Page 173 - The First Fifty Years

Do Not Delete 1/8/2015 10:16 AM

ENDURINGLY GREAT 167

No technological advancement, however, was more visible
than the reintroduction of HLRe: Off the Record. This online-only
companion to Houston Law Review, introduced by Board 48 and
focusing exclusively on matters of practical concern to the
profession, gives a voice to local practitioners without sacrificing
valuable pages in the print journal.62 Its introduction created the
need for a new editorial position—Chief HLRe Editor—which,
when combined with an increase throughout the decade in the
number of Senior Articles Editors from one to four, led to a
growth in the Editorial Board’s “final” group of editors from the
“final four” to the “final eight.”

Increased national prestige and its burdensome corollary
responsibilities did not interfere with the student editors’
penchant for turning the lemon of law review servitude into
something resembling lemonade. Numerous teambuilding
activities were implemented throughout the decade, with each
board recognizing the importance of morale to work product.
Board 43 introduced an annual community service day event,
Board 48 began a fall alumni tailgate to correspond with a
University of Houston Cougars football game, Board 49 started a
spring field day and resurrected a mixer with the Law Center’s
faculty, and Board 50 proudly constituted the first annual “Battle
of the Paddle” ping pong tournament among the student editors.

On the horizon, a deliberate reduction in student enrollment
by the Law Center (designed to enhance the quality of a UHLC
legal education even in the face of drastically fewer law school
applications nationwide) doubtless will cause change, even if
modest, for future boards.63 Fortunately, the efficiencies
developed by a half-century of precedent, and documented
thoroughly throughout these essays, should moderate the impact
significantly.

Advisors and Judges

These essays have been concerned, first and foremost, with
the enormous contributions to Houston Law Review, made
through the decades, by its student editors. Others, however, also
served. Herewith, a few observations regarding faculty advisors
and judges associated with HLR over the past 50 years.64

Advisors. Contrary to popular memory (among, at least, the

members of Boards 8 through 44), G. Sidney Buchanan was not
the first, or only, faculty advisor ever to grace the halls of
Houston Law Review. He did, however, come darned close,

serving in all five decades of HLR’s initial 50 years. Preceding