The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin is a daily newspaper in Chicago, Illinois that covers the region's local court systems and the legal community. Founded in 1854, it is the oldest daily court newspaper in the United States.
The Law Bulletin began publication in 1854 as the Daily Report of Suits, Judgments, Chattel Mortgages, etc., founded by Chicago attorney Edwin Bean. It was the first daily court publication, coming about 11 years after The Legal Intelligencer pioneered the concept in Philadelphia with a weekly newspaper.. At the start, the publication fit onto a single 8-by-12 inch page. In 1862, Bean sold the paper to R.R. Stevens, who changed the name of the publication to the Chicago Daily Law Record in 1867. The paper stopped production for two weeks in October 1871 as a result of the Great Chicago Fire, which destroyed the newspaper's downtown Chicago office. The period was the only stretch of inactivity in the publication's history. In 1873, Stevens and publisher Alfred M. Smith renamed the paper as the Daily Law Bulletin.
Macfarland family ownership
In 1879, the company was sold to Henry Janes Macfarland Sr., whose family has owned the company since. The Macfarlands were among Chicago's first families, relocating from Massachusetts to manufacture shoes. H.J. Macfarland was a charter member of the Commercial Club of Chicago. Macfarland's son, Henry J. Macfarland Jr., inherited the business from his father and ran it until his sudden death at age 55 in 1951. Lanning Macfarland, Henry Jr.'s brother, stepped into the leadership role. In 1953, Lanning Macfarland's son Lanning Macfarland Jr. joined the business, after earning his MBA at Northwestern University. At the time, the business was struggling, facing competition in Chicago from the weekly National Corporation Reporter. By that time, the Law Bulletin was a broadsheet newspaper with editorial content.
Expansion of Law Bulletin Publishing Co.
Lanning Macfarland Jr. took over as CEO upon his father's death in 1971. Over his tenure, Law Bulletin Publishing Co. expanded beyond the newspaper into other legal and real estate services. In addition to developing an electronic case management system in the mid-1980s, the company acquired other publications, including Sullivan's Law Directory, Leading Lawyers and the Jury Verdict Reporter. In 1988, Macfarland hired veteran Chicago journalist Bernard M. Judge as the newspaper's editor and publisher. The editorial staff was expanded under Judge's watch. In 1989, the Law Bulletin acquired Chicago Lawyer from legal journalist Rob Warden and repurposed the brand into a monthly sister publication to the daily newspaper. Law Bulletin Publishing Company rebranded as Law Bulletin Media in 2017 In April 2019, the paper was redesigned in a tabloid-size format and began printing in color.
