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LAWYER REGISTRATION Annual Registration Process | Removal From and Reinstatement to the Master Roll of Attorneys | Change of Attorney’s Registration Address | Download Change of Registration Address Form | Attorney’s Request For Written Verification of Status | Download Request For Written Verification of Status Form | Changing From Rule 770 Inactive Status | Requesting Duplicate Identification Card | Admission to Practice Law | Attorney's Request for Name Change | Professional Service Entities and Associations | Rule 756(j) Pro Bono Authorization Forms | Contact the Registration Department 2007 ANNUAL REGISTRATION PROCESS
UNIFIED TRUST ACCOUNT AND MALPRACTICE INSURANCE REPORTS Special Instructions for Lawyers in Firms Where the Firm Collects Completed Registration Forms and Submits the Forms with Payment of Annual Fees for Firm Lawyers (Note: Unified Reporting of Trust Account Information and Malpractice Insurance Information is Not Available if Firm Attorneys Directly Submit Their Own Forms and/or Payments.) Supreme Court Rule 756 requires "each lawyer" to report trust account and malpractice insurance information as part of the annual registration process. Consistent with that requirement, the registration form is structured to require each lawyer to answer questions related to those matters, and the ARDC's registration software has been programmed to record a lawyer as registered only if those sections of his/her registration form have been completed. Nevertheless, since members and of a firm usually maintain the same trust account(s) and have the same malpractice insurance, some efficiencies can be accomplished within the requirements of the rule by having this information transmitted in a unified way. At the same time, the ARDC has technical challenges that require us to limit unified reports to the following procedures. Identifying Reporting Partner and Obtaining Firm ID Number If your firm did not submit a Unified Report for the 2006 registration, a contact person from the firm should write or e-mail ARDC Registrar Thomas Peters, and ask Mr. Peters to assign a Firm ID number for unified reporting purposes. The contact person must identify a managing partner or other partner of the firm (a ‘reporting partner’) who will submit a Unified Report with the firm’s trust account and malpractice insurance information. Letters should be sent to 130 East Randolph, Suite 1500, Chicago, Illinois 60601. The e-mail address is: registration@iardc.org. If your firm submitted a Unified Report for the 2006 registration, you may use the same Firm ID number that you used last year. (You can contact Mr. Peters by phone or e-mail if you have lost the number.) If the firm will change the ‘reporting partner’, you must notify ARDC Registrar Thomas Peters in writing (by letter, to 130 E. Randolph, Suite 1500, Chicago, Illinois 60601, or by e-mail to: registration@iardc.org) of the name of the new reporting partner. Completion of Unified Report and Attorneys’ Registration Forms The Unified Report must be submitted on a separate sheet showing the Firm ID number, signed by the reporting partner, and containing the following sections: Malpractice Insurance. This section must indicate whether the firm has malpractice insurance on the date of submission and, if so, the coverage dates for the policy. Trust Accounts. If your firm submitted a Unified Report for 2006, the reporting partner should review that information and, in the trust account section for the 2007 Unified Report, state whether the information reported for 2006 remains accurate, or, if it has changed, note the changes (i.e., any accounts that have been closed or new accounts opened or any change in the name of an account or the financial institution). If the firm did not retain a copy of the 2006 Unified Report, you can contact Mr. Peters for the trust account information that we recorded from your Unified Report. Email your request to Mr. Peters at registration@iardc.org. In light of the confidentiality of the information provided in the trust account report, Mr. Peters will not provide the information by email, but rather will mail the 2005 trust account information to the reporting partner. If your firm did not submit a Unified Report for 2006, this section must identify whether the firm maintains one or more trust accounts to hold property of clients or third persons and, if so, include for each account: 1) the name of the financial institution, 2) the account number, 3) the account name, and 4) whether the account is an IOLTA account (click here for Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois). If the firm does not maintain a trust account, you must state why not. Submission of Unified Report, Attorneys’ Registration Forms, and Firm Registration Fee Check Lawyers whose registration forms and fee payment are to be submitted along with the Unified Report are required to complete their forms (other than malpractice insurance and trust account sections) and sign the application on the bottom of the first page. By adding the Firm ID at the upper right hand corner of the registration form and signing their applications, these lawyers are adopting as part of their own registration form the malpractice and trust account information provided by the reporting partner and that information will be included as part of their registration records. The lawyers need not provide any additional report on their own forms regarding malpractice insurance and trust accounts. The reporting partner should submit the firm’s Unified Report, the attorneys’ completed and signed registration forms, and the firm’s check in payment of the total registration fees to the ARDC lockbox at the Illinois National Bank, P.O. Box 19436, Springfield, Illinois, 62794-9436. If you have any questions, contact Mr. Peters at registration@iardc.org or 312-565-2600 or, from within Illinois, at (800) 826-8625. |
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