It is with great excitement that I sit down to pen the first of what will become a weekly editorial column.

Though I am in my third year with the newspaper and have served as associate editor for the past six months, before I discuss how I plan to utilize this space, allow me to introduce myself.

I hope many of you know me and that we have had an opportunity to sit down for an interview, met at a legal function in the community or crossed paths in some way. If we haven't yet, I certainly hope we do in 2011.

I have been with the Law Journal since November 2008, having joined the paper after working for one year as a freelance writer for our sister publication, Business First. Prior to that, I worked in similar capacities for The Hamburg Sun, as well as the Bee Group Newspapers in Williamsville.

After the departure of longtime Editor Annie Deck-Miller in 2010, I was named associate editor and assumed the responsibility of overseeing the editorial content, among other things. What does that mean? If you don't like what you are seeing or wish we covered something more, I'm the guy to sound off to. If your group is doing something interesting or your firm is undertaking something new and innovative, I'm the person to pass that along to. If you have an employee who won an award, received a promotion or took on a volunteer role in the community, you can let me know so we can spotlight them within these pages.

I certainly recognize the tough economic times we are in and have written extensively about the struggles that this community faces. We value each person and business that spends their money on a subscription to our paper or purchases a copy at the newsstand. The Law Journal is only strong when it serves the needs of our readers, and one way I believe we can serve them more effectively is to continue to reach out to them for story ideas and content. We come up with lots of ideas to fill the pages, but sometimes the best ideas are the ones we get from our loyal readers.

Now, enough about the back story and on to this space:

Going forward, you will find this column in this very spot each Monday. I hope to offer a bit of a hybrid - part editorial column, part observations from our legal community (and beyond) and part taking readers inside some of the stories that may not make their way to print via a traditional news article but which may pique your interest.

Much like the editorial content, once we get this ball rolling, I would love to hear from you, the reader. Tell me what you like and what you don't like. You will always find my contact information at the bottom of every column, and I hope you will use it.

I also encourage you to visit our website, www.lawjournalbuffalo.com, where we archive all of our editorial content along with other interesting information. For those of you who are linked up with social media, you can also follow the paper on Facebook by visiting www.tinyurl.com/buffalolawjournal and "liking" our page.

We will continue to feature some of the regular columnists that readers have come to enjoy and I will continue to solicit locally written guest columns for our Special Report each month.

That reminds me: Next Monday, be sure to look for the February Special Report on architecture and engineering. If you are a fan of the historic buildings and architecture here in Western New York, you won't want to miss this issue.

All of that, however, will start next week. Today I want to use this space to reach out as both a thank you for your continued support of our publication and to encourage you to take a more active role in what we do.

Contact Matt Chandler at: mchandler@bizjournals.com • 716.541.1654