Even though you have all seen for yourselves the wonderful work done by our new editor in the three editions that he has edited in the past year, I feel it is time for a "proper" introduction to Christopher E. Krueger.

I knew right from the first article he submitted that Chris had a special writing talent. With typical modesty, he explained that he had some experience of journalism. He did not elaborate on the extent of that experience.

Chris and I hit it off the minute we met. Chris' quiet, serious approach to his work belies a wonderful sense of humor. That humor, plus his amazing ability to stay calm in the face of imminent (or past) deadlines, missing articles, production problems and human error, makes him a great colleague and fellow volunteer. He is the perfect editor for this publication.

I have worked with Chris in a number of situations, including on bar council and on the board of the Voluntary Legal Services Program. I was also a fellow team member with his lovely wife Kris Burks in the Anthony M. Kennedy, Inn of Court. So, I thought I knew him pretty well. However, I thought that I should have a copy of his resume before I wrote this article. It turned out that even though I had spotted his talents, I really did not know that much about his formal qualifications and past experience. I thought you, his readers, might be as interested as I was in their extent.

Chris received his Juris Doctor cum laude from the University of San Francisco, School of Law in 1994. He started his legal career as a legal research assistant for the San Francisco Superior Court, where he advised the judges on complex civil litigation and appellate matters. After a spell as a litigation associate at Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe, LLP in Sacramento, Chris joined the attorney general's office in 2000. He is currently a deputy attorney general in the government law section, representing State of California agencies and departments and constitutional officers in litigation matters in state and federal courts. In the spring of 2002, he also taught legal writing at UC Davis, King Hall School of Law.

In law school, Chris received many accolades for his legal writing. He was the comments editor for the USF Law Review. He wrote a law review article, Mary M. v. City of Los Angeles: Should a City Be Held Liable Under Respondeat Superior for a Rape by a Police Officer? 28 U.S.F. L. Rev. 419 (Winter 1994). He also received the American Jurisprudence Award for Legal Writing II.

As well as all this demonstrated legal writing ability; Chris also brings to the Sacramento Lawyer invaluable experience from the world of journalism. It is not too often that we find a busy lawyer with professional experience in journalism who is willing to volunteer his time.

As an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, en route to his Bachelor of Arts in English, Chris was editor-in-chief of the Daily Californian.

After graduation Chris went to work as a business reporter for the Bakersfield Californian. There, he wrote articles for the newspaper's business and local news sections. The newspaper's editors chose him as the recipient of the Golden Quill Award for 1990, an award given annually to the paper's top staff writer. Before going to Bakersfield, Chris was an intern at the Los Angeles Times where he wrote feature stories for the newspaper's Westside section on topics ranging from food to housing development. He also spent some time in Washington, D.C. as an intern for McClatchy Newspapers. There, he wrote stories on trade, agricultural and environmental issues for newspapers in the McClatchy chain, including the Sacramento Bee.

As you can see, Chris is uniquely qualified to take over the running of the magazine. I am overjoyed that he has agreed to serve as editor-in-chief of the Sacramento Lawyer. I am also grateful to his wife Kris for supporting him in this endeavor. I know that the magazine will go from strength to strength in the years to come.