Today, Jones McClure Publishing is now simply O’Connor’s. For those of us in Texas, this won’t be a huge surprise or much of a change in the way we think of the company’s brand. Most of us call everything they publish after Judge Michol O’Connor, who started the company nearly twenty-five years ago, and is still involved in the company although her son, Baird Craft, is now the President of the company. The biggest deal will probably be sending a note to the Accounting Department letting them know to change the vendor name on the accounts payable system, and some changes in the website address (now oconnors.com) and having to update my email contacts.
Now I could have mis-remembered the story of how Judge O’Connor came up with the “Jones McClure” name of the company, but it was definitely a made up name, since there were no Jones or McClures involved in the creation of the company. At one of the AALL annual conference dinners, Judge O’Connor got up and told the story, and I seem to remember that the company was named after a couple of the delegates from the Second Consultation and Convention where Texas sought independence from Mexico. Delegates Oliver Jones, and Bartlett D. McClure were present during the April, 1883 convention and thus, the name Jones McClure was created. I see that Charles Baird was also a delegate, so I assume not only was the company named after some of the delegates, but also the current President of the company. (Baird, forgive me if I am jumping to too much of a conclusion here… as, there may have been a couple of glasses of wine consumed during the story.)
One of my favorite people, Jason Wilson, is the Vice-President of O’Connor’s, and I asked him for a story to tell about the name change. Here is what he had to say:
For years, whenever I would meet someone cold—say an attorney or librarian—and told them I was with Jones McClure Publishing, I would always get a polite nod. But when I followed it up with, “We publish O’Connor’s,” the reactions were always the same: “Oh, I love you guys! I have all your books.” This is an experience each of us at the company has had. So, when we moved into the digital space with O’Connor’s Online and then started planning for the new web store, we decided to retire Jones McClure Publishing in favor of the brand we’ve worked so hard to create and something our customers recognize immediately as quality products and services. So now we are just O’Connor’s.
For those of us that rely upon the twenty-five titles published by O’Connor’s, or the new online resources, and those attorneys we support who enjoy the detailed information provided within those titles, in an easily understood writing style, we applaud the official name change to better recognize Judge O’Connor’s vision of creating legal books, minus the legalese.
[Ed. Note: Updated at 2:02 to include Wilson quote. – GL]