Business Law News is the quarterly publication of the Business Law Section of the State Bar of California. Distributed to 8,000+ members of the Section, it is one of the key benefits of membership. Each issue contains 4-10 articles about relevant topics in business law. An Annual Review of Legislation is also published annually.

Challenge

Before 2002, the publication was managed entirely by a team of rotating volunteer editors. As volunteers, It was difficult for the editors to get the issues out on time, if even at all. Additionally, since the editors spent so much time on the editorial process, they did not have the time to go out and solicit the number of articles needed to fill each issue.

Solution

When Megan Lynch came on Board in 2002, she began by stablizing the publication to ensure all five issues were published and distributed on a consistent basis. This included, among other things, building a system for organizing and keeping track of articles and authors (which, over time, has been moved online). She also created an annual production timetable for the publication.

With this additional help, articles began flowing in and the publication was back on track. Today, Megan continues to work as Production Coordinator for the publication. For each issue, she works with the authors and editors, coordinates among the team of editors, edits all articles, produces the layout, proofreads each issue, and works with the printer.

Every 1-2 years, a new volunteer Editor replaces the old one, but Megan serves as the "institutional memory" for the publication, ensuring consistency and quality from year to year. Over time, Megan has also expanded her team of editors to include a citation checker, as well as a substantive editor to increase the calibur and accuracy of articles printed.

Results

“Megan Lynch has worked with staff at the State Bar of California since early 2002, and we would not have been able to achieve our critical publication goals without her invaluable contributions. She typically juggles multiple, complex production timelines -- consistently ensuring that every project is completed either on schedule or ahead of schedule. And although the demands for perfection placed on Megan by our high-powered attorney editors are major, she has reliably exceeded our performance expectations in relation to every project. In short, she is a delightful professional and a significant asset to our organization. She brings talent, experience, editorial expertise, and work product that is reliably of exceptional quality.”

Susan Orloff
Section Administrator, The State Bar of California