Defense bar gets into the holiday spirit

CHICAGO -- The Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel (IDC) hosted its annual holiday party on Thursday in Chicago.

And IDC’s president, R. Howard Jump, said Edwardsville attorney Mandi Ferguson had a lot to do with its success.

Ferguson, an associate at HeplerBroom, serves as chair of the association’s Young Lawyers Division, a position that put her at the helm of planning the charitable portion of the party.

The Young Lawyers Division, she said, sponsors the holiday party each year and organizes a fundraiser to benefit a different charity.

This year, the group decided to do a “Wall of Wine” fundraiser to help victims of Hurricane Sandy, Ferguson said, as she stood next to the dozens of bottles of wine that were placed in a wall-like formation at Lloyd’s in Chicago.

IDC board members, she said, each donated a bottle of wine worth at least $30 and members purchased tickets for $10 each in hopes of scoring a bottle or two.

All of the money raised from the“Wall of Wine” ticket raffle will go to the American Red Cross, she said, adding that the group collected about $1,000 at last year’s holiday party fundraiser for the Children’s Memorial Hospital.

Ferguson, who focuses her practice on toxic torts and product liability, said the IDC and its Young Lawyers Division strive to be a part of their communities and that giving to charity is just one way they work to do that.