Editorial Board and Staff

We’re celebrating the Tennessee Bar Journal’s first 40 years all year! In each issue we will look back at an area of life in the law to see how the TBJ covered it. This month we consider the people behind the Journal’s pages: its editorial board and staff.

Sometime around 1989 the Tennessee Bar Journal ran an article about taxation, but by the time it was published, the law had changed significantly and the information was no longer correct. Don Paine pointed this out, as well as a few other gaffes, and suggested the Journal needed an editorial board to examine each article.

“The genesis of it was we had egg on our face,” Paine says.

At that time, articles that were submitted for publication were checked for accuracy by various individuals who practiced in whatever area of law the article was about. But that was a cumbersome process, causing then-editor Gary Hunt to have to start from scratch in the review process with each article. The Journal was bi-monthly then so the quantity was not what it is today, but nonetheless it was tedious and time-consuming. Mostly, though, it was a system without continuity and direction.

Often the person with the bright idea has to actually do the work and that’s what happened here. Paine was appointed to the first board, along with Mary Martin Schaffner, who served until 1991, and Bill Haltom, who stayed on the board for 15 years. He doesn’t hold the record for longevity, though — Paine still serves on the board. It soon grew to five members, which is where it stands today.

Current members are Andrée Blumstein, chair, Nathan Rowell, Miles Mason, Jonathan Steen and Paine.

Until everyone had computers and access to the Internet, articles were copied and mailed to each member for review. But in 1999 when the Journal doubled its output to become monthly, things started heating up and a quick response time was more critical. As articles were increasingly being submitted on floppy disks, and then via email, the editorial board began to do its work electronically. Today, an article sent to the Journal frequently is in the hands of the editorial board just minutes after submission. (Note to authors who think it takes too long to hear back from us: there are still the same number of hours in a day and still just one person handling the submission traffic.) Unlike substantive articles, news items are not subject to board approval and are staff- written.

The same year the Journal went monthly, it began listing links to articles and other related information on the then new web site, TBALink (www.tba.org). The magazine also became available online.

Among the many changes the Journal underwent in 1999 was that the editorial board began monthly conference calls. This enabled articles to go through the process quicker and gave members the time to plan future issues and discuss subjects to cover. “One thing good about our board is that even though it can be contentious and we debate things, we stay friends,” Paine says. “It’s a great relationship.”

It’s true they don’t always agree and no article is accepted until it’s been scrutinized by each member. In 2004, 59 percent of submissions were accepted.

“Sometimes we have a consensus and sometimes we’re wide apart. Just like a court decision, it can be 3-2,” he says, but the entire board stands behind the final decision.

Once an article is approved, the board’s work is done and the Journal staff takes it from there. The article is scheduled for publication and works its way through the system of editing, proofing, double-checking and design planning.

Has the function of the editorial board turned out like Paine envisioned? He says yes.

“Having the editorial board has worked out very well,” he says. “The Journal is light years better than it used to be. Of course I’m prejudiced but the Tennessee Bar Journal is a very, very good publication. We certainly would never have had the quality we have now without the editorial board or staff.”

—Suzanne Craig Robertson

TBJ Editorial Board Members

• Don Paine (1989 to present)
• Bill Haltom (1989-2004)
• Lucian Pera (1990-2004)
• Ellen Hobbs Lyle (1991-1994)
• Carole Lynch Worthington (1991-1994)
• Shelly Rucker (1994-1998)
• Andree Blumstein (1998 to present)
• Nathan Rowell (1998-present)
• Miles Mason (2003 to present)
• Jonathan Steen (2003 to present)