ARDC Updates with Melissa Smart

Melissa Smart has lectured and presented workshops regarding professional responsibility and disciplinary law to various bar association groups, government agencies, law firms, private organizations and law schools. She is a recurring guest on Law Talk Radio and today she shares important updates on the Illinois rules for trust accounts, namely Illinois Supreme Court Rule 1.15 (Re: IOLTA).

 

Topics covered on this show – just a taste: 1) About the ARDC and how to work with them, proactively; 2) Changes to Rule 1.15 regarding trust accounts, and resources for Illinois attorneys; 3) Trust account (IOLTA) basics for new lawyers, and what you can do to ensure compliance; 4) Common misconceptions about the ARDC and best practices when you have questions.

 

Attorney Melissa A. Smart is the Litigation Group Manager and Senior Counsel at the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois (ARDC). Ms. Smart began working at the ARDC as a law clerk in 1997 and became Counsel for the Administrator in 1999.  As a member of the Commission’s staff for over a decade, she has investigated thousands of charges of professional misconduct and has been responsible for over 100 different formal disciplinary proceedings filed in the Supreme Court of Illinois or before various Commission Boards before whom she has tried dozens of matters. Website: www.iardc.org.

 

Sponsor: Chris McCarthy, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, Milwaukee, WI.