ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
December 14, 1994
LAND AND LAKES COMPANY,
)
JMC OPERATIONS, INC.,
and
NBD TRUST COMPANY OF
)
ILLINOIS as trustee under
)
Trust No. 2624EG,
)
)
Petitioners,
)
v.
)
PCB 94—195
)
(Land Siting Review)
VILLAGE OF ROMEOVILLE,
)
)
Respondent.
DISSENTING OPINION (by J. Theodore Meyer):
I dissent from the majority’s finding that the Board has the
authority to enforce the conflict of interest provisions of the
Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct.
Nothing in the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct gives
this Board the express authority to enforce those rules. The
Board is an administrative agency, and I would decline to assume
any implied authority to administer rules governing professional
conduct. The majority relies on our procedural rule governing
appearances and withdrawals, coupled with our rule allowing for
sanctions, to conclude that the Board must determine whether
there is an imperxnissible conflict of interest. I fail to see
how those two rules somehow give the Board an obligation to
enforce the Rules of Professional Conduct.’
I note that in People v. Kershaw (July221 1993), PCB 92-
164, cited by the majority, the alleged conflict concerned the
Board as a “client” of the attorney, and the question of whether
the Board might consent to the alleged “dual representation”.
The instant case presents allegations of conflict of interest
between the Herschbach firm and the parties, not involving the
Board as a “client” who might consent to the alleged conflict.
Thus, I would have denied the motion to disqualify on the
1
I also note that in this landfill siting appeal, if the
majority had found a conflict of interest and disqualified the
law firm, that attorney could have simply appeared on behalf of
the Village of Romeoville as a “consultant”. Our rules allow
non—attorneys to appear as a representative of a party in all but
enforcement cases. (35 Ill. Adm. Code 101. 107 (a).)
2
grounds that the Board has no express authority to enforce the
provisions of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct, and
because Land & Lakes cites no other basis for its motion. I take
no position on the merits of the allegations of conflict of
interest.
For the above reasons, I dissent.
J. ¶~eodoreMeyer
Board Member
I, Dorothy H. Gunn, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Board, hereby certify that the above dissenting opinion was filed
on the /~5~Z day of
______________,
1994.
Dorothy
~4’J
Gunn, Clerk
IllinoisL/Pollution Control Board