Dave Hinton: Technically speaking, UI law professor's among the elite

Aug. 5—Mark Palmer believes in the value of technology and artificial intelligence in the legal profession.

While at times it can raise new questions of procedure, it can serve as a valuable tool in a law practice, he said.

An adjunct professor at the University of Illinois College of Law who serves as chief counsel of the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism, he's been recognized as a member of the 2023 Fastcase 50, compiled by vLex, a global legal intelligence platform.

The list highlights the top 50 "most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders in the legal industry."

Martin Sinclair, chair of the Commission on Professionalism, said Palmer has become a powerful voice in Illinois and beyond "on how lawyers can embrace technology to deliver more efficient and effective services while adhering to our ethical obligations as attorneys."

A native of Champaign, Palmer said AI and ChatGPT have enhanced the ability for lawyers from look at different viewpoints.

ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool driven by AI technology that allows you to have human-like conversations and more with the chatbot.

Many people are leery of AI. They think it's something that can grow out of hand. Palmer is not one of them. He hopes to demystify its complex roles for responsible innovation.

"Clients turn to lawyers often for their ability to address problems, and the first step is often evaluating the issues, finding out the uncertainty of the situation," Palmer said.

Analyzing different angles of a case, comparing arguments and strategies can be assisted by AI, allowing the lawyer to better craft the information to apply to a specific client's situation, he said.

"With AI, you nonetheless have to take careful steps to evaluate the outputs, confirming them, just like you would any other instance of legal representation."

Palmer said using AI doesn't take away the lawyer's responsibility to think and confirm along the way.

"I think that's where AI users can get in trouble," he said. "They rely on it carte blanche."

ChatGPT is one of several tools launched since November that consumers can use to ask questions similar to Google.

"Generative AI tools like ChatGPT will change how we find information. Instead of looking it up on Google as we've done for 20 years, you input your prompt command to get your result similar to having a conversation with an assistant. It's trained on large amounts of publicly available data like Wikipedia and Reddit," Palmer said.

The problem is, according to Palmer, it can hallucinate, which is spit out false info or make up information, allowing people to be duped. Some lawyers have gotten in trouble by citing cases they didn't confirm.

Another danger of the technology: Care must also be taken on confidentiality of information.

"If attorneys enter sensitive content about their clients' situation into a public database, they are revealing confidential information related to representation, an ethical violation," Palmer said. "This is why a new market of closed or private AI tools is quickly growing,"

Other issues include copyright and intellectual property questions. Those tools creating content from trillions of sources through the internet, who is the content's owner? And how can protected work retain their copyright when used in part by AI? Those answers are yet to be determined.

Does the person asking the question now own it or the original maker of parts of that content still have a copyright claim to it somehow?

Palmer has served as chief counsel to the Illinois Supreme Court Council on Professionalism for eight years. The position uses education and outreach to the legal profession in Illinois, which includes serving attorneys in the state, judges and nine law schools.

"We promote the principles of integrity, professionalism and ethics to the legal and judicial systems in the land of Lincoln," Palmer said.

"We hope to help lawyers recognize that you can be a zealous advocate for your client and do it professionally and civilly, which leads to a more efficient and effective outcome for what the client and our justice system."

Palmer is a chip off the old bench. His father, the late Charlie Palmer, practiced law in Champaign for 53 years.

Prior to his current position, Mark Palmer was in private practice at Evans, Froelich, Beth & Chamley in Champaign.

There, his practice included litigation and transactional experience primarily focused on commercial litigation, banking law and municipal law in state and federal trial and appellate courts.

The 47-year-old Champaign Central grad is chair of the East Central Illinois Community Foundation.

A life-long townie, he is a University of Illinois graduate and football walk-on who now mentors student-athletes across Illini sports aspiring for a career in law.

Rotarians recognize Rokosch

Danville Noon Rotarians voted to award this year's Gill Garman Fellowship Award to retired obstetrician and 22-year Rotarian Dr. Donald Rokosch to recognize his service to the Danville Noon Rotary.

Conferring the award was retired Illinois Supreme Court Justice Rita Garman, the widow of the late Gill Garman.

The award pays tribute to Gill's engaging personality, infectious sense of humor and spirit he brought to the chapter. Rita Garman cited Rokosch for possessing similar attributes. He is a former chapter president and continues to serve as a liaison to the Rotary district office and as a supporter of the Rotary Foundation.

Singy receives Humanitarian Award

The first Dr. Tai R. Shin and You H. Shin Humanitarian Award will be presented to renowned crop breeder Bir Bahadur "B.B." Singh.

The award was selected by the University of Illinois System in recognition of his exemplary impact on humanity by addressing global food security.

The award ceremony will be held Sept. 12 when Singh will give an invited lecture on the "Development of Improved Varieties of Prote-Rich Pulse Crops for Human Health, Wealth and Happiness."

Singh will also present the $50,000 gift that accompanies the award to the Department of Crop Sciences in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. Tai Shin and Singh are both ACES alumni.

Established in 2022 with a $2 million pledge, the Shin Humanitarian Award recognizes those who promote the betterment of society; exhibit courage and integrity to better lives; improve environmental sustainability; take action on equality issues; or strive in other ways to protect and promote human rights.

Singh played a key role in introducing protein-rich soybeans to India to satisfy the country's vegetarian diets. Best known for developing cowpea that yields in 60 days, he recognized the need for fast-maturing legumes that farmers could add to their crop rotation to maximize production.

He bridged the gap from crop development to adoption by small-holder farmers to realize increased production, higher incomes and enhanced food security across the globe.

Birthday Boy gets the royal treatment

The staff on sixth floor north at Carle Foundation Hospital are more than all right with Henry and Patty DeHeer of Paxton — Patty calling them "really an exceptional group of professionals."

When they figured out it was Henry's 91st birthday while he was a patient there they greeted him with a song, cupcake and card.

"Truly made it a happy occasion for him," Patty said.

Henry thanked them and extended a special thanks to doctors Franzen, Saad Adoni, Pat Henry and Martinez Mateo for their expertise in treating him.

Getting the band back together

Appaloosa, a regional favorite in the '70s-'90s, will be getting back together one last time.

The band will play from 3 to 6 p.m. Aug. 13 at Riggs Brewery in Urbana. People may want to bring lawn chairs.

The show will be the six members who recorded the "Morning Riser" album, which consisted of all original songs. Comprising the band: Steve Morrison (drums) Howie Golub (harmonica and percussion) Ray Wigs (keyboards) Stev Strong (guitar and pedal steel guitar), Marc Hutchison (bass guitar) Michael Garcia (guitar, saxophone, flute).

The show will also feature Ed Clem, a former bass guitar player from another version of the band, on a few songs as well as Dawna Nelson on some vocals.

Little Miss, Mr. Sweetcorn winners named

Twenty-two girls and boys competed in the Hoopeston 2023 Little Miss, Mister Sweetcorn Pageant Saturday at Hoopeston's First Church of God.

Tapped Little Miss Sweetcorn 2023 was Darcy Kinnaird, while Little Mr. Sweetcorn is Graham Cullom.

Other winners were Millie Nogle, Baby Miss Sweetcorn; Kaylee Keleminic, Tiny Miss Sweetcorn; Haven Burns, Princess Miss Sweetcorn; Audrey Curtin, Junior Miss Sweetcorn; Brayden Kinnaird, Teen Miss Sweetcorn; Faith Kinnaird, Miss Photogenic; Grayden Young, Mr. Photogenic.

The Hoopeston Sweetcorn Festival will be held Labor Day weekend.

Queen of Hearts winner in Gibson City

Gary Allen was the winner of the Gibson City Restoration Association Queen of Hearts drawing.

But because he was not present at the time of the drawing, he received only half ($16,092) of the $32,134 grand prize.

The restoration association is raising funds to restore the old Burwell building in downtown Gibson City.

The weekly drawing is held at Mark's on First. A new Queen of Hearts board will be started next week, with a starting jackpot of $16,000.

Honor roll

On Saturdays, we tip our hats to academic award-winners from our area. Submit information at dhinton@news-gazette.com.

Lawrence University (Appleton, Wis.) — Grace Hanson, Rantoul; Ben Keating, Urbana; Elizabeth Reinstra, Jordan Simmons, Champaign.

Bradley University (Peoria) — Alia Coleman, Champaign; Sierra Bryant, Emily Everett, Djameia Hoskins, Alexandra Reed, Danville; Cason Dudley, Loda; Colin Diercks, Mahomet; Ian Wilkey, Savoy; Jordan Smith, Seymour; Charles Polonus,Sidney; Ryan Salmon, Tuscola; Adrian Chevalier, Armand Lubadi, Urbana.