Eastern District of Texas Federal Court Practice

Texas Bar Journal editorial board

SBOT President Harper Estes appointed me to one other thing this year, and that was to return me to the editorial board of the Texas Bar Journal, this time as vice chair.  I was originally appointed to a three year term on the TBJ board by then-president Eduardo Rodriguez when I joined the Bar board in 2005 as his appointment - each Bar president appoints one incoming director to the editorial board.  I rotated off, but Harper asked me to come back on as vice chair.  I recently met with TBJ editorial board chair David McAtee and editor Kevin Priestner in Dallas about some of the great ideas they have for the TBJ this year, and am looking forward to our first full meeting of the editorial board next month.
Once again, I'm posting here to solicit comments about the Texas Bar Journal - if you've got gripes, kudos, or ideas, just drop me a line.

State Bar of Texas Committee Review Task Force

State Bar President Harper Estes recently appointed me to the State Bar's 2008-09 Committee Review Task Force.  Briefly, as part of the State Bar's last sunset review before the Legislature, the Bar was required to review its standing committee structure at least biennially to ensure that the committees in place are needed and don't overlap, and that the policies governing those committees are appropriate.  Our first meeting is next week, at which time the committee chair, SBOT president-elect Roland Johnson will get us organized (actually the staff has already done that) and we'll start work.  Each member of the committee has been assigned two or three committees to review - in my case I will be doing some of the committee's legwork on the Law Practice Management, Local Bar Services and Public Affairs committee.  Our committee will work through the fall and eventually submit a report to the State Bar Executive Committee and to the entire Bar board in January 2009.
I look forward to working on the committee, and to another chance to work with some of my good friends who are still active with the State Bar (and readers may know, I rotated off the Bar board in June, but sometimes they just won't let you go...)
The reason I am posting on this here is to solicit any input any readers have on the State Bar's standing committees.  If you have any comments or input you want, just shoot me an e-mail and I'll either take it or put you in touch with the right people.