Letter from the Editor

Photo by: James Clayton

If you are reading this, that means I have graduated from law school.  There were many times when I thought that day would never come, when May 8, 2015 felt like a lifetime away, but as my mother is fond of saying, “The days go slow but the years go fast.”  And here we are.

The CLO is not a law journal, a newspaper, or a blog—it is all of these things, in different amounts as different stories require.

When Davis, Liles, Brady, Tyler, and I took over a year ago, our main goal was to increase awareness of the Campbell Law Observer.  There is still a lot of confusion over what the CLO is exactly.  The CLO is not a law journal, a newspaper, or a blog—it is all of these things, in different amounts as different stories require.  We believe this combined style puts the CLO the unique position of providing substantive legal analysis on timely issues that can be understood and used by lawyers and laypeople alike.

People are responding to and engaging with the CLO, even if there is some confusion over how to classify it as a publication.  Almost 45,000 unique users accessed our website in the last year, a twenty percent increase over the previous year.  Our readers come from all fifty states and across the world, and many have reached out to us through social media and email.

We have worked to increase our visibility both in the local community and beyond.  Though not all of our big ideas came to fruition, but we are pleased with the progress we have made.  This year we began partnering with other student organizations to share events taking place at Campbell Law School with the rest of the world, including talks on immigration law, marriage equality, and patent law.  We also held our first annual Law and Medicine Writing Contest, which we hope will continue to grow and someday become open to submissions from law schools nationwide.

I am confident that Ana and the rest of the new staff will do amazing work and I am excited to see what they do next.

When I joined the staff of the CLO in 2013, I had no intentions of becoming the Editor-in-Chief.  There were times during the past year when I was still unsure of whether I was right for the job, but now I am having a hard time accepting that my job here is done.  However, I am confident that Ana and the rest of the new staff will do amazing work and I am excited to see what they do next.

Finally, I want to thank everyone who has read and supported the Campbell Law Observer over the years.  Without you, none of this would be possible!

Katherine Doering Custis
Editor-in-Chief, 2014-2015