One of the highlights of Ted Donner's term as president of the DuPage County Bar Association was our "president's trip" to Chicago in the fall of 2016. Traditionally, a program that involves a group of lawyers traveling with the bar president to some far away land for a week's respite in the sun, this was more of a stay-cation, culminating in a weekend of events attended by some 250 people.

The program started Thursday afternoon with a trip to the United States Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals where Senior Staff Attorney and Seventh Circuit Counsel, Don Wall, led an informative and provocative discussion about practice in the court with the attorneys and judges following a live argument (the first time this was ever done in the Seventh Circuit itself). Then the group moved across the street to the John Marshall Law School for a series of presentations, a tour of the school's internship programs and an Oktoberfest dinner with Judge William Bauer in celebration of his 90th Birthday. That was then all followed by an evening at Ted's alma mater, The Second City in Chicago.

On Friday, the Chicago Bar Association hosted us for an afternoon of programming, including discussions with leaders in both the professional and student bar communities about the future of the profession and an improvisational workshop with our own Greg Werstler from ComedySportz. We then moved over for a happy hour reception at the Illinois Bar Foundation where the group helped launch the new Illinois Legal Answers pro bono program. Friday night finally found the day's survivors huddled around the stage at Kingston Mines.