our vision is linear. We can see what’s in front of us, but we can’t see what’s around the curve. 13 2020 Awards Ceremony 15 Parenting During COVID-19 We are always on the brink of confronting curves—the unknown. www.decaloguesociety.org Nothing is more uncomfortable than the unknown. Recently, we have 16 The Other Pandemic collectively been thrown several curves. 17 Punitive Damages for Jewish CPD Officer In his Fall 2014 President’s Message, then Decalogue President, the 18 Confronting Anti-Semitism Honoring Honorable Joel Chupack, prophetically sounded the alarm about rising 19 Overview of Israeli Judicial System anti-Semitism in the United States and abroad. Unfortunately, since then, we have seen things go from bad to worse. Since then, as a nation, we 20 Chanukah Party “Community MVPs” have been thrown many curves. Who could’ve imagined that there would 21 In Memoriam: Hon. Arthur L. Berman be two mass shootings in synagogues in Pittsburgh and Poway (a suburb of San Diego) and countless attacks on Jews all over the nation, even in 22 Young Lawyers Corner: New York City? Who could’ve imagined the case of George Floyd and the Why We Are Important to Decalogue global protests it would spark? Who could’ve imagined the COVID-19 pandemic, which has exposed our nation’s long ignored economic and 23 Decalogue Statement on 2020 Bar Exam racial inequalities? Who could’ve imagined a dreadful perfect storm: 24 Decalogue Law School Leaders a health pandemic, an economic depression, rising racial and ethnic tensions, and plummeting public confidence in the American president’s 25 High Holiday Challah Bake leadership ability? There’s so much going on, it can be overwhelming, Rosh Hashanah Mitzvah Projects exhausting, daunting, and paralyzing. There’s so much going wrong that 26 Chai Lites we can feel that our contribution will be meaningless—just a drop in the bucket. One of our missions is fighting against anti-Semitism and other 28 Social with West Suburban Bar Association forms of bigotry. How exactly do we make a dent in those problems that Thank You Sustaining Members have plagued us for thousands of years, while we’re in a pandemic? I don’t Welcome New Members know what the answer is, or where it can be found. But I do know where 29 Judge Steve Rosenblum or Sid Luckman? it won’t be found. It won’t be found in our comfort zone. It will be found somewhere beyond our current range of vision. Somewhere beyond the 25 Hinda Cares Support Program for Women twelve miles that we can see in front of us. Managing Kids, Law School, and Judaism Marvet Sweis Hon. Megan Goldish 31 2020-2021 CLE Schedule (continued on page 4) Page 2 Fall 2020 The Decalogue Tablets Page 3 President’s Column (cont’d) From the Judge’s Side of the Bench Albert Einstein said you can’t solve a problem with the same by the police. The deacons of the church begged him to stop speaking The Judicial Frontier: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly mindset that created the problem. Just last week I had a out against racism, segregation, and police brutality. When begging conversation with another lawyer about what role bar associations didn’t work, they ordered him to stop. When that didn’t work, they can play in fighting bigotry. She mentioned some ideas her bar fired him. Now they needed to find a new preacher. by Hon. Rossana Fernandez case, including signed documents or court orders, you will have association was considering. I asked her what her bar association a centralized location for easy accessibility of that information. was planning to do or say about anti-Semitism that hasn’t been The deacons decided in selecting the old preacher’s replacement, In the advent of COVID-19, the pandemic has suddenly thrust Remember, video conferencing allows you to “share” documents done or said in the last 1,700 years? What did they plan to do or say they would learn from their mistakes. Now they didn’t want a lawyers and judges alike into what some have described as with one another and accessibility will be key. about White supremacy that hasn’t been done or said in the last 400 preacher who was experienced and in high demand. Instead they organized chaos. Video conferencing, email, and scanning years? She gave a floundering response. I wasn’t trying to be a wise chose a young unknown man—he was 26 years old, had never documents have become the norm and human contact has What if signatures are required on documents or motions and I guy—I was trying to make the point that comfort is the enemy of pastored a church and was fresh out of seminary. He would be been virtually eliminated. Although this may not have been the don’t have modern equipment? Don’t panic. A simple search on progress. Whatever the solutions to bigotry and injustice are, they happy to just have a job—any job. The deacons were confident they ideal situation or the fashion in which we envisioned the legal the internet or your smartphone for “applications” will provide are guaranteed to be unorthodox, novel, radical, and controversial. would be able to mold and control this young preacher. You may profession and its evolution, it may be a blessing in disguise. you many options. Determine what you need to select the best If that were not the case, then the problems would’ve been fixed by have heard of him. His name is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Practically speaking, the legal field and the manner in which option. You can print, sign, and scan the document by converting now. Are we willing to be uncomfortable, to set a course beyond we engage in a courtroom has not evolved very much in the last it into a PDF file you can email directly to clients, corporations, our twelve-mile vision, to do things that have never been done? Well, things didn’t go quite as the deacons planned. Most people century. Technology has evolved exponentially, which makes the insurers, or the court. Is your computer ill-equipped for printing Discomfort is the price we must pay to bring more justice to the don’t know Dr. King wasn’t just unpopular with White preachers, present time very exciting. We have all become pioneers in our excessive volumes of paper? Search for options that allow you to world. Discomfort, and lots of it. Tikkun Olam isn’t cheap. he was also unpopular among most Black preachers. Chicago’s own right and we will be better off for it. view a document on your computer (or smartphone) with options Reverend Clay Evans, who died in 2019, was one of the few Black to sign with your finger (or stylus) without changing the integrity In the late 1800’s, Theodor Herzl (the father of modern Zionism) pastors who publicly supported Dr. King when he came to Chicago. of your original document. founded the World Zionist Organization. Herzl’s efforts were initially New York’s famous Reverend Adam Clayton Powell referred to Dr. THE GOOD met with great resistance from the Jewish elite. Most Jewish leaders, King as “Martin Loser King,” and threatened to start a rumor that Although the initial closure of courthouses across many counties the wealthy businessmen and the rabbis, bitterly opposed Herzl. King was having a homosexual affair with one of his workers. All The new frontier in the practice of law is certainly filled with shocked judges and attorneys alike, it gave birth to creativity Herzl’s Jewish bosses even fired him from his job as a journalist at a this to keep King out of New York City—Powell’s turf. varying levels of complexity. What now? If you have the ability, Jewish paper because they disapproved of his Zionist activities. But update your technology. Update your computer to allow for and technological advances in the legal field. Fortunately, most the Jewish poor loved Herzl from the beginning. Why the gaping As we work this bar year on the myriad challenges facing our video conferencing and more memory for simultaneous access to households possess a computer or smartphone, which grants chasm between the poor Jews and the elite Jews? Comfort. profession and our nation, let’s remember great leaders like Herzl documents and conferences.