64 CBJ 189. EDITORIAL.

Connecticut Bar Journal

Volume 64.

64 CBJ 189.

EDITORIAL

EDITORIALEDITORIAL Textbooks and other reference works are essential to a practicing lawyer - even one specializing in limited fields of the law. As a result, publishers flourish and our law libraries grow larger. However, texts, which are national in scope, do not meet all the needs of a Connecticut practitioner who must determine the effects of state legislation and the nuances of local court decisions on what may be found in those texts.

Connecticut practitioners are more fortunate than lawyers in some other small states in that conventional publishers find the market large enough to publish texts for some subjects of wide interest and in having the journal to provide annual surveys and occasional comprehensive articles in various fields. Its Continuing Legal Education programs are excellent and generate some reference materials of use. However, there remains a need for texts and monographs, which is not likely to be met without some form of Bar Association involvement and major contribution of effort by those practitioners who are highly knowledgeable in the various fields.

The recent survey of the Association membership clearly established members' desire for useful publications, and many conversations over the years have confirmed the need for reference works of more depth than can be provided by the standard journal format. With a 10,000 plus membership practicing in diverse fields, the Journal cannot reasonably dedicate 80-150 pages of its annually budgeted 250 pages (after deducting the survey issues) to a single topic without losing the interest of readers practicing in other fields. Occasionally, it has done so where the need was sufficiently great (e.g., Morgan, The Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act: Determining The Standards Of Conduct, Volume 62, Connecticut Bar Journal, April 1988).

Ten years ago, the Journal joined with CLE in a first effort to produce a program with written presentations which would be published in the journal to provide a "monograph" for

190Association members. This presentation, entitled "Connecticut Laws And Their Impact On Business Entities," appeared in Volume 54 of the Connecticut Bar Journal as the October and December issues which were provided to all members as regular issues. Although a wide spectrum of business...