Roosevelt University - MCLE Program - Instructor Biographies

Continuing Legal Education Seminars for Attorneys
Evelyn T. Stone College of Professional Studies

INSTRUCTORS' BIOGRAPHIES

Mary L. Boland

Assistant State’s Attorney Mary L. Boland is a supervisor in the criminal appeals division of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office in Chicago, Illinois. She has written briefs in nearly 200 appeals in the First District Appellate Court and the Illinois Supreme Court and conducted more than 40 oral arguments before these Courts. Many of her cases involve constitutional issues in sex-related offenses. In addition, Boland supervises other assistants who write briefs in sexual assault cases and is also a briefing supervisor of general criminal appeals. In this capacity, Boland has briefed-out approximately 700 additional cases. Courts have published precedent-setting opinions in 74 of her cases.

Prior to joining the State’s Attorney’s Office, Boland represented nonprofit victim organizations and served as a legal director of a statewide nonprofit victims’ organization. During this time, she served as a steering committee member to the Illinois Crime Victims’ Constitutional Amendment Network (IL-VICAN) which wrote the 1992 Illinois Crime Victims’ Constitutional Amendment. She was also a primary drafter for the 1994 amendments to the Rights of Crime Victims and Witnesses Act.

Before and after she joined the State’s Attorney’s Office, she has successfully drafted and testified on legislation, and she has written and taught extensively on victims issues.

Boland has sat on various committees and boards for more than two decades. She is currently a Council Member for the Criminal Justice Section of the American Bar Association and has served as Chair of the Victims Committee of the Criminal Justice Section, American Bar Association; she has also been a co-chair of the Victims Issues Committee of the Illinois Prosecutors Bar Association.

Boland has served as an advisory board member on projects of the National Center for Victims of Crime and the Council of State Governments. She acts as a consultant on various peer review projects and as a practitioner expert for the Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice and the Office for Victims of Crime. She was a consultant on the National Crime Victim’s Agenda Project and was a contributing author to New Directions from the Field: Victims’ Rights and Services for the 21st Century (OVC 1998). She served as co-chair of the subcommittee on crime and sentencing of the Gender Bias Task Force in Illinois and participated in developing the first sexual harassment policy for the City of Chicago, Commission on Human Relations.

Boland has taught at national, regional and local conventions and symposia for nearly two decades. A long-time law enforcement instructor, she has also taught numerous courses on the criminal justice system and process, sexual harassment and sexual assault. Boland has been an adjunct professor for over ten years; she has taught courses including appellate advocacy, domestic relations, legal research and writing and victimology at two universities and for a law school in the Chicagoland area. Boland has also created two fully online courses for Roosevelt University’s Paralegal Studies Program.

Boland has also authored various books and articles. She has co-authored a chapter entitled The Effective Prosecutor: Assisting Crime Victims with Special Needs in The Prosecutor’s Deskbook (APRI 2001) and contributed a section on victim’s rights to the Criminal Justice Chapter of the ABA Family Law Guide (2003); she has co-authored an article analyzing the case of Shepard v. United States, no. 03-9168 (U.S. S.Ct.) for the ABA’s November 2004 Preview Magazine and has written articles for the ABA’s Criminal Justice Magazine on Cyberstalking (Spring 2005) and Disaster Planning for the Criminal Justice System (Spring 2007). She also directed and provided substantial edits to the recent ABA Victim's Committee monograph entitled Restitution (2004).

Boland has authored several consumer law books, all published by Sourcebooks: Crime Victims Guide to Justice (2nd ed. 2001) and Spanish edition Guia de Justicia para Victimas del Crimen (2001, translator Marta C. Quiroz-Pecirno); Sexual Harassment: Your Guide to Legal Action (2002); Sexual Harassment in the Workplace (2002, 2nd ed. 2005); Your Right to Child Custody, Visitation and Support (4th ed. 2007) and Child Support: Your Legal Guide to Collecting, Enforcing and Terminating the Court=s Order (2nd ed. 2006) and Spanish edition Cómo Recibir Manutencion de Niños (2007).

Boland holds a bachelor’s degree in political science (high honors) from Lewis University (1980) and a Juris Doctor degree (with distinction) from the John Marshall Law School (1983) in Chicago. In her spare time, Boland is completing a Master’s Degree in Public Administration at Roosevelt University (expected June 2008).

Michael S. Burns

Michael Burns returned to DePaul University College of Law as the assistant dean for enrollment management and director of law admission in August 2003. From 1994 to 1996, Burns served as a legal writing instructor and assistant dean for law career services at DePaul. Burns also worked as assistant dean for admission at Chicago-Kent College of Law from 1996 to 2003. While at Chicago-Kent, he also was appointed to the positions of director of academic support, director of the Prelaw Undergraduate Scholars Program, adjunct professor and associate general counsel for the Illinois Institute of Technology.

He is a 1992 graduate of DePaul University College of Law, where he was a member of the DePaul Law Review and served as evening vice president of the Student Bar Association. After completing his legal studies, he joined the Chicago law firm of Peterson & Ross, where he specialized in reinsurance and excess insurance coverage litigation.

Burns is a member and past vice president of the Midwest Alliance for Law School Admission. In recent years, he has served on a number of Law School Admission Council (LSAC) workgroups and committees, including the Minority Affairs Committee, Newcomers Faculty, and the Services & Programs Committee. He is a frequent speaker on college and university campuses and has received a number of recognitions for his efforts to increase diversity in legal education. He has taught Ethics & Professionalism in the Roosevelt University Paralegal Studies Program since 2000.

Carol Carlson

Carol Carlson has practiced in the areas of residential real estate, corporate law, employment law, zoning, and civil litigation (specializing in breach of contract actions) since 1985. She has taught courses for Roosevelt University continuously from 1986 to 2003 including Introduction to Law, Real Estate and Mortgages, Legal Research, and Civil Litigation. Carol is a Licensed Real Estate Pre-Licensure Instructor who has taught Real Estate Transactions

1110, a prerequisite for taking the Illinois Salesperson Licensing Examination, at the College of DuPage since 1997. She graduated from Elmhurst College with highest honor receiving her BA in 1982. She received her JD from Loyola University of Chicago School of Law in 1985. Carol currently is an active member of the Illinois State Bar Association, the Association of Illinois Real Estate Educators, the Illinois Education Association, and the National Education Association.

James Fine

Jim Fine is a graduate of DePaul University College of Law and is admitted in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois as well as the Eastern District of Wisconsin. He has been an instructor for Roosevelt University’s Paralegal Studies Program for over twenty years and is the program’s only full-time faculty member. He teaches courses in litigation, legal technology, corporate law, legal research and writing and commercial law.

Jim is an experienced civil litigator in the areas of corporate and LLC law, as well as incorporating and representing a number of local Chicago area businesses. Jim has also represented both creditors and debtors in bankruptcy since he began practicing law. In law school at DePaul University, Jim had the good fortune of writing articles analyzing the Federal Bankruptcy Code with Professor Robert Ginsburg, who later became a judge in the Northern District of Illinois Bankruptcy Court. From 1990 to 1997 Jim was a litigation attorney for the FDIC during the bank crisis, at which time he filed many successful summary judgment motions for the FDIC. He was also responsible for managing and liquidating all subsidiaries the FDIC inherited from failed banks nationwide.

He is currently Of Counsel, with the law firm of McKenna Storer and practices in the areas of Bankruptcy and Foreclosure, Corporate and LLC Law, General Business Representation and Litigation and Real Estate.

Judge Lewis Nixon

Judge Lewis Nixon sits in the Chancery Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County in the Mortgage Foreclosure/Mechanics Lien Section where he is one of three judges who hears mechanics lien cases in Cook County. He also hears mortgage foreclosure cases. Prior to joining the Circuit Court of Cook County, Judge Nixon was an Assistant General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development. He earned his law degree from the DePaul University School of Law and has been an instructor of litigation and corporate law in the Paralegal Studies Program at Roosevelt University for over twenty years. He is active in many professional associations, including the Illinois Judges Association where he serves as Treasurer and is a member of the Executive Committee.

Sande Shamash

As the Executive Director of the Tourette Syndrome Association of Illinois, Inc. (TSA-IL), Sande advocates for and works with special educations students, parents, teachers, and many other medical and school professionals on a daily basis. Sande previously served on the TSA-IL Board of Directors and as their director of advocacy services. Sande has spent his entire legal career working in public interest law, specifically with children and families, starting in 1993 with the Cook County Office of the Public Guardian and most recently as the Chief Administrative Law Judge Assistant General Counsel of the Illinois Department of Public Aid (now the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services). Sande has taught for and maintains a professional affiliation with Roosevelt University.