Publisher's Notebook

Richmond lawyer Craig T. Merritt (right) received the George Mason Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, Virginia Pro chapter last night.

The annual award recognizes an individual for his or her contributions to Virginia journalism.

Merritt, a partner at Christian & Barton, has been involved in a number of First Amendment and government access cases over the years.

He has often provided his counsel pro bono to groups that don’t have the resources to mount a fight.

Accepting the award at the SPJ reception at the 2300 Club in Richmond’s Church Hill, Merritt cited Mason’s willingness to fight the fights worth fighting for. For example, Mason originally opposed Virginia’s ratification of the Constitution, because it lacked a Bill of Rights.

Those rights, trumpeted by Mason himself in earlier writings, made their way into the Constitution in the first 10 amendments.

Take a look at the ad at the bottom of this post, a relic unearthed from our archives.

Who’s that dashing young chap in the picture?

Well, that would be me, circa 1990.

Back then, the home office in Boston strongly “encouraged” all the publishers at Lawyers Weekly Publications Inc. (there were only a handful of us) to create personality promo ads about ourselves and to provide an editorial statement of purpose for our newspapers.

I remember thinking the “Silent Partner” riff worked pretty well (i.e., like your law partner, only working in the background). At the time, though, I was only five years out of law school. Frankly, not too many law firms would have made me a partner.

My “perspective” from 1990, laid out in the ad, is still accurate: “Having a subscription to Lawyers Weekly is like having a research attorney on staff who scours the advance sheets and cases for 50 or 60 extra hours a week.”

A quick historical note is in order. Attorneys who were in practice back in the 1980s will remember the “advance sheets.” They were compilations of court decisions bound into a paperback in advance of the next Virginia Reports volume. Until Virginia Lawyers Weekly came along, it was the best way to stay on top of the latest cases.

More from 1990 Me: A subscription to our paper is “the most efficient, most cost effective tool an attorney in the commonwealth can have. I’ve had many, many lawyers tell me, ‘I don’t know what we did until Lawyers Weekly came along.”

That last part wasn’t just puffing – we heard that statement at bar shows and other meetings for years, until lawyers realized we were here to stay and part of the legal landscape.

I’d like to think we’d do a much better job now on a comparable promo ad – this one is awfully gray and text-heavy. But that was 1990.

I found this ad as I was going through our archives and photo files in preparation for this week’s 25th Anniversary feature – a retrospective of the Virginia State Bar Annual Meeting. Check out the photo spread on the home page for a trip in the Wayback Machine.

And, as it turns out, this week’s issue – the paper of June 13, 2011 – is our 25th birthday edition. The born-on date for Virginia Lawyers Weekly was June 9, 1986 – the second Monday in June, 25 years ago.

I’ve been here for most of that 25 years. I joined the paper in May 1988 directly from law practice. I’ve been here since Day Two; my colleague, Executive Editor Deborah Elkins, has been here since Day One.

We have had many changes to our business. Virginia Lawyers Weekly has remained our flagship product, but we’ve published books, directories and other special publications as well.

Our company was on the Internet very early, with the launch of our website, www.valawyersweekly.com, in 1996. With that development, a subscription to Virginia Lawyers Weekly became twice as valuable. You got a two-fer – the weekly print product, plus 24-7 access to the website, the searchable Archives and the site’s many other benefits.

We began publishing the popular Daily Alert in 2000, giving you a morning dollop of the latest caselaw and legal headlines from our paper and other news outlets across Virginia.

We were acquired by Dolan Media Company (now The Dolan Company) in 2004, and became part of a bigger, stronger operation. We added business-to-business events to our repertoire in 2006, with our first company awards program, Leaders in the Law; we added a second program, Influential Women of Virginia, in 2009. We began our Business and Law Breakfast event series this past April.

Law practice has had many changes as well. Recall the “laptop” computer that came in a small suitcase or the cell phone that looked like a shoe in a bag. Think of the room in the office that was once full of books…you’ll likely now find that same information on the firm’s server or off in a cloud. And dealing with the guy or gal on the other side of a case – it’s likely most of your dealings today are handled over email. Short, choppy and direct. For better or worse, that’s the current interaction of choice.

Two snapshots I found in the VLW photo archives give you an idea of how much has changed.

From 1992, there is a picture of our booth at the VSB confab, announcing the debut of a grand innovation at the time, our auto-fax system (“Opinions by Fax INSTANTLY”).

Juxtapose that image with a picture from 2010: Web Editor Sarah Rodriguez, live-tweeting the proceedings at the annual meeting.

Our mission for 25 years, regardless of the means of delivery, has remained the same: To bring you the vital information that helps you practice law better, more efficiently and more profitably. Providing you that service has been a privilege. So I say “Thank you” for letting us continue to work as your silent partners.

Thank you for subscribing (and renewing).

Thank you for advertising.

Thank you for the many cases, Verdicts & Settlements and story tips you’ve sent in.

Thank you for your support and encouragement.

1990 Me had a big goal: “I want Lawyers Weekly to be the newspaper for every lawyer in the state from the attorney in the big firms in Richmond, Northern Virginia, Tidewater and Roanoke to the solo practitioner in Grundy, Emporia or Front Royal. I won’t be satisfied until we reach every practicing lawyer in the state.”

That’s still true, after all these years.

The Roanoke Times earns the honors, with their story about problems on Interstate 81, published today, May 5:

Sinkhole de Mayo: Expect delays on Interstate 81 North of Lexington

Spring has sprung, and the annual battle between two big-box home improvement stores is under way.

The stakes are these: Lowe’s and Home Depot both sell a lot of flowering plants, and a lot of gardening paraphenalia. The companies spend big bucks to develop new strains of “exclusive” flowers to appeal to the gardening public.

The Wall Street Journal has the headline of the day for its story on this fight:

“The Garden Gloves Come Off”

John Doe got sued this week.

He must screw up a lot, because he’s always getting sued.

Actually, whenever a lawyer needs to file a claim and isn’t sure quite whom to tag, she’ll file a suit against John Doe, particularly if there’s a statute of limitations about to run.

Once Doe is unmasked during discovery, the lawyer moves to amend and get the right person in the suit. The parties take it from there.

Was there ever a real historical John Doe? Doubtful. “John Doe” is “a fictitious name frequently used to indicate a person for the purpose of argument or illustration,” according to Black’s Law Dictionary.

It turns out John Doe has been used by lawyers as a placeholder name for centuries.

Michael Quinion, who writes on “international English from a British perspective” in the blog “World Wide Words,” says that Blackstone referred to John Doe in his “Commentaries on the laws of England” for 1765-69. And the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary take Doe back a century before that, with a reference in a 1659 document, “To prosecute the suit, to witt John Doe And Richard Roe.”

Ah, let’s not forget Richard Roe. He’s Doe’s sidekick, who shows up almost as often as Doe. He’s Sancho Panza to Doe’s Don Quixote. Sundance to his Butch. Barney Rubble to his Fred Flintstone. Doe and Roe could star in their very own buddy movie.

Think back to when you first met these guys, probably in law school. They appear in any number of legal hypotheticals, and in most of them, Doe always is suing Roe. Here’s hoping Roe takes it like a good No. 2 and has a good defense lawyer.

Even though we can’t place when John Doe was born, we can serve up some genealogy. The practice of creating fictitious persons to make a legal point dates back to Roman times. Roman lawyers had a guy named “Titius.”

Black’s says that “Titius” was “a proper name, frequently used in designating an indefinite or fictitious person, or a person referred to by way of illustration.”

Sounds like our friend John Doe. And for good measure, Titius had his own Richard Roe. The Romans used the name “Seius” as the second banana in their legal hypotheticals.

There actually are people named “John Smith” in the world (go no farther than Jamestown to see the big statue of Capt. John Smith). Anybody named John Doe?

Well, yes, at least one. A few years ago, a New York Times reporter went looking to answer that question and found Mr. Doe in the Upper West Side of New York City.

He is a Korean immigrant who came to the U.S. as a boy in the late 1970s. His name was Jang Do. Doe wanted an American-sounding name, so he changed “Jang” to “John” and persuaded his mom and dad to add an “e” to their surname. (So people would pronounce it like “tae kwon do,” not “hairdo,” he said). Yes, he said he’s heard all the jokes, and no, he said he does not have a wife named “Jane.”

Not explored was whether he had any friends named Roe.

No matter what your view on the controversy surrounding federal funding of National Public Radio, you’ve got to tip your hat to the headline-writers at the Wall Street Journal.

The latest news in the continuing story — NPR President and CEO Vivian Schiller resigned in the wake of the release of a surveillance video in which another, now-departed NPR exec railed against the Republican Party and the Tea Party movement.

The Journal’s headline: “Video Kills the Radio Czar.”

Somewhere the Buggles (whose ”Video Killed the Radio Star” was the first video ever played on MTV, back in 1981) are smiling.

Work product from someone who didn’t proofread his work. Don’t let this happen to you!

Before you can say you have finished writing something, you have to proofread your work. Before you file anything, you have to proofread your work. Make sure you say what you mean.

The other day I got an e-mail message from a colleague who knows I like to tinker with headlines – it was one of those viral collections of “Oh no, did they really publish that?” headlines. The papers that printed the headlines below shall remain nameless. I can say on good authority that none of these appeared in Virginia Lawyers Weekly.

Man Kills Self Before Shooting Wife and Daughter

Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says

Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers

Panda Mating Fails, Veterinarian Takes Over

Miners Refuse to Work After Death

Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant

War Dims Hope for Peace

If Strike Isn’t Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile

Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures

Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges

Man Struck By Lightning, Faces Battery Charge

New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group

Kids Make Nutritious Snacks

Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half

Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors

Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery, Hundreds Dead

Today is National Punctuation Day.

It’s not one of those made-up holidays that Hallmark concocted to sell greeting cards. It’s a made-up holiday created by a former reporter, Jeff Rubin, who was fed up with commas, and apostrophe’s being put in the wrong place.

2010 marks the seventh annual celebration of the punctuation movement. Last year, they had a bake sale. This year, they are running a haiku contest. Really. The deadline is Sept. 30. The entries, available at the NPD website, include items similar to this one:

Raised by two parens
I’ve been bracketed since youth.
I’m an inside job.

How does one celebrate National Punctuation Day? The owners of NPD (yes, it’s trademarked) suggest going to a bookstore to buy a copy of E.B. White’s The Elements of Style and carefully observing the signs along the way, helpfully correcting those with errors. Then go home and write an error-free letter to a friend.

Good advice, I suppose. You don’t want to be a person who doesn’t know what an apostrophe’s for.

The Virginia Lawyers Weekly editorial team brought home two company-wide editorial awards from the Dolan Media Editorial and Circulation Summit held last week in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Dolan Media Company conducts the Samuel B. Spencer Journalism Awards each year, gathering nominations from its 18 business units publishing 60-some print titles and numerous websites.

The Virginia team won third place in headline writing for a March 2009 story, “Oval and Out: OBX can’t be trademarked.” The piece was a case story about a man’s failed effort to trademark the popular “OBX” tag that appears in oval stickers on cars everywhere on the East Coast. In the words of the headline, he was “oval and out.”

And we brought home the bronze in the creativity category for “The VLW Quick 10,” our popular online feature that debuted last June. “Quick 10″ lists compiled by our editors have included judges’ nicknames, made-up “new lawyer law firms,” Virginia cases about food, lawyer license plates, reasons to strike jurors that stood up and Christmas carols for lawyers, among others. The full name of the award is the “Justice Potter Stewart Freestyle Creativity Award,” named for the late Supreme Court justice who knew pornography “when he saw it.” The Dolan Media judges took the same approach to creativity.

Our colleagues at St. Louis-based Missouri Lawyers Media, publishers of seven titles including Missouri Lawyers Weekly, took home the competition’s top prize as “Best in Show.”