For a little over a year and half now, I’ve been in the background at Canadian Lawyer as the associate publisher, essentially working with the editors and helping to set the tone and agenda for the magazine, as well as working with the art director and publisher to ensure the continued success of an attractive and high-quality product. But with this issue of the magazine, I’m moving into the driver’s seat and taking over as the editor of Canadian Lawyer.
For the last 10 years, I’ve been working mainly on Law Times, our sister newspaper that covers the newsy goings on of the legal profession in Ontario. As with many others who’ve become legal journalists, I was fortunate enough to have come under the tutelage of previous editors Jim Middlemiss and Michael Fitz-James, both of whom essentially held my hand in those early days when a young non-lawyer like myself was finding her sea legs in this somewhat daunting area of coverage. (You can only imagine how many times this young scribe was asked by multitudes of members of the bar if I was a lawyer. Thankfully, those days are long gone.)
Over the past few years, this magazine has undergone some changes, both in look and content (though nothing too radical!) and our team has grown and evolved. With this issue, former managing editor Kirsten McMahon will take over the full-time editorship of our growing sister magazine Canadian Lawyer InHouse. Since its launch last year, InHouse has garnered great interest from both inside and outside counsel and the magzine now deserves to have its own dedicated editor to oversee its growth. Kirsten will continue to write for all four of our CLB Media legal publications.
As readers may also have noted, we’ve increased our bench strength, bringing in staff writer Jennifer McPhee, who has managed a steep learning curve over the last eight months, and is also making a great contribution to all four of our law books. Rounding out the writing squad is Law Times associate editor Helen Burnett, who’s work mostly appears in the newspaper and online but will also be found in the pages of each issue of Canadian Lawyer 4Students and soon more frequently in the regional roundup of this magazine.
The next few months will bring some changes and tweaking to the magazine as I get more comfortable and set the agenda for the coming year. As always, I welcome input from readers in all areas ranging from story ideas to letters to commentaries and anything in between. Feel free to contact me at any time via e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at 905-713-4385. I look forward to hearing from you and to this new and exciting endeavour.
