Firm News

Robbins Schwartz is pleased to announce that five attorneys have been recognized in the 2012 edition of Illinois Super Lawyers.  Super Lawyers selects only 5 percent of all lawyers in the State of Illinois for inclusion in its annual list.  Three of the firm’s attorneys were named as Super Lawyers and two were named as Rising Stars.

The following RSNLT attorneys were named Super Lawyers.

Heidi A. Katz – Schools & Education Law

Joseph J. Perkoski – Employment & Labor Law

Lorence H. Slutzky – Construction Litigation Law

The following RSNLT attorneys were named to the Rising Stars list as the leading up-and-coming attorneys in the State of Illinois.

Samuel B. Cavnar – Construction Litigation Law

Caroline A. Roselli – Schools & Education Law

The following laws have an effective date of January 1, 2012.

Robbins Schwartz Nicholas Lifton & Taylor, Ltd. is pleased to announce our newest associate.

Partner Lorence H. Slutzky was recently selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2012 list.

Lorence H. Slutzky was quoted extensively in the article “Legal Skirmish over Flawed Harmon May Never Reveal Defect Blame” published by Las Vegas Sun on August 9, 2011.  In the article Lory discusses time and scheduling restraints and its impact on construction errors and omissions.

View Article

Partners Joseph Perkoski and Heidi Katz were featured contributors to the summer 2011 issue of IASBO’s Update magazine.  Joe’s article on “Finding a New Way: Subcontracting Revisited” offered strategies for engaging third-party providers of non-instructional services, given the strictures added four years ago by Section 10-22.34c of the Illinois School Code.  Law clerk and Incoming RSNLT associate attorney David Weldon contributed research assistance.  Heidi ‘s article recapped mandates for “School District Website Postings”, and flagged pending state and federal legislation for school webmeisters to watch.

View magazine

This award was established to honor companies in each market that recognize employees as their greatest asset. These companies work with imagination and conviction to create organizational value and business results through their policies and Best Practices in human resource management. The selection, recognition and awarding of the "101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For" allows businesses to showcase these policies and Best Practices, and demonstrate why each of them is an ideal place for employees to work.

View Listing

On June 13, 2011, Governor Quinn signed SB 7 into law during a bill signing ceremony in Maywood, Illinois.

A proper assessment of Senate Bill 7 (SB 7) begins with an examination of the Performance Evaluation Reform Act (PERA), Public Act 96-0861, the “Race to the Top” legislation passed in January, 2010 during the last legislative session.  A primary component of PERA requires principals’ and teachers’ performance evaluations to include student growth as a significant factor in their performance reviews.  The PERA implementation date for principals is September 1, 2012.  With respect to teachers, PERA implementation is staggered.  Schools receiving School Improvement Grants must implement PERA by the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year.  The remaining school districts are not required to implement PERA until 2015-2016 or 2016-2017 at the latest.

Senate Bill 7 modifies PERA in several important respects.  Senate Bill 7 allows school districts and their unions to agree to accelerate their respective PERA implementation date to as early as the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year.  However, most significantly, SB 7 makes the connection between student growth and teacher performance and allows school districts to base certain personnel decisions on teacher performance so that the most effective teachers are, and remain, in the classrooms.  As a final matter, SB 7 attempts to incorporate more transparency into the collective bargaining process. 

View Full PDF

The law firm of Robbins Schwartz Nicholas Lifton & Taylor, Ltd. is pleased to announce the addition of a partner and an associate to the firm’s Chicago office.  

Susan W. Glover & Rachel E. Lutner were selected to conduct the pre-conference workshop for The Community College Conference on Legal Issues held January 30, 2011 at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Orlando, Florida.