Page 92 - The First Fifty Years

Do Not Delete 1/8/2015 10:15 AM

86 HOUSTON LAW REVIEW

the “slow” transition to utilization of the machine: the word-
processing technology of 1983 evidently required a degree of
technical know-how not necessarily present in the basement.38
(Later in the decade, Bracewell & Patterson offered to assist with
additional word-processing services through its offices,
apparently to alleviate the bottleneck created by the dearth of
high-tech proficiency among the student editors.)39

By the spring of 1987, HLRAA had purchased two new
computers for the Review’s benefit, allowing for direct
connectivity that cut out the Federal Express middleman during
the publication cycle.40 That fall, the students of Board 25
abandoned the “time honored system of indexing each volume by
means of index cards in favor of a computer system that will be
largely automatic.”41 Subsequent years brought HLR’s
acquisition of an electronic Westlaw terminal (spring 1988),42 a
refrigerator for the office (spring 1989),43 the publication of all
HLR articles in Westlaw’s electronic database (spring 1991),44
the utilization of modern desktop publishing software (summer
1991),45 renovated offices (fall 1992),46 and a modernized
computer lab, complete with new computers, a fax machine, and
laser printers (spring 1993).47

Increasingly sophisticated scholarship, larger membership
numbers, more efficient organizational procedures, and a higher
degree of technological proficiency than previously thought
possible—what perturbation could possibly have thrown a
wrench in the increasingly well-oiled HLR machine?

Finances, of course.
Late in Decade 2, higher publishing costs and reduced school
funding had taken a toll: the Review’s balance sheet was showing
red. In response, Associate Dean Raymond T. Nimmer had given
marching orders that the Review must develop a source of private
funding for its daily operations. A temporary (but substantial)
reprieve came quickly, as the first edition of the perfectly timed
Texas Rules of Evidence Handbook almost miraculously filled the
financial void. Barely a year into publication, the Handbook had
sold 2,600 copies for total revenue of $122,000.48 Ultimately,
thousands of additional copies would sell, generating nearly
$200,000 for the Review, which accounted for more than 80% of
the endowment funds relied upon to fund operations.49
In the years following the Handbook’s publication, however,
the Review’s ambition, which had led to the publication of
multiple large books50 and special issues and which had brought
greater recognition of Houston Law Review in the Texas and
national legal communities, had led also to renewed financial