Page 126 - The First Fifty Years

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120 HOUSTON LAW REVIEW

Sergesketter saw in the young professor, himself something
of a scholar, “the perfect person to brainstorm with in an attempt
to devise a way to attract even more top-tier scholars to the
Review.” Recognizing that HLR, thanks largely to the success of
its Texas Rules of Evidence Handbook (Second Edition) a year
earlier, was now in the fortunate position of having an
endowment sufficient at least to cover operating expenses, the
professor wondered aloud whether the journal might be willing to
risk stretching its finances further to create a new and not
inexpensive lecture series to be underwritten by the Review
itself.27 Sergesketter, who had begun to think along similar lines
already, got the point immediately.

The concept was to offer modest stipends to three scholars—
one keynote speaker and two commentators—who would speak
on campus on a common topic and then publish in Houston Law
Review the papers they had written as the basis for their oral
presentations. Compiled together, these papers would form the
foundation of a special symposium issue. Because the Review
would fly the speakers to Houston for a celebratory dinner the
night before the lecture and a tour of the Law Center on the day
thereof, the lecture series would have the added benefit of
bringing some well-deserved publicity to one of the nation’s best
younger law schools.

There would, of course, be financial consequences, or so the
EIC and the professor believed. Sergesketter relates:

While [we] recognized that this use of endowment
funds likely would delay achieving the Review’s goal of
financial independence, we both believed deeply that this
was a worthy trade-off in the long-run. While financial
independence certainly was an important goal, we saw it
as secondary to the Review’s mission of publishing top
scholarship by top scholars. This new concept for a
lecture series sponsored by [HLR], if successful, would in
one bold step allow the Review rapidly to enhance its
reputation in academic circles. And with such an
enhancement in Houston Law Review’s reputation also
would come a further enhancement of the Law Center’s
reputation.28
It sounded like a plan.
After collaborating over the next few weeks to refine the idea
for the new lecture series, the co-conspirators met with Acting
Dean Raymond T. Nimmer, who had long sought to stabilize the
Review’s financial footing,29 to present the proposal. Nimmer
immediately supported it and even offered to assist with
alleviating any financing dilemmas. In short order, the Dean