I would like to make two announcements, one an expression of gratitude to someone who has done a great deal for SFWA and the other a decision concerning an extraordinary opportunity that has become available to the organization.

We were recently offered the chance to employ Bruce Plotkin of the firm of Brownstein, Hyatt, and Farber as our legal counsel. After much careful discussion, the board has voted unanimously both to hire Mr. Plotkin and to express our deepest appreciation to Christine Valada for her many years of service to the organization.

The following is a summary of Mr. Plotkin's background. For those interested in more details, please see the web site of Brownstein, Hyatt, and Farber at: http://www.bhf-law.com which includes links to information about Mr. Plotkin.

Bruce Plotkin is a specialist in Intellectual Property matters and an expert on copyright law. He has a JD, magna cum laude, from the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington D.C., is a member of the Colorado and the Washington DC bars, the Colorado Bar Section of Patent, Trademark, and Copyright, and the American Intellectual Property Law Association. As the head of the firm's Intellectual Property and Technology Law Practice Group, he helps corporate and not-for-profit clients identify, understand, safeguard and leverage their organization's technology-related intellectual property assets. He advises emerging and developed companies on a wide range of intellectual property ownership and licensing issues.

Mr. Plotkin has been an Adjunct Professor in Intellectual Property at the University of Denver College of Law since 1996. He teaches core courses in copyright, trademark and patent law as well as special seminars on intellectual property and technology. He is also a regular faculty member at Sequoia Professional Development’s annual Counseling High Tech Clients seminar where he presents the latest developments in copyright and trademark law and critical issues in technology agreements.

Bruce Plotkin and the firm of BHF can bring SFWA connections at high levels of the government and can offer SFWA many services in working toward changes in the law to benefit writers, such as ensuring authors are best protected in any laws regarding electronic piracy, altering copyright law such as in regard to Bookshare, handling globalization issues as the world becomes better connected, and gaining access to Congress to testify on matters of important to authors. Mr. Plotkin has played a leadership role in numerous intellectual property and technology-related transactions of this type. Details on his accomplishments can be found at the web site for Brownstein, Hyatt, and Farber.

We have been fortunate to have had the services of Christine Valada as our attorney these past years. The needs of SFWA have evolved, bringing about these changes, but we are grateful for Christine's fine work on behalf of our organization. In her capacity as our legal counsel, she has worked with SFWA's officers on many contractual and grievance-related activities and has restored and expanded SFWA's trademarks. She has also been Chair of the Grievance Committee. In addition, she has worked closely with Writer Beware, as an advocate and in dealing with litigious scam agents and publishers. Christine organized the 2001 Nebula Awards(R) Weekend in Los Angeles and has served as an advisor on Nebula events in other years. She is also known for her accomplished photography, in particular her renown photo gallery of science fiction and fantasy authors.

Please join the Board of Directors in thanking Christine for her service to our organization. We very much appreciate the many years that she has given SFWA in her capacity as our attorney, as a volunteer, and as a member of our community.

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Best regards SFWA President

Posted July 2, 2003