Cook County Public Defenders Blog

Patrick Ryan, a third year law student at John Marshall law school, won the winter/spring 2009 Jack Carey Scholarship last week.  The award, which was recently increased from $2000 to $2500, was awarded to Ryan who was selected from a field of many qualified and respected candidates.  Ryan has been working for months as a clerk in the Traffic Division of the Law Office of the Public Defender with assistant public defenders Theresa Nelson, Melissa Myer, Jerry Byerly and Mychal Luther.  He is known for the tremendous hours he has been putting in at the office, sometimes four days a week while still enrolled in law school full time.  Ryan’s future goals are to pursue a career as an assistant public defender.  The next scholarship will be for the summer of 2009 and the deadline is 4/1/09.

Here is a link to a recent story in the Chicago Sun Times concerning a mailing sent by the pension board to participants.  Click this. 

The annual, local sponsored Holiday Party, is scheduled for 12/12/08, Friday night, at Moretti’s on Jackson.   There will be four hours of open bar, food and music.  Our D.J. for the evening is Tom Pazen who has spun at many clubs throughout Chicago including SmartBar and Crobar.   You must RSVP by 12/4/08 in order to attend.  Unlike previous years, you will only be allowed to bring one guest to the party.  You will not be allowed to bring more than one guest as you were able to in past years for a charge.  And, you must attend the party with your guest; if your guest comes alone, they must wait for you to arrive before we will allow entry.To RSVP, send an email with your name, your guest’s name (if you have one) and work location to unionparty08@gmail.com .  Do it now or you will be sorry.For additional information, consult event chair, Kim Mines at 26th Street. 

The New York Times has a story about public defender offices in some jurisdictions refusing appointment on new cases due to their enormous caseloads.  The Local has a proposal in local negotiations regarding this exact issue. To read the story from the New York Times, click this.

I am happy to report that the County has hired five attorneys to fill five entry level positions at the Civil bureau. The names of the attorneys (who have all become full members) are:

TINA LEWIS

MEGHAN KENNEDY

DYLAN BARETT

ANDREW ABALE, and

LAUREN THREATTE.

Please join me in extending a very warm welcome to our new brothers and sisters.

K. S. Galhotra

President

AND THANKS FOR VOTING EARLY TO THOSE WHO DID AND TO THOSE WHO VOLUNTEERED ON CAMPAIGNS THIS ELECTION SEASON AND GOT INVOLVED IN THE POLITICAL PROCESS.