Letter from the Editor-in-Chief, Meghan Collins:
Sitting in the small Juris office one humid night in June, covered in dust and sweat from moving the endless amount of boxes of old magazines, I discovered the very first issue of Juris – The Duquesne Law Magazine. Amazed that we still had this old newspaper, I quickly began searching for every issue thereafter. It took me roughly three weeks to comb through those boxes and organize all the issues by year. During this “tough” physical labor I discovered that Juris had a rich history of discussing hard-hitting topics that were probative and called for action. It was during this process that I decided it was mine and our executive board’s job to uphold that legacy and pay tribute to our roots.
In order to do that, we had to understand the evolution of Juris. The first issue of Juris was released in 1967 in traditional newspaper format. Over the years, the publication has evolved from a newspaper to a semi-journal to a newsmagazine. Today, the magazine has developed into a publication that incorporates traditional citation standards and unique graphics for substantial legal news articles. In keeping up with the times, in 2012, Juris launched the Juris Blog at www.sites.law.duq.edu/juris which publishes short blog posts on current legal issues multiple times a week. Shortly thereafter we joined Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
So, you are probably wondering, or at least I am assuming you are, what’s new this year? How are we upholding that legacy?
This year:
Juris will be going completely digital to adapt to current journalistic trends and to be mindful of budgetary constraints.
Juris had a feature spread in The Duquesne Lawyer.
Juris has over 45 student writers contributing to the blog and magazine, our highest numbers in recent years.
Juris will be launching an archive section of our website by January that will allow visitors to view every one of our past issues.
Juris has increased our average blog hits from 49 hits per day average to 88 hits per day average.
This issue:
Going into this semester, the Executive Board and myself, knew we wanted to do an election themed issue in the spring, meaning this would be our last semester to showcase Juris’ diversity.
That being said, this issue has no theme and no semblance of continuity.
We wanted you as the reader, to be immersed in diverse topics written by an eclectic group of writers.
As always, we followed our traditional format, but strayed away from articles reporting on school news, as The Duquesne Lawyer does a great job of that already.
Finally, we would like to thank all of the previous Juris writers that have inspired us and left a foundation for us to build on. Happy reading.
Sincerely,
Meghan L. Collins
* Meghan Collins, 3L, is the Editor-in-Chief and Graphic Designer of Juris. She is the Student Articles Editor of the Duquesne Business Law Journal and President of both Duquesne Intellectual Property Law Association and Corporate Law Society. She is also pursuing her MBA at the Palumbo Donahue School of Business. She can be reached at collin21@duq.edu or jurisduqlaw@gmail.com.
