Stories

Arizona Attorney Magazine has been around, in one form or another, for more than four decades. And today, we continue to be relevant to our readers' diverse practices.

Our value to readers requires the efforts of many people, especially those of practicing lawyers. We may be the outlet that reaches more than 24,000 readers every month, but you are where our content begins:

You are the experts in your practice area.
You can spot law stories that others may miss.
You can identify trends in practice that affect all lawyers, or those in your area of law.
You are attuned to upcoming changes in laws, rules or jury instructions.
You can identify upcoming or recently decided court cases that are noteworthy.
Have we not run a story in your practice area for some time? Contact us. The magazine staff responds quickly and seeks to get the word out about developments in law or law practice.

And our People column allows you to tell colleagues about changes at your firm or in your practice. Send items to Tim.Eigo@staff.azbar.org.

For questions or comments about magazine stories, contact the Editor at Tim.Eigo@staff.azbar.org or call him at 602.340.7310.

Submission Process

Getting your story into Arizona Attorney may be easier than you think. We prefer articles that are no longer than 8-15 pages, double-spaced, including any notes (that comes to about 2,500-3,500 words). Citations should be consistent with theUniform System of Citation(The Bluebook). Endnotes should be concise and placed at the end of the article. Submissions can be made to the Editor via e-mail attachment (Microsoft Word is preferred), or via U.S. Mail. The Board and the Editor prefer not to review articles submitted simultaneously to other publications, and they request notification from the author that the article or any version of it has ever been published or is pending publication elsewhere.

Aside from that, the world may be your oyster.

The primary purpose of articles in the magazine is to educate and inform the reader on issues of substantive law and practical concern to practicing lawyers. Analysis, opinion and criticism of the present state of the law also are encouraged and should be clearly identified by sufficient legal authority on all sides of an issue to enable the reader to assess the validity of the opinion. When criticism is voiced, suggestions for reform also should be included. Criticism should be directed to the issues only.

We also accept articles that take a humorous look at law practice, as well as articles submitted as pro-cons on opposite sides of an issue, and articles that cover legal history from an Arizona angle.

Many potential writers are stumped about what we may accept, and they don't want to spend time writing without some assurance that there's a good chance of publication. We understand the demands on busy lawyers' time, and so we accept query letters, not just completed articles. If you'd like to send a query letter, please write a few paragraphs detailing what the article will be about and what position you take on the topic. Successful query letters usually "map out" what the article will say in some detail. A well-written query letter provides a good amount of information and requires thoughtful planning on the author's part.

Generally, the Editorial Board and the Editor expect authors to stake a position of some kind and to argue a point (e.g., these rules changes are good/bad for practitioners, they will make life easier/harder). We may occasionally publish articles that merely set out the facts of rules or serve as a primer, but that is the exception, not the rule.

In your query letter, also indicate what practice areas would find this interesting: This gives us an idea of how many members a particular article may serve. Finally, please give the Editor a heads-up on whether there is any timeliness issue with the article (e.g., the U.S. Supreme Court is about to rule on an aspect of the matter); this allows us to speed the production process.

Once we receive a detailed query letter or a complete article, it is distributed to the Board (composed of lawyers practicing in various areas of law) and voted on at the next monthly meeting. When we indicate that we are interested in a query idea, that is not a guarantee that we will publish the final result, but it does give you a strong sense of what we'd like to see in the completed article.

After we vote to accept an article, we will let you know. The Editor then begins the process of "slotting" it into the magazine's calendar.

Timing

Deadlines for Arizona Attorney content vary on the type of information provided:

• Substantive law stories are reviewed by the Editorial Board; if a story is accepted, we try to publish it as soon as possible.
  
  
• News items need to be sent to staff at least two months before the cover date of the issue in which you'd like the item to appear. For example, if you want to call attention to a jury instruction public comment period that will end in May, send the item by March 1; that gives us time to run it in the May magazine (which is mailed to readers in the last week of April).
  
  
• "People" column items have no deadline. We try to get them in as soon as possible. But because we always have a backlog of those items, we cannot always tell you in advance in which issue it will run. The sooner we get the item, the sooner we can publish it.
  
  
• Send stories, news and People items to Tim.Eigo@staff.azbar.org.

Advertising

Arizona Attorney also serves its readers by letting you get the word out in your own way-through advertising. And as always, State Bar members can purchase advertising at a discount.

For information about advertising, click here.