Latest News and Publications

Mediation of Financial Issues in Divorce

Published in Chicago Lawyer Magazine, June 2014
by Daniel R. Stefani

Effective March 17, 2014 Local Cook County Rule 13.4(e) regarding mediation of certain domestic relations issues has been revamped and expanded to allow for all aspects of a domestic relations case, including financial matters, to now be mediated by Court order.
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Who Gets the Pre-Embryo?

Published in Chicago Lawyer Magazine, April 2014
by Daniel R. Stefani

With the advance of technology comes new and interesting issues. For a while now, couples can freeze and use the male’s sperm and the female’s eggs to create pre-embryos. The eggs are fertilized in vitro and then the pre-embryos are frozen for potential impregnation in the egg donor or some third party. The issue resulting from creating frozen pre-embryos is who controls the disposition of cryopreserved pre-embryos when and if the couple decides to split up. In June 2013, the Appellate Court of Illinois, First District decided a case dealing with frozen embryos and the disposition of same.
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Same Sex Marriage in Illinois Becomes Law

Published in Chicago Lawyer Magazine, February 2014
by Daniel R. Stefani

On November 20, 2013 Governor Pat Quinn signed into law the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act (“Act”).  The Act becomes effective June 1, 2014.  Illinois becomes the sixteenth state in the nation to allow same sex couples to get married.  It is also allowed in the District of Columbia.
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A Divorce, A Bonus, A Dispute

Published in Chicago Lawyer Magazine, November 2013
By Daniel Stefani

Most compensation these days has two component parts – base salary and discretionary cash, also known as a noncash bonus.
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Amendments to Illinois Supreme Court Rules

Effective July 1, 2013, Illinois Supreme Court Rules 11, 13 and 137 have been amended. The new amendments enable an attorney to represent a client on a limited part of their lawsuit and then withdraw from the case.

Be Careful Who You Talk To

Published in Chicago Lawyer Magazine, July 2013
By Daniel R. Stefani

The Illinois Appellate Court First District recently issued a Supreme Court Rule 23 Order affirming a decision by the Honorable William S. Boyd in the Circuit Court of Cook County.  The case centered around whether an attorney-client relationship was established which prohibited an attorney from communicating with the opposing spouse during a divorce while that opposing spouse was represented by counsel.  It also centered on whether the attorney represented the litigant or was merely acting as a “third-party neutral” as defined by Rule 2.4(a) of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct of 2010.  This case, while having limited precedential value, reminds us all as attorneys that we must never lose sight of our ethical obligations even when presumably attempting to do a favor for our friends or family.
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Illinois Family Law Study Committee Recommendations

In 2008, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, named Katz & Stefani principal P. André Katz as chairman of the Illinois Family Law Study Committee. Over the course of several years, that committee – a mix of lawmakers, matrimonial attorneys, judges, and child advocacy professionals – crafted a comprehensive overhaul of the state’s existing Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act.
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Illinois Family Law Study Committee Memoranda

Illinois Family Law Reform Bills

Firm principal André Katz chaired the Illinois Family Law Study Committee, tasked with rewriting the state’s divorce and parentage statutes and proposing groundbreaking family law reforms.

Disgorgement of Attorney Fees

Published in Chicago Lawyer Magazine, November 2012
By Daniel R. Stefani

The Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act (“IMDMA”) allows for one party to petition the court to order another party to pay their attorneys’ fees during the pendency of a case. If the court finds that both parties lack the financial ability to pay their own attorneys’ fees, the court shall enter an order that allocates available funds for each party’s counsel in a manner that achieves substantial parity between the parties. Available funds include “retainers or interim payments, or both, previously paid”. In such a situation, an attorney for one party may be required to disgorge “retainers, interim payments or both” pursuant to the statute. The Court’s ability to reach into attorneys’ client trust accounts and/or operating accounts to achieve such disgorgement is an issue that the Appellate Court has had to deal with on two occasions in 2012.
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