ISBA Mutual Insurance Company

09/23/2026

ISBA Mutual Insurance Company was proud to be the Diamond sponsor of ISBA's 2026 Solo & Small Firm Conference in Peoria. 🤝

Andrew Murray, our Vice President of Business Development, met lawyers from across Illinois at our booth. Thank you to everyone who stopped by, and to the Illinois State Bar Association for a great two days.

Proudly serving Illinois lawyers since 1988.

09/21/2026

Need help with a practice management question or an ethics gray area?

Our policyholders reach out about conflicts, file retention, withdrawing from a matter, fee disagreements, and situations that have not gone wrong yet but might.

That last group is the one we most want to hear about. Early conversations are always easier than late ones.

Resources here: https://qrcode.isbamutual.com/risk-management

09/18/2026

Who covers your desk if you are out for six weeks? 🩺

Deadlines do not pause for an injury. Court dates stay on the calendar. Clients still need answers.

Naming a trusted colleague as your backup takes one conversation and one written agreement. Do it while everyone is healthy, and your practice is still standing when you return.

Read the guide: https://qrcode.isbamutual.com/backup-lawyers

If you were to experience a short-term disability or injury that prevented you from working, what would happen to your clients and your firm? Would they still be there when you got back? Would important matters be neglected, leading to possible claims?

09/16/2026

Illinois just became the third state to regulate frontier AI. 🤖

The new Artificial Intelligence Safety Measures Act does not apply to most law firms. It targets the companies training the largest AI models, with published safety frameworks, annual outside audits, and 72-hour incident reporting.

Two dates matter. Disclosure statements begin January 1, 2027, and the rest phases in January 1, 2028.

Your vendors and some of your clients may fall under it. That is reason enough to know what it says.

Take a Liability Minute: https://qrcode.isbamutual.com/ai-safety-measures-act

On July 6, 2026, Governor JB Pritzker signed Senate Bill 315, making the Artificial Intelligence Safety Measures Act an Illinois law, joining California and New York as the third state regulating frontier artificial intelligence.

09/14/2026

Meet Virginia McGann, founder of Integrated Back Office Solutions.

Public television operations. A construction firm with the Adler Planetarium on its client list. Fiscal coordination for the City Colleges of Chicago. She has run lean organizations from the inside, and she has spent the last decade helping other owners do the same.

She leads our September 15 program at noon. Recurring revenue, fee structures, utilization metrics, IT risk, hybrid teams.

Register: https://qrcode.isbamutual.com/september-2026-cle

09/11/2026

It is National 401(k) Day, and there are two plans every solo lawyer needs. 📈

One is the money. A solo 401(k), a SEP IRA, or a SIMPLE IRA, whichever fits your income.

The other is the practice. Who takes your open matters? Where do closed files go? How do clients hear about it?

Retiring well means handling both. And both are far easier to build at 45 than at 70.

Start here: https://qrcode.isbamutual.com/risk-management

09/09/2026

Five stars, and the part we appreciated most was the word "free." ⭐

Our next program is Tuesday, September 15 at noon. Virginia McGann covers the five numbers that tell you how your firm is really running. Join us downtown or by Zoom.

Register: https://qrcode.isbamutual.com/september-2026-cle

09/07/2026

Have a contingency plan in place?

September is National Preparedness Month, which makes it a reasonable time to address a question most firms put off. If your office were unreachable tomorrow morning, could your practice keep running?

Deadlines do not move because a building flooded. Clients do not wait because a server failed. The firms that come through these weeks intact are the ones that wrote something down beforehand.

Preparedness is the least glamorous part of firm management. It is also the part clients remember when something goes wrong.

Learn more: https://qrcode.isbamutual.com/isbamutual

09/04/2026

Ten fake citations cost a Chicago lawyer $15,000. ⚖️

An Illinois appellate panel found one case that never existed, four misquoted statutes, and five real cases cited for points they never made. The court charged $1,500 per false citation and sent the opinion to the state discipline board.

He used a paid AI subscription. He said he double-checked the work. He still missed all ten.

Verify every citation before it reaches a judge.

Take a Liability Minute: https://qrcode.isbamutual.com/fake-ai-citations

The Illinois Appellate Court, First District, sanctioned Chicago lawyer for fake AI citations, costing the attorney 15,000 and a referral to the state's attorney discipline board.

09/02/2026

Five numbers that tell you how your firm is really running. 📊

Recurring revenue. Fixed fee structures. Utilization ratios. Your IT setup. Your remote and hybrid work policies.

Virginia McGann of Integrated Back Office Solutions covers all five in one hour on Tuesday, September 15, at noon. Join us downtown or by Zoom. It is complimentary, and space is limited.

Register: https://qrcode.isbamutual.com/september-2026-cle