RSHC Managing Partner Patricia Brown Holmes shares her opinions and experience with volunteering in nonprofits in Best Lawyers “Women in the Law” Summer Edition 2018 editorial article, “The Profit in Nonprofits.” Volunteer organizations are the lifeblood of the legal profession. Lawyers must participate in nonprofits to help shape the future.

On July 1, RSHC Partner Steve Hankins (’85) begins a four-year term as President of the Alumnae/i Association of Vassar College. He is also serving a second term on the college’s Board of Trustees. Steve says, “We’ll be supporting a new president [Elizabeth Bradley] who has some bold new visions, things every Vassar alum can rally around. We need to ensure that all of our alums feel that they belong. With the right alums engaging our students as mentors, ‘Vassar for a lifetime’ should be clear from day one on campus.”

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.

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.

We are proud to announce that RSHC Partner Drahcir Marie Smith has been elected a 2018-2019 Board Member at Large for the Black Women Lawyers’ Association of Greater Chicago, Inc. (BWLA). The installation ceremony for the incoming Officers and Board of Directors will take place on June 4.

RSHC Partner and Faculty Member, Kelly Warner, will moderate the afternoon session, “Perfect Timing: The Right Time to Release Legal Holds,” at the May 18 ABA Twelfth Annual National Institute on E-Discovery. This panel of experienced in-house counsel will provide practical advice for managing legal holds and finding the right opportunity and strategy for releasing them.

RSHC Partner and member of The Sedona Conference’s Working Group 1, Kelly Warner, will co-present the May 8 MER Conference session, “Possession, Custody or Control of Data in the Cloud, on Third Party Apps, and on Employee Mobile Devices.” Technological advances continue to stress and strain the abilities of companies to manage and control the data and electronic records pertaining to their business. Learn how the courts are applying the traditional standards of “possession, custody and control” to today’s world of distributed ESI.

The Legal Marketing Association (LMA) has selected Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila LLP as the Second Place winner in the Communications: Holiday Mailings/Announcements category of the 2018 Your Honor Awards. The LMA Your Honor Awards recognizes excellence in legal marketing by promoting projects and programs that provide innovation and return on marketing dollar investment. Visit the full winners’ list to learn more about the latest honorees.

The Riley Safer team, in partnership with WilmerHale, helped the City of Chicago achieve another victory against the Trump administration on Thursday. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Judge Leinenweber's grant to Chicago of a nationwide injunction stopping Attorney General Jeff Sessions from applying new conditions to grant money to force cities across the country to cooperate with immigration authorities.