Christmas comes a few days early at LexBlog with the announcement that lawyer and leading legal journalist, Robert Ambrogi, is joining LexBlog as our publisher and editor-in-chief.

Bob is one of the better known legal journalists in the country. He served as editor-in-chief of the National Law Journal and was founding editor of Lawyers USA.

Bob’s blog, LawSites, may be the most widely followed and respected legal technology publication in the country. More than one entrepreneur has told me it was Bob’s coverage that made for the success of their comopany.

In addition to writing and speaking about the Internet, social media and legal technology for nearly 20 years, Bob is the author of multiple books about law and the net. He has also co-hosted the award-winning podcast, Lawyer2Lawyer, at over twelve years, the longest-running legal podcast.

This Fall, Bob received the Yankee Quill Award, presented by the Academy of New England Journalists “to honor extraordinary newspaper men and women for their lifetime of achievement and distinction in New England journalism.” Among other things, they recognized Bob’s relentless commitment to the public’s right to know while serving as executive director of the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association.

More important than all is the one constant I heard when sharing word of Bob’s joining LexBlog with business confidants. “Integrity. No one commands more respect than Bob.”

Bob’s a good friend. I have learned s lot from him, not only on blogging, journalism and technology, but more importantly what it means to be a blogger, journalist, lawyer and publisher. It’s not just the words you report. Integrity, professionalism, freedom of the press, hard work, passion and care come to mind.

I am excited to bring Bob to my colleagues on the LexBlog team where by leveraging innovative technology, he’ll help define a new model in legal publishing. Legal information, news and commentary from citizen journalists, blogging lawyers, for lawyers and members of the public. He’s as passionate about blogging as me, if not more.

Our blog network produces close to as any pieces a day as the New York Times. It’s time time to take that from a byproduct of a company with the most successful legal blogging solution to a force in legal publishing. No one is more capable of leading us all there than Bob.

I am excited to bring Bob to blogging lawyers, whether on the LexBlog network or not. He’ll be shining a light on you and your work as well as guiding you on the best practices in legal blogging.

Over a dozen years ago, when LexBlog was a door on two file cabinets under a hardware light in my garage, I emailed a rockstar in legal publishing and blogging. I asked if he had time to talk some day. To my delight, he did.

It was Bob. I don’t recall the details of our conversation, other than to remember that he was a good guy that I looked forward to learning from and getting to know.

Wow. Some times you get lucky.

Stay tuned to our open discussion at Donuts.LexBlog.com about how we’ll build this publishing arm of LexBlog — or for that matter, LexBlog itself.