It was February 2003 when I first started working for this magazine. At the time, we were called Corporate Legal Times. The staff worked in an old office building in Chicago’s West Loop that smelled of spoiled pickles (we never figured that one out). Our office “walls” didn’t actually reach the ceiling in the loft-style setup, making it challenging to conduct interviews and focus on our work. The tabloid-sized magazine took on a look akin to the National Enquirer–boasting oversized pages writers and editors had to fill with substantive content. And among the most notable differences was our in-house editorial staff.
My predecessor Rob Vosper stood at the helm of CLT, and I was his only staff editor. We had one in-house writer and a handful of freelancers. I did not envy Rob’s responsibility of having to pull together the magazine month-in and month-out, but I remember feeling a sense of security that no matter what, it would get done and it would get done well.
