Shapefile Import Utility for Illustrator

I have a little free utility from the Massachusetts GIS office and ESRI that batch converts shapefiles to .dxf's, which is a vector format that Illustrator can open and still retain the original shape properties. It does not retain the data table or projection info, but it will allow you to retain the exact shape (say, I-57) as a single, nice looking vector that you can select with minimal hassle and pretty-fy.

Also, it looks like you can have it retain data from the table in labels attached to each vector segment, which could be useful. It has some other neat functionality like this besides.

ArcCatalog can export shapefiles as .dxf by itself, but Illustrator CS4, at least, does not open them.

This is the only free way I've found to import shapes and retain their vector qualities outside of MapPublisher. Let me know if you want it.