By Thom Senzee Contributing Reporter The San Fernando Valley Bar Association has launched a new monthly magazine it calls Valley Lawyer to replace its Bar Notes publication, which had served as the primary source for news and information to the organization’s 2,100-plus members during the past decade. But more than a decade ago, the bar association’s in-house newsletter shared the limelight with another (now-defunct) glossy, which was also called Valley Lawyer. There is a major distinction between this and the previous incarnation of the magazine, said Elizabeth Post, executive director of the SFVBA. “It’s different because that wasn’t just our publication,” Post said. “It was a joint venture.” In actuality, everything in the former Valley Lawyer, except for editorial content, was outsourced to longtime San Fernando Valley newspaper and magazine publisher, Wayne Adelstein. “We still had the newsletter at that time,” Post said. “That [version of] Valley Lawyer was seen as a way of raising the image of the Valley Bar Association. It lasted only two years, from 1995 to ’97.” Post said although the project ended, it served a purpose: that of creating an enhanced image for the organization at a time when it was embarking on a path to become the organization it is today. The purpose of the new Valley Lawyer is different. “We’re looking at new ways to do outreach, and this goes well with our other efforts such as getting more involved with the Encino and Woodland Hills chambers,” Post said. Outreach is why, in addition to mailing 2,400 copies of the first issue to members and ancillary recipients, the San Fernando Valley Bar Association also sent another 2,500 to prospective members. Those recipients received a special, “wrapped” edition, highlighting the benefits of SFVBA membership. While the bar acknowledges publishing the new magazine is an expensive enterprise, officials are quick to say membership dues do not subsidize the publication. “It’s actually a source of revenue,” said the bar’s president, Sue Bendavid. “Rather than have the members pay for the magazine, it helps subsidize the cost of membership dues.” The publication generates revenue through advertising sales. Law firms such as Bendavid’s employer, Lewitt-Hackman and many others are expected to continue to be regular advertisers, as they have with Bar Notes. Other advertisers include paralegals, expert witnesses, forensics analysts, and various professional services providers, such as accounting firms. Advertising rates will remain the same even with the beefed-up publication,for now. But, said Post, there may be a rate change in January. “Bar Notes had been at an in-between phase,” said Post. “I never referred to it as our newsletter; it was so much more. But it wasn’t quite a magazine either.” Bendavid said Valley Lawyer will help communicate to the public at large her belief that the legal community in the San Fernando Valley region contains a more sophisticated mix of attorneys and law firms than might be thought to exist here. “They may think Valley lawyers are bedroom-community attorneys, and there may be less quality,” she said. “That’s not true at all,at least not in most cases.” The publisher of the old Valley Lawyer Magazine said he thinks the bar association may flourish in the magazine business this time around. “They need to run it in-house to make it work,” Wayne Adelstein said. “We had an excellent editorial board back then, and the magazine was a good idea. But we just had too many fingers in the pie.” Adelstein congratulated Post and her colleagues at the San Fernando Valley Bar Association for re-launching the publication, which will be published 11 times per year. “We’ll only be publishing one issue for summer, because we have so much else going on that time of year, such as the end of our fiscal year,” Post said. “Plus there is less activity in general in the legal community during summer.”
