Page 66 - The First Fifty Years

Do Not Delete 1/5/2015 4:03 PM

60 HOUSTON LAW REVIEW

When we took office, [printing remained] seriously behind schedule—not due to
lack of hard work but simply because the Law Review publications were handled
by the on-campus printer. To the extent football games or other events required
printed material, such events took priority. As a consequence, Law Review
articles were constantly being pushed to the back of the line. One of my first
tasks was to remedy this situation. Before going to law school, I had worked in
state government in Austin, Texas and, therefore, was familiar with the State
Board of Control. With the help and cooperation of the law school dean, the Law
Review (complying with all applicable state regulations) put the printing of [its]
publications out for bid; the bid was awarded to the lowest “off campus” printer.
With the help of the hardest working group of articles editors, we made
substantial progress in getting caught up. My memory is we either completely
caught up or we made such a substantial dent that the subsequent board caught
up, with publications by the Law Review being back on schedule.
Questionnaire Response, Donna Sue Burnett, Locke Lord LLP (Oct. 15, 2012) (on file with
Houston Law Review).
28. Joyce, Driven, supra, at 8.
29. See id. at 9.
30. See infra, “Highest Quality Service to the Texas Bar.”
31. The “vast American West” includes, notably, the Great State of Texas. The drive
east to west, from Beaumont to El Paso, is a leisurely 828 miles.
32. As reported by Board 15 Editor in Chief Robert Pittsford, “We felt that Houston,
as the preeminent energy town in the U.S., ought to be the site of learned discussions on
current legal questions arising out of new energy technologies and supplies.” Pittsford
Questionnaire, supra note 27.
33. Questionnaire Response, Bruce Levy (Oct. 10, 2012) (on file with Houston Law
Review).
34. Board of Directors Meeting Minutes (Nov. 19, 1981) (on file with Houston Law
Review).
35. The minutes of the fall 1981 Board meeting reveal the mandate (although it was
phrased as an “offer”): “To [e]nsure the Review’s timeliness and overcome [publication]
delays, Dean Nimmer offered as a long-term solution, the funding of the Law Review
through private sources.” Board of Directors Meeting Minutes (Nov. 19, 1981) (on file with
Houston Law Review).
36. See Joyce, Driven, supra, at 9.
37. The story of Decade 1’s contents is chronicled under the subheading “CONDOMS
AND COCKROACHES” in Driven: The First Decade of Houston Law Review. Id.
38. Baylor Law Review, certainly more established and perhaps more secure in
appropriate staidness in those years, managed to publish the offending submission
without referencing condoms or cockroaches in the article’s title. See Arthur N. Bishop Jr.,
Trouble in a Bottle, 16 BAYLOR L. REV. 337 (1964).
39. The Review’s stated publishing policy during those years, as enunciated by
Board 14 Editor in Chief Nancy Taylor Reed (Shivers) was “to maintain the policy
followed by Board 13 of publishing a balanced Review; [that is,] [t]he articles, comments,
and casenotes that will be published will appeal to both practitioners and scholars.” Board
of Directors Meeting Minutes (Nov. 11, 1976) (on file with Houston Law Review).
40. In fact, it ultimately was published as a book in at least two editions.
41. Jim M. Perdue, The Law of Texas Medical Malpractice, 11 HOUS. L. REV. 1, 2
(1973).
42. Paul J. Barringer et al., Administrative Compensation of Medical Injuries: A
Hardy Perennial Blooms Again, 33 J. HEALTH POL. POL’Y & L. 727–33 (2008).
43. Perdue, supra note 41, at 2.
44. James B. Sales, The Law of Strict Tort Liability in Texas, 14 HOUS. L. REV. 1
(1976). Both Medical Malpractice and Strict Liability in Torts were republished as books
but also, like many other large projects of the period facilitated by the huge increase in