Page 53 - The First Fifty Years

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CARRY ON BOLDLY 47

Aurelius—opining in a way related to the topic at hand; then, an
introductory section generally describing the history of the law
and announcing what would follow in the main body of the
chapter; and finally, as many as eleven subsections detailing
with specificity the “ins and outs” of that chapter’s concentration.
Texas law was the focus, and Texas lawyers were the intended
audience. Yet HLR’s publication of this series of articles was not
entirely inconsistent with its desire to become a national journal.
The law of medical malpractice was, at the time, undergoing a
period of expansion and transformation nationwide.42 Perdue
himself acknowledged the need to consider the Texas-centered
nature of his articles in a wider context: “In addition to collating
Texas authority, an attempt has been made to point out areas
where the law may not be particularly clear and where the law
may undergo future modification.”43

Today, Perdue on Medical Malpractice is remembered as one
of the most influential works published in the history of the
Review. This quasi-book ushered in a new era in HLR’s service to
the Texas Bar. Together, Perdue’s Medical Malpractice and a
similar work in Volume 14 co-authored by Perdue with legendary
Houston practitioner James Sales, The Law of Strict Tort
Liability in Texas,44 ensured that local attorneys would be well-
prepared to litigate the high volume of med-mal and products
liability cases that arose in Texas (and across the nation) during
the following years.45 Other “themed issues” and numerous
individual articles published throughout Decade 2 would prove
similarly beneficial for practitioners in other areas of interest to
Texas lawyers.

From corporate law to appellate advocacy and small claims
litigation, Volumes 11–20 offered dozens of articles focused on
the types of practical legal issues that Texas lawyers encountered
every day. The decade began with articles like practitioner
Edward A. Turley’s Changing Capital Structures and
Shareholders in a Closely-Held Texas Corporation46 in Volume
11, and SMU professor Roy Ryden Anderson’s Coercive Collection
and Exempt Property in Texas: A Debtor’s Paradise or a Living
Hell?47 in Volume 13. Sandwiched in between in Volume 12 was
Appealing Jury Findings,48 an article by now-famous Law Center
alumna Michol O’Connor.

Among the topics continuing to receive attention in the
pages of the Review throughout the decade was one which, along
with health law, would come to loom large in Decades 3–5:
computer and intellectual property law. In Volume 17, Raymond
T. Nimmer, one of the many Decade 2 College of Law hires and
distinguished scholars who had begun to come online as HLR