Since this magazine is written by volunteers, I would like to take this opportunity to provide extra recognition to a few people who made serving as editor a pleasant experience for me this year.

In May, I received a package with a computer disk and a letter. The letter read: “Please do whatever you want with it (the article on the disk), including lining the birdcage. I have no pride of authorship, but if you can use it, I would be pleased.”

That letter was from Rudy Michaels. The disk contained Rudy’s reminiscence about recently-deceased Judge Abbott Goldberg. That article was one of the most wonderful pieces of writing I had the privilege of editing this year. It was descriptive (Judge Goldberg told Rudy that he had undergone so many surgeries “that his abdomen looked like a relief map of the Battle of Verdun”), and it was warm-hearted. It also opened a small window into California legal history, as Rudy explained how Goldberg introduced him to Bernard Witkin when Rudy and Goldberg were clerking for the California Supreme Court and Witkin was serving as the Court’s Reporter of Decisions. I was more than pleased to publish Rudy’s article in the July/August issue.

Another unexpected pleasure occurred when I asked Geoff Wong to write about being an author. I expected Geoff to explain his reasons for writing books or maybe to provide tantalizing plot summaries. Instead, Geoff submitted a piece exhorting all of us to write books. The article provided a wonderful cover story for the March/April books issue.

This magazine’s “most valuable player” for 2003 has to be John Bachman. John, a member of the Sacramento Lawyer policy committee, helped me obtain articles on water law for the January/February issue. Before that issue was published, John suffered a brain aneurysm. Four months later, John returned to the Attorney General’s Office. When I asked whether he would consent to have an article written about his recovery for the September/October issue, he agreed, despite claiming that his story wouldn’t be too interesting. John also pulled double duty in that issue, writing a wonderful cover story on Ninth Circuit Judge Connie Callahan.

I would like to thank John, Geoff, Rudy, and all of the other authors for their hard work this year. Without such efforts, this magazine would not get published. I would also like to thank Bion Gregory, Joan Stone, Carol Prosser and the SCBA staff, designer Mary Burroughs, Toso Himel, Shirley David, Stacy Boulware Eurie, Nichole DeSantis, Phil Heller and Ken Rabiroff for their significant assistance this year.

If you missed any of this year’s issues, their contents are available at the SCBA’s website, www.sacbar.org.