FROM THE EDITOR

By BRAD A. ALLEN Martin, Disiere, Jefferson & Wisdom, L.L.P.

Potpourri for $500

“Personally, I am always willing to learn, although I do not always like being taught.”
— Sir Winston Churchil

Most of you are probably familiar with the long-running game show Jeopardy! where contestants pick questions from several categories of related topics. One frequently recurring category, “Potpourri,” was different because the one thing you could count on was all the answers in the category (and questions to be provided) were completely unrelated to the others. After publishing several special issues the last half of 2005, The Houston Lawyer is starting 2006 with an open issue covering a potpourri of topics – which we hope you will enjoy.
The first article is “Who is Exempt from Overtime Pay? Understanding the Revised White-Collar Exemptions” by Kevin White. Who is exempt from overtime pay is one of those issues that is often misunderstood and confusing. This article provides an overview of the revised rules and should prove useful to most practitioners – including those that are not labor and employment lawyers.
W. Mark Cotham’s article “Why Not Have Responses to Document Requests that Make Sense?” covers an issue that litigators deal with every day. All too often discovery responses are beyond comprehension, and leave counsel wondering what responsive information and documents exist. This article provides a detailed analysis of the topic and includes numerous suggestions for doing a better job of responding to and evaluating responses to written discovery.
The role of guardians ad litem is often mis-understood, yet they play an important role in our judicial system. “Revised Rule 173 of TRCP: Duties and Obligations of Guardians Ad Litem” by Ashish Mahendru provides valuable information on the revised rule and helps to explain the function of guardians ad litem. This information will likely be useful to attorneys in a variety of practice areas.
The final substantive article in this issue is Rebecca Burdette’s, “A New World for Labor Certification.” Recently, there were important changes to labor certification, which proved too detailed to discuss in our Keeping Up With column.
All four of these articles are examples of The Houston Lawyer’s efforts to keep the bar updated on significant changes in Texas law that will impact your day to day practice. If you are aware of other significant changes that you believe are worth covering – please let us know.
Although most of us recognize the need to continue to learn, like Churchill, many of us do not always like being taught. All of these articles are in an easy to digest format, and we hope these make your continued learning more palatable. Of course, we always welcome your thoughts on our articles, and how we can do a better job with future issues of The Houston Lawyer.
Our next issue will be our annual volunteerism issue celebrating and honoring the extensive volunteer work by Houston Bar Association members. There are a lot of unsung heroes to honor with all of the volunteer efforts related to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and we know this is an upcoming issue you won’t want to miss. Until next time.

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