Sam Spencer was once one of the most prominent leaders in legal publishing. For many years, he was publisher and CEO of the Lawyers Weekly chain of publications, based in Boston. Then he became a senior vice president of Dolan Media, helping drive that company’s further expansion into legal publishing. In fact, Dolan eventually turned around and bought Lawyers Weekly. From his home outside Boston, Sam seemed to spend more time on airplanes than anywhere else, traveling the country to Dolan’s newspapers, corporate headquarters and elsewhere.

All that came to a screeching halt five years ago, when Sam suffered a stroke. But Sam is not one to sit on the sidelines for long. He has more energy than the Energizer Bunny. Unable to continue his newspaper career, he took up a new career as a full-time volunteer for his local Council on Aging, delivering meals, driving elders to appointments, and “dispensing kindness and the gift of gab,” as Sue Scheible writes in this profile of Sam’s new life in The Patriot Ledger.

Sam was also my boss a couple times over. More years ago than I care to admit, he lured me away from my law practice in the Virgin Islands to become editor-in-chief of Lawyers Weekly in Boston. Several years later, after he joined Dolan, he brought me in to serve as temporary publisher of the Idaho Business Review just after Dolan bought it.

Scheible’s profile also included this video about Sam’s new life:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN89l4-inPs]

Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.