Arizona Attorney - February 2015

FROM THE EDITOR
A Publication of the State Bar of Arizona

ARIZONA
attorney

MAGAZINE

attorney

Editor

TIM EIGO
Tim.Eigo@staff.azbar.org

Art Director

KAREN HOLUB

Production Manager

MICHAEL PEEL

Advertising Manager

LISA BORMASTER FONTES Lisa.Bormaster@staff.azbar.org

Advertising Coordinator

MIKYEILA CORDERO

Editorial Board

ASHLEY THERESE KASARJIAN, CHAIR

Addresses

1-866-48-AZBAR ( Toll-free outside Maricopa County)

www.azbar.org/AZAttorney
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(ISSN 1040-4090) is published monthly, except bimonthly,
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VOLUME 51, NO. 6

DAVID H. BEN TON
THEODORE CAMPAGNOLO
ANN MARIE CHISCHILLY
GREGORY GAUTAM
HON. RANDALL M. HOWE
KARA L. KLIMA
J. SONYETTA LAWRENCE
MAY LU
HON. WENDY S. MORTON
POURIA PAKNEJAD
EMILY K. POKORA
MARK D. SAMSON
KYLE SHELTON
THOMAS STACK
LACEY STOVER GARD
ANTHONY TSON TAKIS
MICHAEL F. VALENZUELA

It’s always great to see the kids do good and make their way in the world.

That ungrammatical response was my first when I learned that Bob
Mc Whirter’s book on the Constitution was going to be published by
the American Bar Association. We in Arizona knew he had the right
stuff, and it’s nice to see the ABA agreeing and publishing that stuff on
their esteemed presses. (His take on the Second Amendment begins
on page 22.)

Our pride is partly because Bob is an Arizona lawyer, one I have known for more than a decade.

So of course we’re happy to see a Grand Canyon State attorney achieve canyon-sized achievements.

But our pride here at the magazine is a tad more particular than that. For we’ve not only known Bob, but we have been intimately involved with his legal writing. It was in our pages that four of his book chapters first saw the light of day. And if you’re keeping score, we also published two other illustrated articles by him—one on writing like a lawyer (don’t do it), and another on thinking like a lawyer (try not to do it; I dare you).

To lift an analogy from Bob’s own work, those articles were little bits of cruel and unusual punishment for magazine staff.

Every element of our usual
process—from reviewing, to edit-
ing, to designing, to proofing—
must be on high alert as a
Mc Whirter piece makes its way
into our pages.

From the first piece of his we published,
though, way back in 2007, we could see we were part of something
truly different. To be able to see, really see, legal concepts come to
life would aid and entertain readers in ways they probably never experi-
enced.

How many of us can say that we are part of something sui generis?

Not many, I bet. So I thank Bob, and curse him, for his vision and accomplishment.

I am especially pleased when I consider how important our decision to publish was. You may not be surprised to know that

book publishers paused when asked to consider Bob’s book.

Yes, it was well written and amazing. But those footnotes! And the thousands of images! The photo permissions alone would be enough to cause conniptions.

But Bob was able to fan out our magazine issues before them.

He could open the stories and flip through the pages, which demonstrated the beautiful possibilities. The resolve of book editors—a cautious lot—softened and then collapsed. ARIZONA ATTORNEY helped in that persuasive effort.

In a future issue, we’ll publish a review (not written by me)

of Bob’s book. In the meantime, I’m not above being pleased as punch that he acknowledged the magazine staff in his new book (see above). You really know how to get to a guy, Bob.