Arts Winners of @azatty Displayed as May Facebook Profile Pictures

“Pima County Jail Parking Lot” by John Levy, a photography category winner of the 2013 Arizona Attorney Magazine Creative Arts Competition

Last fall, I wrote about the pleasure I take in Facebook’s then-new broad profile photo. I argued that it could especially be useful for businesses on that social media channel.

The question of whether to keep your message’s delivery unchanging and rock-solid, or to alter it in ways permitted by Facebook, is not an easy question. I pointed out that, as an editor on a monthly magazine, I like to visually feature a snapshot of each month’s cover story.

This is May, though, and I faced the dilemma of representing our arts competition winners. Last year, I decided to curate my own shot (see below). The result was a mass of art supplies surrounding our May issue. I still like it (though opinions may differ).

Arizona Attorney Facebook Screen shot May 2012

This year, though, I tried something else: featuring some of the great visual work that won our prizes.

Therefore, if you go to the Arizona Attorney Magazine Facebook page this month, you will see that the broad cover image changes about six times throughout the month. Those changes give us the chance to display a variety of great work in the categories of photography and painting.

Our page is at http://www.facebook.com/ArizonaAttorneyMagazine

I just changed the image this morning, so it now displays John Levy’s photograph “Pima County Jail Parking Lot.”

To see all the photos, past, present and future, be sure to “Like” us on Facebook. And stop by our photos page to see what else we’ve shown.

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My Last Word Addresses Justice on Tribal Lands

Arizona Attorney’s “End Notes,” from the early 2000s.

One of the biggest challenges every magazine faces is: What do you do with your back page?

Specifically, that means the inside back page, typically the last “edit” page in the magazine, followed by a page or more of advertising. After the cover and the contents page, it is typically the most-read page in a magazine (aside from lawyer discipline, in our case!).

When I started at Arizona Attorney Magazine years ago, we tried a variety of things, including a page dedicated to legal trivia (and even incorporating a quiz), called “End Notes.” But as time went on, we gravitated back to a traditional inside last page with commentary from folks we thought readers would appreciate (or respond to, or both). We call the page The Last Word.

Our “stable” of regularly recurring columnists has varied, but it has stayed the same over the past few years (though we are open to ideas for people to add as a regular columnists; send a note to me at arizona.attorney@azbar.org).

Over time, though, we found that there were more diverse voices among Arizona lawyers that should be shared. These are those people who may have no interest in writing regularly, but who have one great and compelling column in them. They have a message they feel should be conveyed. Aside from a letter to the editor, where is the magazine space for them?

Arizona lawyer Don Bayles. Jr.

That’s when we developed My Last Word—identical in appearance and word count to The last Word, but open to any lawyer who has something to say. (Like all content, submissions are reviewed for appropriateness, timeliness and relevance.)

If you or someone you know is interested in pursuing a column, write to me (arizona.attorney@azbar.org).

The May issue contains a compelling example of My Last Word. Written by Don Bayles, Jr., it addresses the heartbreaking problem of violence against women and girls in Indian reservations. The challenges include jurisdiction and vast distances, and they are substantial.

Here is how Don opened his column:

“Horrific violence toward women and children on southwestern tribal lands continues to disappoint. Up to 90 percent of girls in Hopi villages can expect to be sexually molested, according to a September 2012 interview with Arlene Honanie, the wife of the tribe’s vice chairman. Ms. Honanie said that this happens, at least in part, because offenders are so rarely punished. A nearby advocate for reservation victims offered a similar observation in cases involving the Navajo Nation. Speaking to a New York Times reporter, Caroline Antone said, ‘I know only a couple of people who have not been raped, out of hundreds.’ If these reports are even roughly accurate, the Rule of Law within our adjacent Indian nations has lost credibility. As one human rights leader has said, ‘If you’re not safe, nothing else matters.’”

You should read Don’s entire column, here.

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Generosity Yields One-of-a-Kind Magazine Cover

A few days ago, I happily related a recognition bestowed on two men, Paul Julien and Mark Meltzer, who serve justice in Arizona every day. Much to my delight, there is a cheery follow-up on this Change of Venue Friday.

In that post, I had noted an Arizona Attorney Magazine cover that featured Jeff Schrade, who heads up Education Services at the Supreme Court Administrative Office of the Courts (say that five times fast). At our prodding, Jeff had gamely agreed more than a decade ago to serve as a cover model for us. But this week Jeff also reminded me of another permutation of that cover, one that announced his son’s birth. (That was way back in 2001; Nathan is 12 years old now!)

In my haste, I completely forgot to locate that image and share it. But Jeff was generous once again, so here it is. In this post, you get to see the one and only payment Jeff ever received for being a patient and good-humored magazine model.

First, here is the cover we ran with:

Jeff Schrade on our April 2001 Arizona Attorney Magazine cover … .

And here is the altered cover announcing his son’s birth (now displayed in Jeff’s office):

… and a new cover is born.

Advancing age being what it is, I cannot recall exactly how we developed that cover. Someone with skills way beyond mine had to have done the work. The best Jeff and I can recall, Matt Silverman, the Bar’s former communications head, probably had his finger in the mix. Not to mention our former Art Director, Carl Bezuidenhout, and then-Production Manager (now lawyer) Leslie Ross.

In any case, enjoy your weekend. And know that assistance to a magazine editor may yield great rewards!

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Lawyer–Authors Honored for Their Contributions By @azcourts

This week I heard great news about some of my favorite people: Arizona Attorney Magazine authors.

Besides that admirable distinction, these two men are pretty remarkable in their own right. Paul Julien and Mark Meltzer both serve the Arizona justice system via their substantial positions at the Supreme Court.

Jeff Schrade (left) and Justice Scott Bales (right) present framed Arizona Attorney articles to lawyer-authors Paul Julien (center-left) and Mark Meltzer, April 2013.

As their humble and succinct bios say: “Paul Julien is the Judicial Education Officer for the Arizona Supreme Court, and was chair of the committee mentioned charged with reviewing and proposing changes to the Justice Court rules. Mark Meltzer is a specialist with the Administrative Office of the Courts, and served as committee staff.”

The news came my way from Jeff Schrade, once a colleague at the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services & Education, and now the Director of the Education Services Division at the Arizona Supreme Court AOC.

Jeff sent the accompanying photo and news about an event at which Court staff recognized the two men for their publication in Arizona Attorney. (I think that should be a tradition at every workplace!) The article they wrote for us provided valuable and timely information about changed rules applying to the much-misunderstood Justice Courts.

You can read the complete article here.

The opening to Paul and Mark’s Justice Court rules story, Jan. 2013.

Here is a bit about the award, in Jeff’s own words:

“Today I gave Paul Julien and Mark Meltzer framed copies of their Jan 2013 Arizona Attorney article about the Justice Court Civil Rules of Procedure. Vice Chief Justice Scott Bales made a special presentation to Paul and Mark at the conclusion of our Limited Jurisdiction New Judge Orientation, which took place this week at the Arizona Supreme Court Judicial Education Center in downtown.”

“The 20 new Limited Jurisdiction judges attending this three-week program gave Paul and Mark a standing ovation, recognizing not only their excellence on this particular project, but their daily efforts to train and provide assistance to limited jurisdiction judges across the state.”

“As you know, Mark and Paul not only wrote about the new rules in the Arizona Attorney, but they lead a committee with a wide representation of justice stakeholders through lengthy process to rewrite the rules. It was an extraordinary effort that produced more accessible and understandable rules, especially for the many pro se litigants appearing before justice courts.”

Jeff Schrade, that handsome devil, graced the April 2001 cover of Arizona Attorney Magazine.

The Court’s recognition is well deserved, but that January article is just the tip of the service iceberg for Paul and Mark. They have helped the state and the Court in countless ways. And here at the magazine, their involvement has gone beyond writing (as Mark also did in our March 2013 issue). They are both go-to people whom I count on for advice and insight on so many topics. Every editor I know has a kitchen cabinet, and I’m pleased to say these two men are reliable and wise members of mine.

A side note: Jeff Schrade, too, has been a part of the Arizona Attorney family, in a very personal way. Way back in our April 2001 issue, when I had helmed the magazine for just three months, we wanted to provide a great visual to front our deep coverage of lawyer marketing and advertising.

Always a great sport, Jeff donned a sandwich board and stood on First Avenue in downtown Phoenix for at least an hour while the photographer, art director and I all helped shepherd passersby around the generous photo-model.

(There were other heroes that day: Two Bar colleagues—Bonnie Lebeck and Natalie Burns— also assisted, by striding past quickly, over and over—backwards!—to provide the necessary blur.)

Adding to the surreality experienced by commuters that morning was the fact that the sandwich board was blank; we would add the desired words to the image of the board at a later design stage. What a mensch!

Jeff recently told me, “For the record, I still proudly display the special cover you made for me welcoming the birth of my son Nathan (who is 12 now) back in 2001!”

We like the cover quite a bit ourselves!

Congratulations again to Mark Meltzer and Paul Julien. Here’s looking to years more collaboration!

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Good and Plain Writing Recognized by @plain_language

Our February 2013 issue with Bob McWhirter’s pictorial feature on less-lawyerly writing.

This week, I was pleased to see the announcement of honorees recognized for their clear and plain writing. Here at Arizona Attorney Magazine, we enjoy good writing and like to publish articles on it whenever we can—as we did here. I hope you enjoy it too.

The Center for Plain Language (even the organization’s name is transparent) gives awards annually to the best (and worst) examples of, well, plain writing. Here is how they describe their mission:

“The Center for Plain Language is a D.C.-based nonprofit organization that wants government and business documents to be clear and understandable. We support those who use plain language, train those who should use plain language, and urge people to demand plain language in all the documents they receive, read, and use.”

You can read more about them here. (Lawyers, how can you not love an organization that states, “Plain language is a civil right”?!) But on this Change of Venue Friday, let me tell you about this week’s winners and “winners.” (You may be surprised—as I was—that no law firms made it into one of the categories.)

(All of the winners and their opposite are posted online, here and here, respectively.)

Their top winner captured the “Grand ClearMark Award” (that’s the good category). The best-in-show honoree is the March of Dimes, which published a brochure titled Thinking About Your Family Health History. Here’s what the Center’s judges said:

“[T]he brochure is written and designed with its target audience, parents-to-be, in mind. The brochure is an excellent example of plain language with easy to understand medical terms, and a clear, concise, and appropriate writing style designed to appeal to the target audience. The brochure uses colors, font, white space, and graphics effectively to add to its clarity.”

Wouldn’t we all like our writing efforts to be described so glowingly?

Top winner of Center for Plain Language award: March of Dimes (first page of a multi-page brochure)

Meantime, what’s up at the other end of the spectrum (I know you all raced here first), in the category the Center calls the WonderMark Award? Before I reveal the “honoree,” I should let the Center explain why the award has the name it does:

“WonderMark Awards are given for the least usable documents. The sort of documents that make us shake our heads and say: ‘We wonder what they meant. We wonder what they were thinking.’”

Pretty funny folks.

Anyway, the bottom winner is Charles Schwab, for a New Yorker advertisement that, indeed, makes us shake our head.

Not their best effort? New Yorker ad by Charles Schwab

I must share the Center’s own description of why they “recognized” this ad:

“What made it a WonderMark Award recipient?

• So hard to read and decipher, it’s hard to judge.
• Contradictory and frankly intimidating to the reader.
• Of the 768 words in this ad, 700 are legalese. That’s over 90%!
• One WonderMark judge summarized: ‘Sigh … once again a financial institution that expects me to trust them with my money makes it impossible for me to know what they are going to do with my money.’”

The website announcement unfortunately truncated that last quotation. In the press release I received, the quote continues, “My mattress is looking better and better all the time.”

Who writes their stuff? This is gold—gold, I tell you!

Follow them on Twitter here, and join their open group on Facebook here.

Enjoy your weekend, and keep on writing (well).

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Esteemed @ArizonaLaw Alum, Trial Lawyer Richard D. Grand Dies

Attorney Richard D. Grand, 1930-2013

I am sorry to report some very sad news: Tucson trial lawyer Richard Grand has died.

I have written about Richard before, both in print and online multiple times, including here. And I have always been equal parts impressed and amused by Richard’s approach to the law and to human interactions. He was a University of Arizona Law School graduate and a huge supporter of their subsequent efforts.

Over the years, I would hear from Richard regularly. But it was only in the past few years that I was able to meet him (and his wonderful wife Marcia) in person.

Richard Grand: An Attorney until the end.

His death was sudden and unexpected. I expect I will write more about Richard later, but for now, I share his obituary, which opens thus:

“Attorney Richard D. Grand, 83, of Tucson, nationally recognized for his success as a plaintiff’s trial lawyer, died suddenly in San Francisco on April 7 of natural causes. Grand was the founder of The Inner Circle of Advocates, a group of plaintiffs’ attorneys called by The National Law Journal ‘the elite of the plaintiffs’ bar.’”

Attorney was so much a part of Richard’s DNA that the header for his obituary—which typically contains only the decedent’s name—included the word “Attorney.” Thus, even in the index of obituaries, he is listed as “Attorney Richard D. Grand.” Classic.

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Story Ideas Sought: Water Law, Energy, Sustainability

When you tell Arizona folks you want to talk about water resources, they listen. In fact, they may well want to chime in themselves.

That’s what I discovered recently when I drafted my April 2013 Editor’s Letter for Arizona Attorney Magazine. Like every editor, I am always seeking content that advances the conversation, and we’re always on the prowl for stories that are pertinent and timely.

Based on numerous dialogues I’ve had in the past six months, it occurred to me that a few of the areas we should be covering are water resources and energy generation. So I asked.

Happily, I heard from a good number of people with their ideas. But I’d like to hear from even more. And that’s why I’m including that April column below (you can read it and the complete issue here). If you want to be part of the conversation—either as a published author or as someone we should quote in a story—write to me at arizona.attorney@azbar.org.

Dept. of Power, Water, More Power

In a desert climate, more effort may be expended on energy issues than in other places. And the horse-trading among powerful interests will only increase in 2013.

Back in 2010, we heard from University of Arizona Law Professor Robert Glennon. The water expert said, “What we do to water is what we did to the buffalo: Harvest it to the brink of extinction.”

Even with H₂O, what we value is connected to how much we pay: “Water lubricates the American economy just as much as oil does, but Americans pay less for water than we do for cellphone service or cable television.”

The Navajo Generating Station near Page is at the center of a legal dispute that involves the Salt River Project and the Navajo Nation.

An intriguing panel last month on water in a desert climate addressed that and other issues. It opened with the question, “Do we really have enough water? Really?” (I also wrote about the panel online at http://wp.me/pEOwt-2rX).

The interrelatedness of energy issues was clear as speakers addressed the coal-fired Navajo Generating Station, for which the EPA has advised requires huge and expensive changes. Assuming improvements cost $1 billion (with a b) or more, we may have to reassess water pricing.

Historian Paul Hirt relayed a humorous story demonstrating that water in Arizona is even cheaper than dirt. He got estimates on having a ton of clean topsoil delivered to his house. A ton of clean water (according to WikiAnswers, about 240 gallons) delivered from SRP would cost about 20 times that.

“20 times cheaper,” Hirt marveled, “to get this precious, life-giving resource.”

Heather Macre, a lawyer and Central Arizona Conservation Water Board member, reexamined relations we thought we understood. For instance, she says, “When you turn on a lightbulb, you’re using water. When you turn on your faucet, you’re using electricity.”

Are we trapped in a “relentless cycle of overuse,” as Glennon says? What next steps make sustainable sense, legally or otherwise?

This year, we’d like to cover more energy topics in the magazine. To do that, we need your help.

What issues related to water or other resource should be our focus? What are the legal developments we should follow? And who are the lawyers who should be on our list of sources and authors? Write to us at arizona.attorney@azbar.org.

“Do we have enough water?” panelists were asked? One responded, “Yes, but ….”

What’s your answer?

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Our Decade of Arts – and Arts Ads

Our current grinning look for the Arts Competition

We’ve hit the 10-year mark for our Creative Arts Competition at Arizona Attorney Magazine. Here is how I drafted the opening to our arts pages in the May 2013 issue (on newsstands soon!):

“10 years is a long time to do most anything. But here at Arizona Attorney Magazine, it stuns us that we’ve been privileged to host our lawyer–artists since 2004. It may not feel like just yesterday that we launched the finest attorney arts competition in the country, but a decade? It’s hard to believe.”

“In those years, we have had the opportunity to enjoy sharing parts of the legal brain beyond pleadings and contracts. And we have been pleased beyond words by the commitment of hundreds and hundreds of lawyers, each of whom answers ‘Yes yes yes’ to the question of whether there is more to life than work work work.”

A lot of amazing occurred in those 10 years. But one thing that struck me was this: What nervous Nellies we were.

When we decided to launch this new initiative early in the 2000s, the Editorial Board and I were concerned that our lawyer–readers would see it as fluff, and that no one would submit. And even if they did, how talented were the lawyers, really?

Pretty funny concerns, I think, now that I look back. But if we want a glimpse at the odd worries that possessed us, we need look only to the evolution of our “call for artists” ads through the years. As you’ll see below in this sample of work, we began with a look that would have fit in a 19th-century paleontology journal. And our categories were strictly legal—and included zero visual-arts content!

Over time, as we saw the popularity of the competition, we loosened up a bit, on our categories and our design. Finally, in the past few years we have posted ads that could be run in any magazine of general circulation.

Write to arizona.attorney@azbar.org and tell me your favorites.

Here is a selection of our ads through the past decade.

 

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Arts Competition Music Winners Matt Feeney, Larry Winthrop

The May issue of Arizona Attorney Magazine will feature the remarkable work of lawyer-artists who prevailed in our annual arts competition. Congratulations to all of those attorneys.

As always, we have some winners whose work is not easily re-created in magazine pages. Those winners in our Music category this year are Matthew Feeney and Larry Winthrop.

Matt Feeney

Larry Winthrop

You may already know them, but here is how they describe themselves:

Matt Feeney and Larry Winthrop have been musical partners for nearly 30 years. Matt is a senior partner at Snell & Wilmer, and Larry is a state appellate court judge. Together with the other members of feeney/winthrop (Pat Winthrop, Kathleen Feeney, and Gerry Garcia), they have recorded several CDs, with the last two (“Give Yourself to Love” and “Simple Gifts”) now available on iTunes and Amazon.com. The group’s annual fund-raising concerts have to date raised in excess of $100,000 for St. Joseph the Worker, a non-profit organization devoted to job training for the homeless. “The Reunion” is a song Matt wrote after attending a wedding with college friends some years after graduation.

Finally, here is what you came here for. Matt Feeney, Larry Winthrop and feeney/winthrop perform their original song “The Reunion.”

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Jodi Arias Trial and Arizona Noteworthy for Juror Questions

Yesterday, I was looking for something on the CNN website (good luck) when I came across their recently omnipresent viewer-discretion warning about the Jodi Arias trial. Here’s a screen-grab (the big honking arrow is mine, though the station bosses might decide they like it).

CNN’s Jodi Arias trial viewer-discretion warning

I’ve watched a bit of the Arias trial, but not much. Given the questions I’ve received from friends and colleagues around the country (usually beginning, “Let me get this straight …”), it’s helpful for me to know something about the case facts.

Long after those facts are adjudicated, though, the complex legal issues will be debated (probably with no viewer-discretion warning required). And even beyond that, we’ll assess the effectiveness of juror questions.

Yes, there have been a few tawdry inquiries from those colleagues around the country. But more often, I have been surprised at the number of them who have asked about juror questions: “You allow that in Arizona?”

Arizona Attorney Magazine cover, February 2001

Indeed we do, as well as note-taking and some other semi-unique elements.

The number of juror questions posed in this trial may be remarkable, but the fact that they may inquire at all has been a part of Arizona jurisprudence for a long time now.

For some background on that, you should read “O Pioneer,” our 2001 article about then-Judge Michael Dann. He and others were leaders in initiatives to transform the jury process. Other states have participated, but Arizona was (and is) a leader.

Posted on their website, the Arizona Supreme Court has the remarkable original report (from 1994 and 1998) called “The Power of 12.” It’s in two parts, here and here. It was drafted by the Court’s Committee on the More Effective Use of Juries.

For more recent coverage of courts that permit juror questions, go here. As the story opens:

“A small number of states have changed their laws and court rules to allow jurors to ask witnesses questions, either orally or in writing through the judge. Written questions submitted in advanced allow attorneys for both sides to make objections based either on the ground they would violate the rules governing the admission of evidence or would result in prejudice against their clients.”

Michael Dann, former Judge on the Superior Court for Maricopa County

“The states that expressly encourage judges to allow jurors to question witnesses are Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Nevada and North Carolina. Out of these jurisdictions, Arizona, Florida, and Kentucky require that judges allow jurors to ask written questions. The respective highest state courts of Indiana and Kentucky have ruled jurors have a right to ask questions of witnesses.”

But changes like this can lead to unpredictable results. You should read this Washington Post story from 2007, titled “Jurors’ Queries Yield Insights—and Laughs,” which opens with a humorous anecdote showing that jurors may focus on areas that counsel may find irrelevant:

“Former New York Times reporter Judith Miller was on the witness stand yesterday and a juror wanted to know why she had decided to go to jail for 85 days before agreeing to testify about her conversations with I. Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby.”

“Another juror had a different kind of question for Miller about her notes from a conversation with Libby: Was storing notebooks in a large shopping bag under her desk her standard method for saving her notes?”

“So the jurors asked.”

For trial lawyer readers, have you found juror questions to be a feature that improves the process? Have you found queries annoying? Or have they given you an opportunity to clarify issues that may be blocking a jury decision?

Write to me at arizona.attorney@azbar.org.

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