Weaver: Dear readers, I look forward to getting to know you

After a stint earlier this year filling in as the Indiana Lawyer’s interim editor, I’m excited to be back in the editor’s chair on a permanent, full-time basis.

I’m excited because I get to bring my more than 30 years of experience reporting on or guiding coverage of Indiana’s legislative and executive branches of government to the judiciary.

I also have the opportunity to apply my years of guiding business coverage to the business of practicing law or running a law firm.

Another big bonus is that I get to work with a talented team of reporters dedicated to providing you with the best, most up-to-date and most comprehensive coverage of legal news in Indiana.

And, perhaps best of all, I have the chance to meet a whole new group of talented Indiana leaders, readers like yourself who are dedicated to the law or have a strong interest in it.

On the government front, I’ve been involved in explanatory and accountability coverage of the Indiana General Assembly and the governor’s office for most of the past 35 years—first as the Statehouse reporter at The Evansville Courier, later as the government and politics editor at The Indianapolis Star for more than a decade and most recently as the managing editor at the Indianapolis Business Journal for the past three years

From that experience, I hope to deepen the Lawyer’s coverage of the growing government relations and lobbying practices in the state and spend more time looking at the operations of the state’s judiciary and the disclosure, transparency and ethics laws that govern it.

In addition to the Lawyer’s traditional coverage of appellate court rulings, our news team also is working to expand reporting on the trial courts and the filing of new lawsuits at a time when other media in the state are withdrawing from this arena.

On the business front, I was the business editor at The Star for several years before jumping to IBJ.

My hope is to become as familiar with the business practices, challenges and opportunities facing Indiana law firms as I am with the drug pipeline at Eli Lilly and Co. or the water supply challenges at the LEAP Innovation and Research District in Boone County.

As I mentioned in my first column as interim editor in March, the Lawyer is working to expand its reporting on the business aspects of running a law firm and the role lawyers play in helping businesses themselves navigate the complex legal landscape.

A good example of that type of coverage is reporter Maura Johnson’s story on page one of this edition, which examines the merger plans of Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP.

The bottom line is that our entire staff—including Managing Editor Daniel Carson and reporter Alexa Shrake—wants to help you get ahead in your law practice and keep abreast of the latest legal news and trends.

The only way we can do that is if you share your stories, convey your information needs and help point us in the right direction.

I look forward to getting to know you, hearing your stories and learning your opinions about our coverage. So please call me at 317-472-5353 or drop me a line at [email protected].•

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Greg Weaver, a proud Ball State University journalism graduate, is the editor of Indiana Lawyer.