A three-judge federal panel has turned back an attempted raid on the state`s besieged treasury by lawyers for various factions in the congressional redistricting controversy last fall.
New boundaries for the state`s 20 congressional districts were approved in November by a special panel of three federal judges after Illinois lawmakers punted rather than confront the issue.
The panel-U.S. District Judges Suzanne Conlon and Charles R. Norgle and Judge Michael Kanne of the federal appeals court-adopted a remap plan proposed by Republican congressmen and Hispanic interests. The remap put several incumbent Democrats into the same districts and created an odd, C-shaped district that is expected to send a Hispanic to Congress from Illinois for the first time.
Afterwards, most of the parties decided they were winners as a result of the panel`s decision and sought reimbursement for lawyers` fees, which could amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
If the judges had agreed, taxpayers would have had to cough up the funds because the nominal defendant in the court proceedings was the Illinois State Board of Elections.
The judges, though, said no way. The parties should not be rewarded for shifting to federal court what could have been accomplished in the state legislature, they ruled.
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”To the extent this move was necessary, blame must be traced in part to the unwillingness of many of the parties to this action, in addition to their state legislative counterparts, to grapple with the issue of congressional redistricting in its intended arena, the state legislature,” the panel wrote in its 15-page order.
”It would be inequitable to shift the burden of bearing the costs for plaintiffs` lobbying efforts to the State of Illinois, and thus the taxpayers, merely because the parties moved the pursuit of their political interests to federal court under the civil rights laws.”
The court also noted that the true winning parties-which included all of the state`s GOP congressmen, a Hispanic state senator and various community leaders-hardly ”appear to be drawn from the ranks of the disempowered and financially disadvantaged citizenry.”
Ruben Castillo, former regional counsel for the Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund, which represented Hispanic interests in the controversy, said an appeal is likely.
”This is the first time I`ve seen a court conclude that someone was a prevailing party but decide not to award fees,” according to Castillo, who is now at Kirkland & Ellis. ”If we had not pursued this on behalf of Hispanics, that congressional district would not have come about.”
The GOP congressmen also intend to appeal, said their lawyer, Ty Fahner, of Mayer, Brown & Platt. Fahner said prior court decisions don`t provide justification for the panel`s reasoning.
It was probably just as well the issue went to federal court when it did- court challenges to the remap of state Senate and House districts are continuing.
Defying downturn
At a time when several medium-size law firms have called it quits-and some larger firms seem to be pruning their staffs-one Chicago firm has been adding a few key players.
The latest lawyer to sign on with 75-lawyer D`Ancona & Pflaum is Robert W. Hallock, formerly a partner at Keck, Mahin & Cate. Hallock will bring his trial practice and some clients to D`Ancona & Pflaum, where he will head the firm`s litigation department.
D`Ancona & Pflaum`s managing partner, Joel Rubin, believes the firm has been successful in attracting entrepreneurial-type partners who feel their voices are being lost at larger firms.
Joining Hallock at D`Ancona & Pflaum are James Meguerian, a litigation partner at Keck, and two of the firm`s former associates.
In recent months, D`Ancona & Pflaum also has recruited Janet L. Tracy, formerly at Katten Muchen & Zavis, to head its finance and restructuring practice group.
– MAY IN MOSCOW? The Illinois State Bar Association is exploring the idea of sending a delegation to Moscow in late April. The proposal-the idea of Chicago lawyer Peter Baugher-calls for introducing Russians to the May 1 celebration of Law Day as an alternative to a parade of military hardware.
On Friday, the association`s board authorized the special committee Baugher chairs to continue pursuing the idea.
– LAW BRIEFS. Chicago lawyer Michael D. Monico is the new president of the Illinois Attorneys for Criminal Justice, succeeding Springfield lawyer Michael B. Metnick. . . . Terence Madsen, chief of criminal appeals for the Illinois attorney general`s office, had a personal best, and perhaps a record, when he argued five cases on one day a couple of weeks ago before the state Supreme Court. . . . Will the Chicago Bar Association ever take down the sign outside its former offices at 29 S. LaSalle St.?