Page 99 - The First Fifty Years
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euthanasia, regulation, caring for an aging population, law and
ethics—the Institute ensured a broad range of topics for the
abundantly qualified participants. Health care was thus front
and center in the latter half of Decade 3. But “themed issues”
that were not necessarily the product of a symposium,
conference, or lecture remained as well. None was more vital to
the Review’s continuing growth and success than the revised
Rules of Evidence Handbook.

                           Cathy Cochran’s Evidence

      Cathleen Cochran (Herasimchuk)86 began the decade as an
HLR student editor and closed it out with a thorough revamping
of one of the most important pieces of scholarship ever published
by Houston Law Review. From student to scholar in only a
decade, Cathy Cochran was the principal author of Volume 30’s
second edition of the Texas Rules of Evidence Handbook, which
encompassed that volume’s Issues 1 and 2.

      Cochran’s presence was particularly appropriate, given her
pupilage under Newell Blakely (the driving force behind, and
compiler of, the Handbook’s first edition)87 during her time as a
student.88 Volume 30 contained two dedications. One, not
surprisingly, was in the nature of a farewell tribute to Blakely.89
The other was to Cochran for “complet[ing] this project of some
1200 pages of writing with unfailing grace and skill.”90

      She earned the recognition the old-fashioned way: through
toil and devotion. Two years earlier, Board 28’s Publications
Editor had reported to the Board of Directors, during the fall
1990 Board meeting, that “Cathy Herasimchuk plunged into this
project with vigor.”91 The Review’s dedication similarly
recognized her “Herculean effort, unwavering application, and
outstanding ability.”92

      Already known in Texas legal circles as “Ms. Evidence,”
Cochran not only rewrote the original handbook’s commentary on
the civil rules of evidence but added to its second edition a
complete analysis of the state’s criminal rules of evidence.

      The importance of Cochran’s ultimate production cannot be
overstated. Most obviously, the second edition of the Handbook
helped ensure that one of HLR’s important ongoing functions—
service to the Texas bar—would not abate.

      In addition, however, there was the ever-present bottom line
to consider. Published as Issues 29:1 and 29:2 to “spread the cost
over two issues,”93 the Handbook constituted the greatest
financial windfall of Houston Law Review’s young life. The new
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