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People who have saved money or accumulated assets over the course of their lifetime will often want to pass these assets on to their loved ones, either before or after their death. This is especially true when family members have disabilities or other special needs. However, when providing financial assistance to these family members, it is important to make sure that doing so will not make them ineligible for the public benefits they need to meet their needs. An experienced estate planning attorney can help you protect your loved ones’ interests by establishing a special needs trust.

Benefits of a Special Needs Trust

People with mental or physical disabilities are usually able to receive government benefits such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Medicaid. However, eligibility for these benefits is based on the income earned and assets owned by the recipient; in most cases, a recipient must own no more than $2,000 in assets, and there are also limits on the amount of income they can earn. This means that if a well-meaning family member gives them money or other assets, either through a direct gift or an inheritance, it may make them ineligible for the benefits they need. 

To avoid jeopardizing a disabled person’s ability to receive public benefits, their family members can use a special needs trust (sometimes called a supplemental needs trust). This is a type of irrevocable trust in which the assets will be placed under the control of a trustee, which could be another family member or a financial institution. The trustee will then ensure that the assets are used to provide for the beneficiary’s needs.

There are specific rules that must be followed in special needs trusts. For instance, the trust can only be used to pay for certain expenses related to the beneficiary’s care, such as the costs of medical equipment, caretakers, transportation, or educational expenses. Using funds from a trust to pay for food or housing may make a beneficiary ineligible for public aid. 

Contact a Schaumburg Trust Attorney

Since a disabled person will often need assistance throughout their entire life, it is important to ensure that trusts are set up in a way that will provide them with the resources they need for many years to come. An Arlington Heights estate planning lawyer at Drost, Gilbert, Andrew & Apicella, LLC can help you create a special needs trust that meets your loved one’s needs, and we can help you address any other estate planning needs, ensuring that you can provide for your family both before and after your death. Contact us at 847-934-6000 to arrange a personalized consultation.

The passing away of Chicago Cubs’ legend Ernie Banks was a sad day for baseball fans everywhere. Unfortunately, his death sparked a controversy within his own family after his longtime caretaker claimed that he had executed a will. Recently, a court upheld the validity of the will. Here, we focus on some of the reasons why this occurred and the steps all individuals should take to best protect their will from a challenge.

Banks’ Will

Following the death of Banks, his widow claimed that he did not have a will. However, his caretaker came forward and claimed that Banks had created and signed a will three months prior to his death. The will gave all of his assets to the caretaker. Banks’ widow argued that he was not of sound mind and that the caretaker coerced him into executing the will. In order to prove the validity of the will, two paralegals testified that they witnessed Banks sign it. Further, the paralegals testified that Banks appeared fine and even mentioned during the notarization that he was not leaving anything to his family. The court ruled that the will was valid, though an appeal is likely.

Executing Valid Wills

A person who executes a will is known as the testator. For a will to be valid under Illinois law, it must be in writing and signed by the testator. Further, the signing of the will must be witnessed by two people and it must be notarized. Additionally, the testator must be of “sound mind and memory” at the time the will is created and signed. At the signing, a testator may want to document that he or she has the mental capacity to execute the will. This may include obtaining the opinion of a doctor that establishes the testator’s capacity.

It is important for the testator to state clearly his or her wishes as to the disposition of the property. The testator may want to include his or her reasoning for the way in which their assets will be distributed. In the case of Banks’ will, he affirmatively stated he was leaving all of his assets with his caretaker. Further, he included a statement that he intentionally was leaving nothing to his family. This was an important provision because it made clear that an omission had not occurred. In other words, it signaled that Banks had not simply forgotten about his family.

Many people find it difficult to discuss end of life situations. However, this can be helpful in ensuring that there will not be any challenges to a testator’s will after the testator dies. Speaking with the people included, and those excluded who may have an expectation to be included, in the will can help make sure there are no surprises when the testator dies. If Banks had disclosed to his widow the existence of his will and they had had a discussion regarding it and the reasons he was not leaving her anything, her challenge would have been even less likely to succeed.

If you would like more information or help creating your will, you should speak with an experienced Illinois estate planning attorney. Drost, Gilbert, Andrew & Apicella, LLC proudly represents clients throughout the northwest suburbs, including Inverness, Palatine, and Long Grove.

About the Author: Attorney Jay Andrew is a founding partner of Drost, Gilbert, Andrew & Apicella, LLC. He is a graduate of the University of Dayton School of Law and has been practicing in estate planning, probate, trust administration, real estate law, residential/ commercial leasing, contracts, and civil litigation. Since 2005, Jay has been a Chair of the Mock Trial Committee for the Annual Northwest Suburban Bar Association High School Mock Trial Invitation which serves over 240 local Illinois students each year.

The insurance industry is known for having incredibly complex contracts, and life insurance is no exception to this rule. As you might expect, the reason for this is money. According to statistics from the Insurance Information Institute, life insurance is a multi-billion dollar industry, and the companies want to keep it that way. 

One of the ways that life insurance companies do this is by fighting against paying valid claims. Money they do not have to pay out is money that they can ultimately keep for themselves, and even just delaying the payments can be profitable for them. Life insurance companies have two main tools for insurance claim disputes, policy cancellations and policy exclusions.

Policy Cancellation

A policy cancellation is exactly what it sounds like. The insurance company cancels a claimant's policy in order to avoid paying out a claim. This is a particular problem during the first two years of the policy's life, which is known as the contestability period. During this period, the insurance company may examine the policy looking for misrepresentations or omissions, and then cancel the policy if they find any. They even have the option of doing this after a person has already made a claim, and they are allowed to cancel regardless of whether the omitted information has anything to do with the actual cause of death.

A similar issue, but one that can last beyond the contestability period, is the material misrepresentation clause. This clause allows the insurer to cancel the policy at any time if they discover a lie or omission that would have caused them to not issue the policy in the first place. However, even people with perfectly accurate applications are not safe from having their claims contested.

Exclusions

In cases where the person's application cannot be contested, insurance companies may still attempt to avoid paying out for claims based on policy exclusions. These exclusions are specific events or actions that the insurance company has excepted from the policy. There are a variety of different policy exclusions that insurers may use, and they vary from policy to policy, but they may include:

- Dangerous activities like skydiving;
- Suicide;
- Alcohol and drug use; and
- Illegal activities.

The exact limits of these exclusions can depend on the precise policy language. For instance, some policies’ exclusions for alcohol and drug use exclude only illegal substances, while others exclude legal ones too. This can be especially complicated because some policies require the substance to be the cause of the death, while others only need the substance to be in the person's system at the time of death.

Life insurance contracts are complicated legal documents, and the insurance company is going to have a lawyer on their side. If you want to even the odds, contact a Palatine life insurance attorney today. Our firm assists people in insurance disputes all over the northwest suburbs, including in towns like Inverness, Deer Park, Barrington, Arlington Heights, Schaumburg, Des Plaines, Rolling Meadows, Crystal Lake, and Buffalo Grove.

About the Author: Attorney Ken Apicella is a founding partner of DGAA focusing in the areas of personal injury, employment, insurance coverage disputes, and civil litigation. Ken earned his J.D. from DePaul University College of Law in 1999. He has been named a SuperLawyers Rising Star and a Forty Illinois Attorneys Under Forty to Watch. Ken has written and lectured for the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education and regularly serves as a moderator at Northwest Suburban Bar Association's Continuing Legal Education seminars.

Drafting a will is an important step towards ensuring that a person's final wishes can be accurately carried out. However, there have been recent cases of elderly testators succumbing to the undue influence of caregivers or other people close to them, and altering their wills in ways that they would not ordinarily want to. In order to better protect the interests of people drafting wills and other documents to memorialize their last wishes, Illinois has passed a new law that alters the way that courts treat gifts to caregivers if someone contests the validity of the document.

Presumptively Void Transfers

In the event that someone legally challenges a bequest to a caregiver of more than $20,000, the court will apply a “rebuttable presumption” that the transfer is void. A void transfer would not go through and would instead be redistributed under other provisions of estate law. However, not all large gifts to caregivers would be void under the law. The law instructs the court to use a rebuttable presumption, which means that the caregiver is allowed to argue that the transfer was valid and should go through normally.

What the presumption does, essentially, is forces the caregiver to fight an uphill battle if he or she wants to claim the money. The caregiver would need to show by “clear and convincing evidence,” a higher than normal standard, “that the transfer was not the product of fraud, duress, or undue influence.” The caregiver also has another option to demonstrate the validity of the will. If the caregiver can show that the gift's size is no greater than it would have been before he or she became the caregiver, then he or she can overcome the presumption.

When the Law Applies

The law contains a variety of cutouts and definitions that make it more clear when the law does or does not apply. For instance, the law provides an exception for family members who act as caregivers. They will not have to face the presumption of voidness, though they do still need to deal with ordinary issues of fraud and duress. The law also sets out a definition of the types of documents that the rule applies to, which the law refers to as transfer instruments. According to the law, a transfer instrument is a document designed to cause a transfer of assets on or after the date of the transferor's death. These instruments can be wills, trusts, or contracts, among a variety of other types of legal documents.

If you believe that a family member's will was improperly tampered with by a caregiver, seek the help of a dedicated Schaumburg, Illinois probate attorney today. Our firm can help you learn about the options you have to make sure that your family member's final wishes are carried out properly. We assist clients in Inverness, Palatine, Arlington Heights, and throughout the Chicagoland suburbs.

About the Author: Attorney Jay Andrew is a founding partner of Drost, Gilbert, Andrew & Apicella, LLC. He is a graduate of the University of Dayton School of Law and has been practicing in estate planning, probate, trust administration, real estate law, residential/ commercial leasing, contracts, and civil litigation. Since 2005, Jay has been a Chair of the Mock Trial Committee for the Annual Northwest Suburban Bar Association High School Mock Trial Invitation which serves over 240 local Illinois students each year.

While there are many well known government programs and policies designed to provide relief during difficult economic times, there are other laws people can take advantage of that are less commonly talked about. One of these laws is known as “homestead rights.” Homestead rights are a protection provided by Illinois law that provide certain immunities from debt collection efforts by creditors. However, these immunities are not absolute, so it is important for people exercising their homestead rights to understand the exact limitations of those rights.

What Homestead Rights Are

Homestead rights are a statutory protection against creditors designed to help people avoid becoming homeless because of changing economic circumstances. The rights allow the debtor to exempt $15,000 worth of real estate from the collection efforts of creditors or their agents. Additionally, if a married couple owns the home, then they can pool their homestead rights together to protect the same house. This gives them an exemption of $30,000. This exemption also survives the death or desertion of a spouse. The exemption can also be passed down to the children of the married couple, at least until the youngest child turns 18.

Illinois' homestead laws are also slightly different than the laws in some other states. Many states choose to restrict the amount of acreage that a person can use the homestead exemption on in addition to capping the total value of the property. Illinois has no such acreage cap. This means that the size of the property is irrelevant to the homestead rights, and that it is purely an issue of how much the land is worth.

What Homestead Rights Do Not Protect

Notably, homestead rights do not provide absolute protection against every type of creditor. For instance, the state legislature wrote an exception into the protection for the purposes of state taxes, so if the creditor is the state of Illinois then the exemption does not apply. Similarly, homestead rights are created by state law, which federal law can supersede, so they provide no protection against the federal government's collecting taxes either. The rights also do not function in many circumstances where the money owed is related to the property itself. A person who uses the house as collateral for a mortgage does not get protection if their home is being foreclosed. Additionally, if the person owes money to contractors for doing work on the home, then the homestead rights do not apply to those debts. Further, the homestead rights can be signed away in writing, which would also remove their protection.

If you have questions about your homestead rights or some other property interest, talk to an experienced Palatine, Illinois estate planning attorney today. Our firm helps clients in many northwest suburban towns including Barrington, Long Grove, and Arlington Heights.

About the Author: Attorney Jay Andrew is a founding partner of Drost, Gilbert, Andrew & Apicella, LLC. He is a graduate of the University of Dayton School of Law and has been practicing in estate planning, probate, trust administration, real estate law, residential/ commercial leasing, contracts, and civil litigation. Since 2005, Jay has been a Chair of the Mock Trial Committee for the Annual Northwest Suburban Bar Association High School Mock Trial Invitation which serves over 240 local Illinois students each year.

Illness, injury, or age can often render a person unable to take proper care of their finances and their property. As a solution to this issue, Illinois law allows people to set up a power of attorney for property. This is a legal document that lets a person, the principal, designate a trusted agent to handle the principal's property with the principal's best interests in mind. This document gives the agent a variety of legal powers over the principal's money and property, but it also comes with legal duties that the principal must fulfill. Agents need to be aware of both of these things to properly complete their jobs without bringing liability onto themselves.

The Powers Granted

The powers granted to an agent under a power of attorney vary depending on the principal's wishes, but in 2011 Illinois created a general form with 15 default powers that a principal can bestow upon an agent. These powers include:

-The authority to buy or sell real estate on behalf of the principal;

-The authority to deal with banks and safe deposit boxes for the principal;

-The authority to represent the principal in insurance transactions; and

-The authority to buy and sell stocks and bonds for the principal.

The form also includes extra sections to place limitations on these powers or to add extras. For instance, the principal can allow the agent to buy and sell stocks and bonds, but also forbid them from selling a particular stock. Similarly, the power to give gifts on the principal's behalf is not included in the default form, but a principal could add it if they so chose.

The Duties of the Agent

Importantly, by taking on these powers, the agent enters into a “fiduciary” relationship with the principal, meaning that they have a duty to act in the principal's best interests. In addition to that general duty, the law also imposes other, more specific duties on the agent. For instance, the agent is required to act in accordance with any estate plans that the principal has put in place to the extent possible. Agents also have a duty to keep good financial records of any “receipts, disbursements, and significant actions conducted for the principal.” The law also forbids agents from taking certain actions. These forbidden actions include commingling the principal's funds with their own, taking loans from the principal, and exceeding the authority granted by the power of attorney.

Powers of attorney are complex legal documents, and managing them incorrectly can open the agent up to legal liability. If you are considering a power of attorney, contact an Arlington Heights estate planning attorney serving the northwest suburbs to better understand your duties as well as other potential estate planning options. We assist clients throughout Inverness, Palatine, Schaumburg, Long Grove, Kenilworth, Riverwoods, and the rest of the Chicagoland area.

About the Author: Attorney Jay Andrew is a founding partner of Drost, Gilbert, Andrew & Apicella, LLC. He is a graduate of the University of Dayton School of Law and has been practicing in estate planning, probate, trust administration, real estate law, residential/ commercial leasing, contracts, and civil litigation. Since 2005, Jay has been a Chair of the Mock Trial Committee for the Annual Northwest Suburban Bar Association High School Mock Trial Invitation which serves over 240 local Illinois students each year.

One common legal instrument that people use to plan their estates is a trust. A trust is a legal entity involving at least three roles: a settlor, a trustee, and a beneficiary. The idea of the trust is that each of these three roles work together. The settlor creates the rules of the trust and provides it with property, and they designate the beneficiary. The beneficiary, like the name suggests, is the person for whom the trust is managed. They derive the benefit of any income or other gains from the trust.

However, between the settlor and the beneficiary lies the trustee. The trustee manages the assets of the trust and uses them in the best interests of the beneficiary as directed by the rules of the trust that the settlor created. This means that the trustee has a variety of duties that they need to fulfill. These trustee duties can be thought of as either substantive or procedural duties. This is not an official classification, and the lines can blur, but it is at least a helpful way to catalog the duties.

Substantive Duties

Substantive duties are those that require the trustee to behave in a certain way. The central example is the duty to administer the trust by the rules the settlor laid out. The trust document will contain a variety of provisions, and it is the trustee's duty to follow them. Another example of these substantive duties is the duty of skill and care. This means that the trustee must manage the trust's assets with reasonable skill and caution. Similarly, Illinois law also imposes a “prudent investor” duty on trustees.

This means that the trustee has the duty to act as a prudent investor of the trust's assets including things like developing a diversified portfolio and actively managing investments as necessary. Trustees working with multiple beneficiaries also have a further duty: that of loyalty and impartiality. The trustee may not favor one beneficiary over the other unless the trust instrument provides some reason for it.

Procedural and Ministerial Duties

Trustees also owe beneficiaries a variety of more procedural duties, which involve the proper formalities of managing the trust. For instance, the law governing trusts in Illinois requires trustees to give annual accountings of the trust's receipts, disbursements, and an inventory of the estate. Trustees also often have duties to provide notice of certain actions such as changes in the trusteeship. This may also include a requirement that the trustee provide the beneficiaries with a copy of the trust instrument for their records.

These are just some of the many duties that trustees owe the beneficiaries of their trust. If you would like more information on the legal ramifications of managing a trust, contact an experienced Illinois estate planning attorney today. Our firm advises clients in many northwest suburban towns like Long Grove, Kenilworth, and South Barrington.

About the Author: Attorney Jay Andrew is a founding partner of Drost, Gilbert, Andrew & Apicella, LLC. He is a graduate of the University of Dayton School of Law and has been practicing in estate planning, probate, trust administration, real estate law, residential/commercial leasing, contracts, and civil litigation. Since 2005, Jay has been a Chair of the Mock Trial Committee for the Annual Northwest Suburban Bar Association High School Mock Trial Invitation which serves over 240 local Illinois students each year.

Preparing estate planning documents is a key step in ensuring that a person’s final wishes are respected throughout the probate process, and a recent survey shows that the majority of Americans understand this fact. However, when setting up a trust, preparing the documents does not finish the process. If the person who sets up the trust fails to properly transfer their assets into it, it can become an underfunded or unfunded trust. This lack of proper funding can lead to a failure of a person’s estate plan, and also increases the potential for disputes throughout the process of probating the estate.

What an Unfunded Trust Is

A trust is a legal construction that involves a settlor, a trustee, and a beneficiary. The settlor creates the trust and transfers assets into it. The trustee manages the assets in the trust and they do so with the best interests of the beneficiary in mind. The drafting of the trust instrument is a key part of this process. That document will outline many of the legal rights and responsibilities of the trustee and the beneficiary, and it can provide instructions for the trustee to follow.

Many people think that once they draft the trust document, the process is complete and the trustee will be able to carry out their desires. This is not the case. The person will also need to legally transfer the assets to the trust. Without doing so, the trustee may not actually be able to control the assets and distribute them in accordance with the settlor’s instructions.

The Consequences of Improper Trust Funding

Improper trust funding can lead to disputes between heirs throughout the probate process. This is because if the settlor does not properly fund the trust the trustee has no legal authority to carry out the wishes of the settlor. Instead, the assets would pass through any will that the settlor left behind, or they may pass through right of survivorship, the default way that courts distribute assets. This means that the beneficiaries of the trust may end up in a legal battle with the heirs listed in the will over their rights to the assets.

Additionally, even if the settlor did not leave a will and there are no disputes, the assets will still need to go through the state probate process to be distributed. This can lengthen the amount of time it takes to wind down a person’s affairs and tends to be a less convenient process than if the trust had been properly funded.

If you are thinking about how best to carry out your final wishes, seek out an Illinois estate planning attorney for help. Our skilled team of lawyers helps clients in northwest suburban towns like Mount Prospect, Arlington Heights, and Schaumburg understand their estate planning options and create the best plan for themselves.

About the Author: Attorney Jay Andrew is a founding partner of Drost, Gilbert, Andrew & Apicella, LLC. He is a graduate of the University of Dayton School of Law and has been practicing in estate planning, probate, trust administration, real estate law, residential/commercial leasing, contracts, and civil litigation. Since 2005, Jay has been a Chair of the Mock Trial Committee for the Annual Northwest Suburban Bar Association High School Mock Trial Invitation which serves over 240 local Illinois students each year.

Trusts are versatile, useful legal instruments that allow the grantor (the person who sets up the trust) to set aside certain money or other assets for the use of another person (the beneficiary). However, the beneficiary does not have direct access to the assets. Instead, the trust is managed by a trustee whose job it is to control the assets and use them in the beneficiary’s best interest. This makes choosing the trustee one of the most important parts of setting up a trust.

Although most individuals can serve as a trustee, Illinois law also allows for the use of an “institutional trustee.” Institutional trustees are companies, often banks, who professionally manage the trust’s assets. These companies usually do charge a fee for the services, but the companies come with several benefits:

• - They are skilled at managing trusts;
• - They have the ability to handle complex paperwork and recordkeeping;
• - They provide continuity to the management of the trust;
• - They operate free of bias; and
• - They are regulated to prevent fraud.

Reasons to Use an Institutional Trustee

1. 1. Experienced Administrators: Institutional trustees have experience managing trusts. This allows them to easily navigate the legal requirements for trustees. Furthermore, many trustees are responsible for investing the trust’s assets. Banks and other institutional trustees are often professional investors who will be able to handle the task better than friends or family.

2. 2. Strong Recordkeeping: Trusts also have fairly extensive recordkeeping requirements to prevent fraud on the part of the trustee. Institutional trustees have the infrastructure in place to make sure that important documents, like tax returns, are filed on time and do not get misplaced. Furthermore, the use of an institutional trustee prevents this complex work from being pushed onto a friend or family member.

3. 3. Management Continuity: The corporate nature of institutional trustees also allows for continuity in the trust’s management. Trusts can last for decades and decades. An individual trustee may not be physically or mentally capable of managing a trust for its entire duration. Conversely, institutional trustees have the ability to smoothly transfer trust administration from one employee to the next, allowing for steady management of the assets.

4. 4. Unbiased Distribution: Additionally, institutional trustees can eliminate the possibility of bias that might exist with trustees who are friends or family. The company would not have any prior history with particular beneficiaries that might interfere with the fair and evenhanded use of the trust’s assets.

5. 5. Fraud Protection: Finally, institutional trustees have fraud prevention mechanisms in place. Although everyone would like to think that their friends or family members are above reproach, cases of theft on the part of the trustee do happen. Many institutional trustees are subject to government regulation and auditing requirements that can reduce the risk of fraud on their parts.

If you are interested in setting up a trust, consult with an Illinois estate planning lawyer to tailor one to your specific situation. Our attorneys lend their experience to clients across the northwest suburban area, including in Long Grove, Riverwoods, and Kenilworth.

About the Author: Attorney Jay Andrew is a founding partner of Drost, Gilbert, Andrew & Apicella, LLC. He is a graduate of the University of Dayton School of Law and has been practicing in estate planning, probate, trust administration, real estate law, residential/commercial leasing, contracts, and civil litigation. Since 2005, Jay has been a Chair of the Mock Trial Committee for the Annual Northwest Suburban Bar Association High School Mock Trial Invitation which serves over 240 local Illinois students each year.

Dynasty trusts are a new type of trust that can be used to minimize the burden of certain taxes that the government levies on inheritance by holding the inheritance in a trust for many generations. These trusts have become more popular in recent years as states have begun to relax or abolish a legal doctrine known as the rule against perpetuities. The rule is a complex legal doctrine that limited the length of trusts and other legal instruments to only lasting a certain period of time, usually about two or three generations, depending on a variety of factors. Now that the rule is being relaxed, it has made dynasty trusts a more viable option.

What is a Dynasty Trust?

Simply put, a dynasty trust is a trust that holds assets from which future generations will benefit. This has important tax consequences because assets placed into a dynasty trust are subject to the federal estate/gift tax only once. This means that the assets can flow down to further generations without future estate taxes. For instance, if a person left $10,000,000 to their child without using a trust, this would exceed the gift/estate tax exemption, so it would be subject to the tax. Then, if that inheritance appreciated in value and the child passed it on to a grandchild, it would be subject to another round of taxes. If, instead of simply passing the money down in the first place, the person had placed it into a dynasty trust, then the original $10,000,000 would be taxed at that point, but it the appreciated amount would not be subject to another estate tax when it went to the grandchild.

Another benefit of the dynasty trust is that it can help reduce the effects of the generation skipping transfer tax (GST). The GST exists because people used to leave money directly to their grandchildren in an effort to avoid the double estate tax of the previous example. The GST can take as much as 55 percent of the money passed down to grandchildren in excess of $1,000,000. If the dynasty trust is created using that $1,000,000 dollar exemption, then it can sizably reduce the burden of transfer taxes on future generations.

This means that the dynasty trust can be a very useful estate planning tool for people with large families, or those who have enough assets that the estate tax and GST are serious concerns. Additionally, dynasty trusts are also useful for people who would like to have some say as to how their money is spent after their deaths because dynasty trusts can sometimes be used to control such things.

If you believe that your estate planning could benefit from the use of a dynasty trust, contact a Long Grove estate planning attorney today. Our firm helps handle tax planning issues for clients across the northwest suburbs, including towns like Riverwoods, Barrington, and Kenilworth.

About the Author: Attorney Jay Andrew is founding partner of Drost, Gilbert, Andrew & Apicella, LLC. He is a graduate of the University of Dayton School of Law and has been practicing in estate planning, probate, trust administration, real estate law, residential/commercial leasing, contracts, and civil litigation. Since 2005, Jay has been a Chair of the Mock Trial Committee for the Annual Northwest Suburban Bar Association High School Mock Trial Invitation which serves over 240 local Illinois students each year.