Our cover story this month features Thomas A. "Tac" Craven, the SCBA 2004 Distinguished Attorney. As the profile by John Bachman shows, Tac is an excellent and ethical lawyer as well as a man committed to community service. Although the SCBA honors Tac for his many achievements, we are actually all honored and privileged to be part of a legal community that includes people like Tac. Congratulations, Tac, and thank you for everything you have done in the field of civic education!

While we honor Tac this month, this issue is dedicated to a recently-departed pillar of our legal community, Bion Gregory. I got to know Bion in 2003 when he served as SCBA President. I was always impressed by Bion's lack of pretentiousness and his warmth. When talking to Bion, one almost forgot that he was a veritable legal institution: the longest-serving legislative counsel in California history. To honor Bion, this issue includes a photo montage of his life, the text of two of the eulogies from the his funeral, and some excerpts from Bion's columns for Sacramento Lawyer. I would like to thank Patty Gregory and Joan Stone for their assistance in obtaining the photographs and Charity Kenyon and Bob Sullivan for letting us print their eulogies.

In addition to featuring local lawyers, this magazine attempts to provide you with a modicum of news that you might find helpful in your legal practice. This month, we have two such articles. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Loren McMaster has provided us with a summary of new statutes and cases that affect law and motion matter in state court. Sandra Gillies reports about electronic case filing, which takes effect in federal court here in Sacramento as of January 1, 2005.

This issue marks the debut of Coral Henning as the author of Law Library News and its sidebar, Surfing From River City. As you know from the last issue, Coral has replaced the recently-retired Shirley Hart David as Sacramento Public Law Librarian. Welcome, Coral.

Finally, I'd like to close 2004 by encouraging any of you who have an interest in submitting articles to this magazine to do so. I would especially encourage many of the SCBA's sections to contribute summaries of their activities. The SCBA is like an archipelago, and the many sections are its islands. Unfortunately, the larger legal community has no way of knowing about the great activities of your island unless you publicize your events by submitting articles. I cannot promise that this magazine can always accommodate all submissions, but we do our best.