RSHC news

RSHC Partner Jake Kahn will serve as Conference Co-Chair and a Speaker at the 11th Annual Conference on Futures and Derivatives on October 17, 2019, hosted at Chicago-Kent College of Law. Jake will present on the topic: “At the Intersection of Antitrust and Derivatives Law.”

Congratulations to Drahcir Smith and the entire 2019-2020 Black Women Lawyers’ Association of Greater Chicago, Inc. (BWLA) Board of Directors and Scholarship Fund Board, who were installed on June 3. The group pledged their renewed commitment to making an “impact” on the legal profession, as well as the general community-at-large, and changing so many lives.

RSHC is proud to sponsor and have RSHC Partners, Meghan McMeel and Kate Stimeling, presenting at The Women, Diversity & Change Summit programs in Chicago (June 6) and San Francisco (June 11). Meghan will be speaking at the June 6 program on strategies for strategically fostering effective sponsors for women in law to progress their careers. Kate will be presenting on the June 11 San Francisco panel, “Sponsors, Influencers & Career Engineering.” The conference will explore and inspire lasting change for women and minorities in the legal profession.

A Dream Became Reality—Project Chimps celebrates a 5-year milestone! Bruce Wagman, Co-Founder, President and RSHC animal protection lawyer, recalls the journey. Currently 59 chimpanzees with almost 150 more to join them are thriving at the 236-acre Project Chimps sanctuary in the Blue Ridge Mountains of north Georgia.

RSHC is proud to announce that RSHC Employment Counsel Drahcir Marie Smith has been elected the 2019-2020 Corresponding Secretary for the Black Women Lawyers' Association of Greater Chicago, Inc. (BWLA). Drahcir served as a BWLA Board Member at Large for the 2018-2019 term. Congratulations to all of the new BWLA Officers and Board members!

RSHC Managing Partner Patricia Brown Holmes was the special guest on the March 15 Rare & Scratchy Rock ‘N Roll retrospective podcast hosted by Radio Dave Milberg featuring 30 Feminist Hit Singles Before Their Time between the 1950’s and 1990’s. The history and snippets of thirty (30) hit songs about female empowerment by Aretha Franklin (Respect), Helen Reddy (I am Woman), Gloria Gaynor (I Will Survive), and more were remembered for their strong and positive impact.

At the March 1st 10th Annual Animal Law Conference at the ISBA Chicago Regional Office or via live webcast, RSHC’s Bruce Wagman will share insights on three current hot topics in animal law: creating sanctuary for endangered chimps and varied species, the area of dangerous dog litigation in Chicago and beyond, and the use of experts in animal-related litigation. Don’t miss hearing about the animal law updates and advances made in this rapidly-evolving practice area.

RSHC Managing Partner, Patricia Brown Holmes, closed out the November 1-2, 2018 HOW Forum sharing stories about her family and career, while tying in lessons learned throughout the Forum. She spoke about how the qualities of resilience, strength, and determination allow women to lead change in their personal lives and in their organizations. Her keynote concluded with a champagne toast, after audience members were noticeably moved by her speech.

Crisis management at the top of the Executive Branch. RSHC attorney Jack Theis moderated a panel with his former colleagues from the White House Counsel’s office who explained how they handled legal, policy, and political risk during the Obama Administration. RSHC co-sponsored the November 16 event with the American Constitution Society.

Eddie Arruza from Chicago Tonight interviewed Ron Safer, RSHC Partner and former U.S. Attorneys’ Office Chief of the Criminal Division, Cara Hendrickson, Illinois Attorney General’s Public Interest Division Chief, and Brendan Shiller, a plaintiff’s attorney, on how the proposed Chicago Police Consent Decree might proceed after this week’s hearings. Ron commented, “You cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good. It is a major step forward. It does not hamper the police, it helps the police.”

RSHC Partner, Jacob Kahn, will be leading the afternoon micro session, “What’s Current in Cryptocurrency?,” on November 1 at the 10th Annual Conference on Futures and Derivatives at Chicago-Kent College of Law. The conference will provide regulatory updates and information on recent trends in enforcement targeted to attorneys, compliance professionals, accountants in the commodities industry, fraud examiners and regulatory professionals.

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.”

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.

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.

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.