The Texas Lawbook debuted in November 2011. We had no readers, no subscribers, no advertisers. Many people – including the founder sometimes – were not sure if The Lawbook was an online newspaper, magazine, blog or newsletter.
As The Lawbook’s founder, I am pleased to provide regular updates about our progress and plans for the future.
Six years after our first article was posted, The Lawbook can officially boast that we have more subscribers and more corporate lawyers reading the publication than any other legal periodical in Texas.
In August, The Lawbook officially reached and surpassed 9,000 paid subscribers. More than 2,000 of them are corporate in-house lawyers and general counsel. In fact, the 25 largest law firms operating in Texas and more than 35 corporate legal departments – from American Airlines, AT&T and Energy Transfer Partners to ExxonMobil, Southwest Airlines and Yum! Brands – have group subscriptions that cover all of their lawyers.
We have substantive partnerships with the Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel and the Texas General Counsel Forum.
In addition, tens-of-thousands of more business leaders read Texas Lawbook articles that are republished in the Dallas Business Journal and Houston Chronicle.
The Lawbook’s main objective is the same as it was six years ago: provide readers with unique, thoughtful and substantive content regarding business litigation, corporate transactions and regulatory matters, as well as trends and developments in the legal profession.
Just this week, for example, The Lawbook provided exclusive data about the impact the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Heartland is already having on patent cases filed in the Eastern District of Texas.
The partnerships with the Texas General Counsel Forum and ACC-DFW allow The Lawbook to include the voices of corporate in-house lawyers in many of the articles we publish.
The Lawbook is also publishing monthly in-depth profiles of ACC-DFW and GC Forum members.
In the next three months, The Lawbook is scheduled to publish several comprehensive and substantive articles, including:
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- A profile of U.S. Securities & Exchange Regional Director Shamoil Shipchandler;
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- The expanding role of corporate general counsel;
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- The debate about whether jury trials in civil disputes are making a comeback;
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- In-depth profiles of the 10 recipients of the GC Forum’s Magna Stella Awards;
- An extensive examination of cross-border M&A deals involving Texas-based companies.
The Lawbook has significantly and strategically expanded its team. In January, we added ABA Journal Editor and former Dallas Morning News projects editor Allen Pusey to our team as senior editor. In July, long-time Texas oil and gas M&A writer Claire Poole joined The Lawbook as our first writer based in Houston.
Natalie Posgate, who provided extensive coverage of lawyers and the work they did involving Hurricane Harvey, continues to produce fascinating articles. Janet Elliott, who authored a great story this week on the appellate battles of payday lenders, covers the great disputes that end up in the Supreme Court of Texas. Jeff Bounds covers IP litigation trends. Brooks Igo writes about lateral moves and lawyers being recognized for their public service work.
Every once in a while, I will even author an article or two.
For now, The Texas Lawbook team would like to thank the corporate legal departments, lawyers, law firms, judges and business leaders who subscribe to our publication.
As the Lawbook’s founder and leader, I promise that we will continue to work hard every day to provide unique, thoughtful and substantive content. More great milestones are ahead.