Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila LLP (RSHC) announced the hiring of two new partners, Jeffrey W. Morof and Shalem A. Massey. Jeffrey W. Morof has spent his entire career defending aerospace clients and the aviation insurance market in product liability and commercial litigation matters, including serving as national counsel for two large aerospace manufacturers. Shalem A. Massey is a litigator with experience handling high-stakes and “bet the company” matters for businesses and insurers in the aerospace and technology industries.

RSHC is working to change the face of the legal profession, literally, and figuratively. We are pleased to announce that RSHC has been named a Top Five firm for minority lawyers AND a Top Ten firm for minority equity partners.

Ron Safer and Eli Litoff are proud to be part of the team that secured Bernard Williams’ release from Cook County Jail on Friday. In February, the Court of Appeals vacated Mr. Williams’ murder conviction and granted a new trial, but a Cook County Judge ordered that Mr. Williams be held without bail until his new trial was completed.

Congratulations to Drahcir Smith and the entire 2019-2020 Black Women Lawyers’ Association of Greater Chicago, Inc. (BWLA) Board of Directors and Scholarship Fund Board, who were installed on June 3. The group pledged their renewed commitment to making an “impact” on the legal profession, as well as the general community-at-large, and changing so many lives.

RSHC is proud to sponsor and have RSHC Partners, Meghan McMeel and Kate Stimeling, presenting at The Women, Diversity & Change Summit programs in Chicago (June 6) and San Francisco (June 11). Meghan will be speaking at the June 6 program on strategies for strategically fostering effective sponsors for women in law to progress their careers. Kate will be presenting on the June 11 San Francisco panel, “Sponsors, Influencers & Career Engineering.” The conference will explore and inspire lasting change for women and minorities in the legal profession.

A Dream Became Reality—Project Chimps celebrates a 5-year milestone! Bruce Wagman, Co-Founder, President and RSHC animal protection lawyer, recalls the journey. Currently 59 chimpanzees with almost 150 more to join them are thriving at the 236-acre Project Chimps sanctuary in the Blue Ridge Mountains of north Georgia.

Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila is extremely proud of our three partners recognized as top Gen X practitioners in Chicago by Crain’s Chicago Business. Joseph McCoy, Kelly Warner, and Josh Lee serve in senior leadership roles at the firm as well as actively serve on boards of professional associations and organizations giving back to their profession and community.

RSHC is proud to announce that RSHC Employment Counsel Drahcir Marie Smith has been elected the 2019-2020 Corresponding Secretary for the Black Women Lawyers' Association of Greater Chicago, Inc. (BWLA). Drahcir served as a BWLA Board Member at Large for the 2018-2019 term. Congratulations to all of the new BWLA Officers and Board members!

Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), the ranking member and chairman, respectively, of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, have released a proposed framework for an overhaul of the statutory definition of patent-eligible subject matter. A parallel version has also been released in the House of Representatives by Reps. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), and Steve Strivers (R-Ohio).

Do corporate gender diversity hiring quotas work? Are they legal? What will the long-term impact be for women and the companies that they work for? California enacted a groundbreaking—and controversial—law requiring that publicly held corporations headquartered there add female directors to their governing boards. This law will impact major corporations like Apple, Facebook, and Tesla, and likely far beyond.

Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila proudly announces that Partner Steve Hankins has been selected as a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America (LCA). The LCA is an invitation-only trial lawyer honorary society which recognizes excellence and accomplishments in litigation and trial work, along with ethical reputation. Steve proudly joins Joe Cancila in receiving this exclusive recognition. He will be inducted at the LCA Spring Conference in Santa Barbara, California.

RSHC Managing Partner Patricia Brown Holmes was the special guest on the March 15 Rare & Scratchy Rock ‘N Roll retrospective podcast hosted by Radio Dave Milberg featuring 30 Feminist Hit Singles Before Their Time between the 1950’s and 1990’s. The history and snippets of thirty (30) hit songs about female empowerment by Aretha Franklin (Respect), Helen Reddy (I am Woman), Gloria Gaynor (I Will Survive), and more were remembered for their strong and positive impact.

We are proud to announce that the Law Bulletin Media Leading Lawyers has named 21 of RSHC’s Illinois attorneys as Leading Lawyers and ten as Emerging Lawyers. Less than five percent of all lawyers licensed in Illinois are eligible for Leading Lawyer membership, and less than two percent of all lawyers licensed in Illinois under the age of 40 are recognized as Emerging Lawyers.

At the March 1st 10th Annual Animal Law Conference at the ISBA Chicago Regional Office or via live webcast, RSHC’s Bruce Wagman will share insights on three current hot topics in animal law: creating sanctuary for endangered chimps and varied species, the area of dangerous dog litigation in Chicago and beyond, and the use of experts in animal-related litigation. Don’t miss hearing about the animal law updates and advances made in this rapidly-evolving practice area.

On February 8, 2017, the Federal Circuit affirmed a win for Netsmart Technologies, Inc. against the appellants, Uniloc USA, Inc. and Uniloc Luxembourg S.A., both non-practicing entities. The appellate court panel, consisting of Judges Wallach, Moore, and Hughes, affirmed by per curium order the district court’s grant of Netsmart’s motion to dismiss a patent infringement suit last May, because the asserted patents were directed to unpatentable subject matter.

Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila proudly announces that ten RSHC attorneys have been selected for inclusion in the 2019 Illinois Super Lawyers list. Patricia Brown Holmes has been ranked as a Top 50 Women attorney for more than a decade. Both Ron Safer and Patricia Brown Holmes have been recognized as Top 100 attorneys in Illinois. Associate Stephanie Jones has been newly selected as an Illinois Rising Star. Congratulations to all of them for attaining this high-degree of peer recognition and professional achievement.

Patricia Brown Holmes made history when she was elected RSHC’s first Managing Partner in April 2018. She is the first and currently the only African-American woman to head a national law firm that is not women- or minority-owned. RSHC is a top ranked firm for gender and racial diversity.

Since its founding, Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila LLP has developed the firm to put clients first. Our compensation structure reflects this goal by recognizing the contributions of all team members in making compensation decisions. RSHC Managing Partner Patricia Brown Holmes shared that in addition to benefiting our clients, we believe all attorneys and staff benefit from the structure. Because we share the compensation pie more equitably, it becomes a larger pie to share.

RSHC Managing Partner and U of I Urbana double alumna Patricia Brown Holmes was reappointed by Governor J.B. Pritzker to the University of Illinois Systems Board of Trustees. She received both her undergraduate and law degree from the University of Illinois in Urbana and is extremely proud and excited to rejoin the board at a time when innovation, diversity and new millennial educational challenges will be a focus of the University.

RSHC Partners Taylor Corbitt and Steve Hankins explain how to manage legal department transitions in their recent article, “Five Questions Every Change Champion Should Ask,” published by Corporate Counsel on November 27, 2018. Corbitt and Hankins guide in-house legal departments in transition to help identify quality-critical metrics, search out waste, align internal resources, prioritize predictable outcomes, and ensure sustainability.