RSHC in the news

RSHC Of Counsel (and poet) Cheryl D. S. Walker has been appointed Chair of the eight-person task force to select the second St. Louis Poet Laureate. The selected candidate will serve a two-year term and promote the art of poetry and encourage literacy and learning throughout the St. Louis region. Nominations from the public are being accepted through July 20.

To be a first and a female role model. The Cook County Bar Association awarded RSHC Managing Partner Patricia Brown Holmes the Historic Ida B. Platt Award at their June 22 104th Annual Installation and Awards Banquet held at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.

We are proud to announce that the Law Bulletin Media Leading Lawyers has named 19 of RSHC’s Illinois attorneys as Leading Lawyers and seven as Emerging Lawyers. RSHC adds two new names this year, as Valarie Hays and Tal Chaiken were named a 2018 Illinois Leading Lawyer and Emerging Lawyer, respectively.

The NCAA’s ‘Year in Residence” Rule permits Division I football student athletes to apply to transfer to different schools and to play at their new school after a year in academic residence. The rule operates to prevent trading from year to year like professional athletes. On June 25 the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected antitrust claims stating the NCAA’s eligibility rules define the status of student athletes and preserve the amateur character of college athletics. Congratulations to the NCAA and Greg Curtner on this victory.

RSHC Managing Partner Patricia Brown Holmes was featured in the June 21 American Lawyer story, “Data Shows Female Lawyers Are Moving Up Faster in #MeToo Era.” "Sexism and racism in the law industry is real,” said Holmes. “The world overall is changing and the law business eventually will catch up.” She expressed, “We are moving in the right direction.”

Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila LLP ranked a top ten firm in Law360’s annual 400 survey as a firm outpacing its peers on attracting and retaining women of color. With women of color making up 19.1% of its workforce, RSHC ranked ninth in the survey. Visibility, community, a voice at the table, and a balanced ladder are hurdles women of color face, and RSHC proactively tries to create an environment at the firm that “engages everyone and creates a camaraderie,” said Managing Partner Patricia Brown Holmes.

Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila LLP ranked sixth in Law360’s Glass Ceiling Report for best law firms for minority attorneys with 20-149 attorneys. At RSHC we believe the power of diversity is the power of collective wisdom. We are proud of our start, but it is just the beginning.

Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila LLP (RSHC) continues to grow its business transactions team with the latest addition of Lisa A. Houdyshell, who has joined RSHC as Of Counsel. A former senior counsel for a Fortune 500 global mining company, Lisa’s 25 years of commercial and real estate transactions experience in the U.S. and other countries will further strengthen the firm’s business transactions practice.

RSHC Managing Partner Patricia Brown Holmes will be awarded Rainbow Push Coalition's (RPC) Business Leadership Award at their 47th Annual International Convention, "Make America Fair and Equal: The 2018 Global Agenda," on Thursday, June 14, at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.

The changing business of law and new operational and organizational models … are you geared up to keep pace? RSHC Managing Partner, Patricia Brown Holmes, will be a co-panelist for the June 19-20 HSBC “The Future of Law Firm Leadership and Management” conference special session, “Uncovering Talent: A New Model of Inclusion,” to be held at the The Yale Club in New York.

Joseph J. O’Hara, Jr., former Vice President, Associate General Counsel and Secretary for a Fortune Global 500 company that is a leading manufacturer of packaging products, has joined the national law firm of Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila (RSHC) as Of Counsel in the Chicago office. He will focus on wide-ranging trial work and emphasize the representation of clients who have been wrongfully convicted and seek justice in the criminal and civil courts.

RSHC Partner Jacob Kahn will moderate a panel on “Crypto Derivatives” on June 8 at the annual CLE seminar for The Chicago Bar Association’s Futures & Derivatives Law Committee. The panel includes representatives from CME Group, Cboe Global Markets, and Bcause LLC, and will discuss the cryptocurrency futures contracts currently being traded at CME and Cboe, the CFTC’s recent advisory on crypto derivatives, and what the future may hold in this evolving space.

RSHC Partner Drahcir Marie Smith was selected as one of this year’s most talented young attorneys practicing in Illinois by Law Bulletin Media’s 40 Under Forty Committee. This year’s 19th annual competition was more challenging because 1,500 nominations were received for attorneys throughout Illinois.

Handling crisis can mean everything for your company and career. RSHC Managing Partner, Patricia Brown Holmes, will moderate an esteemed panel of general counsel at the complimentary June 21 “Crisis Management for Today’s General Counsel” program,” co-hosted by RSHC, Major, Lindsey & Africa, and PwC.

RSHC ranked 13 in Law360’s Glass Ceiling Report for best law firms for female attorneys with 20-149 attorneys. The firm pledged and continues to prove its commitment to making gender diversity a workplace reality. In addition to electing the first African-American woman managing partner to lead and have her name on the door of a major law firm that is not women, or minority-owned, RSHC has above-average women representation at every level of the firm.