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I remember chatting with a judge from the Cook County domestic relations division during the time leading up to the General Assembly’s passage of the civil union legislation and her take was she didn’t care much about the substance of the issue but she thought civil unions would be a boon for domestic relations attorneys.

What do you think? Civil unions as a lawyer business opportunity or just politics?

Of course it’s too early to tell but it seems like my judge colleague might be off-base. Recently I was at a meeting where personnel from the Cook County Circuit Court Clerk’s office reported that 12 dissolution of civil union cases were filed the first day of eligibility; and NONE since. Here and here is some media coverage of civil union divorces.

I’d predict the civil union legislation is something we’ll look-back on as having made a big splash initially, but, with limited impact for the typical domestic relations attorney.

Why? 2 reasons:

First, the tendency of people to do nothing. Many of the property protections that civil unions aim to provide have been readily available for years through various basic estate planning documents and general contract law but few unmarried couples planned ahead. Why are these same people going to go through the process of applying for and paying for a civil union now?

Second, civil unions are publicized far beyond their ‘weight.’ Simply the same-sex population is less than 2% of the general population and I just don’t see non-same sex couples seeking a civil union instead of a marriage. So I just don’t think the numbers are there for much of a business bump outside of a smattering of neighborhoods.

UPDATE:  831 licenses issued in June 2011.

Some occasional, insightful nuggets from around the BLAWGSPHERE…

Representing Family Members and Other Horrible Life Decisions (Nutmeg Lawyer). Nutmeg includes a nice listing of factors to consider when looking at friends & family representation. He includes a jarring story where a lawyer represented a very close friend in a divorce and the lawyer’s emotions ended up getting the best of her. Personally I’ve had some excellent family/friend representation within boundaries. I’ve for the most part represented friends/family in real estate transactions and estate planning plus a couple of sort of easily settled lawsuits. Bottomline, who do ya know better than friends and family and those I respect and know will be professional and pay my fees and are great clients. In my experience most of my friends/relatives expect to pay market value fees and are adamant about doing that.

The Most Expensive Mistakes a Lawyer Can Make (Chuck Newton). A very useful list indeed. At a recent ISBA Webinar that I moderated along with a couple of colleagues the unanimous answer to the question, “What was your worst decision you’ve made since starting your law practice” was under-billing or as Chuck lists inadequate pricing. That along with wasting $$ on office space i.e. borrowing/spending too much on Chuck’s list were my answers.

The Chicken or the Egg? Changing Practice Areas in Challenging Times (GAL).  A great & relevant point for us all no? I’ve probably been keeping my power a bit too dry in this area. GAL’s experience:

I would make several observations from my own experience.  First, the internet makes expertise available.  With a little hard work in your spare time, there’s almost no area of law you can’t gain base experience in.  Further, your chance of getting a case within a practice you’re interested in is no more than random luck, unless you go out and develop an expertise and start talking up that expertise on the web and on the street.

Wanna be a lawyer? Well, get thee to a courtroom (Ernie the Attorney). That’s a great tip all the time. If you can stumble on a few interesting cases in a courtroom while waiting for your matter to be called you’re very lucky. This is very worthwhile and easily done both for the substantive law you may learn & for more “perception issues.” I experienced some perception issues first hand recently when I served for the first time as a Cook County Arbitrator. The arbitration rooms are small so I’d closely observe the plaintiff’s and defendant’s lawyers. And the way the lawyers act from the moment they step into the room surely impacts likability and likely in some subtle way a court’s ruling.

An interesting post for real estate practitioners over at Closing Chicago Real Estate regarding the new version 5.0 of the Multi-Board Residential Real Estate form contract.

I like to keep my two blogs fresh and original for the most part but I thought some SIC readers would get a kick out of my A Long, Long Residential Real Estate Non-Closing experience I wrote on yesterday over at Closing Chicago Real Estate.  Likely instructive for solos…a popular practice area for small firms in the Chicago area particularly.