The VLW Blog

In this week’s issue of Virginia Lawyers Weekly, we presented the recipients of our 2007 “Unsung Legal Heroes” awards.

The awards program honors professionals who work behind the scenes in law offices and courthouses throughout the commonwealth, including: legal secretaries/assistants, law librarians, paralegals, firm administrators and IT professionals.

These 15 individuals were nominated by their colleagues and selected based upon their outstanding contributions to the legal community.

Congratulations to all!

Congratulations to two of our Dolan Media Company sister papers for the debuts of their respective blogs.

Our colleagues at the Daily Journal of Commerce in Portland have been blogging since mid-August and went live last week.

And our colleagues at Michigan Lawyers Weekly started their blog, called Michigan Lawyer, last Friday.

Cheers!

Congratulations to our colleagues at The Daily Record in Baltimore, who have joined the blogosphere.

Their new blog, On the Record, debuted this past Wednesday.

The TDR blog is now the seventh maintained by a Dolan Media Company operation. Look in the right column for a list.

MINNEAPOLIS – Dolan Media, the parent company of Virginia Lawyers Weekly, went public today.

The Minneapolis-based firm’s shares opened on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “DM,” with an initial public offering price of $14.50.
When trading commenced at 10 a.m., shares opened at $16.40 apiece and quickly climbed to trade above $17 per share.

The operator of niche business and law publications said net proceeds from the offering are expected to be approximately $138.6 million and will be used to redeem all outstanding shares of the company’s preferred stock, to repay $30 million of outstanding debt under the company’s credit facility, and for general corporate purposes, including acquisitions and working capital.

In 2006, the company’s revenue increased to $111.6 million from $77.9 million. However, net loss widened to $14 million from $7.5 million in the previous year, according to an April Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Merrill Lynch & Co. are acting as joint bookrunners and as representatives of the underwriters. Piper Jaffray & Co. and Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC are acting as co-managers.

Dolan Media owns niche newspapers in 19 markets, including Richmond, New Orleans, Baltimore, St. Louis and Boston. It acquired the Lawyers Weekly chain of publications in 2004.

Our colleagues at the Colorado Springs Business Journal have become the latest Dolan Media Company operation to join the blogosphere.

They launched their blog, the CSBJ Blog, this past Monday. Previously the CSBJ had maintained a local golf league blog.

Congrats to their publisher, Lon Matejczyk, and their editor, Mike Boyd. Cheers, gentlemen!