You may have noticed that the January/February issue of the Sacramento Lawyer featured a new look. Credit for the design improvements, including a crisper graphics style and enhanced use of color, goes to our new designer, Mary Burroughs of Mary Burroughs Publication Design. I speak both for myself and for the magazine’s policy committee in stating that we appreciate Mary’s work so far and look forward to sharing her future efforts with you. If you or your firm needs publication design assistance - ranging from a brochure to a magazine - Mary can be contacted at (916) 736-3062.

While we will continue to improve how this magazine looks, we are also making some slight changes in its content. Although we will continue to focus on the SCBA and its members, upcoming issues will examine the lives of Sacramento lawyers away from the practice of law. Focusing on non-work activities is not an entirely new idea for this magazine; we have run so-called Second Lives issues in the past. However, beginning with this books issue, we are hoping to feature non-work pursuits more often and in a more focused manner. Thus, we have tentative plans in the works for an issue on the athletic pursuits of lawyers and a food issue. If you have ideas regarding either topic, or any other topic you think this magazine should pursue, please feel free to call me at (916) 445-7385 or e-mail me at Christopher.Krueger@doj.ca.gov.

Occasionally, we receive questions about how lawyers and law firms are chosen to be the subjects of profiles in this magazine when the issue focuses on a particular practice area, such as family law or water law. We choose subjects after conferring with lawyers in the particular practice area and the leadership of the relevant section of the SCBA. Our intent is to profile some leading practitioners in a given practice area. The reality of the situation is that, for every lawyer who gets profiled, there are dozens of others who cannot be mentioned due to space considerations.

If you feel that someone you know or a particular firm should have been mentioned with regard to a particular issue, please feel free to contact me. Even if the situation can’t be immediately remedied, we can keep that person or firm in mind for inclusion in future issues. One bit of advice: article ideas are more likely to get published if you can identify a potential author as well as a subject. There are many more worthy article ideas in our legal community than there are volunteer writers to write them.