Hi, and welcome to Law Practice Matters.

I'm Erik Mazzone and Law Practice Matters is my blog about law practice management. It features articles, ideas, and resources on all of the things that go into starting and running a law firm, including figuring out technology, marketing and management.

The reason I write this blog is both personal and professional.

First, I'm the Director of the Center for Practice Management at the North Carolina Bar Association, so I spend my days helping lawyers start and run their practices. Law Practice Matters is my online notebook for things I find valuable or interesting and that I hope lawyers will find the same.

Second, and maybe more important, is that I practiced law for 10 years and started and ran a law practice management consulting company for a couple more. I know, first hand, how frustrating it is when your technology doesn't work and how frightening it is when your phone isn't ringing.

I like solutions that are simple and that let lawyers be lawyers. As opposed to computer geeks, web designers, or management gurus. I'm not a born techie or spreadsheet-ranger. I don't geek out on unlocking deeply hidden secrets of software or creating complicated work-flow systems that require a degree from MIT to understand. Wherever possible, I try to provide or spotlight things that make running a law firm a little easier, a little less hassle and a little more fun.

The trick is that there are plenty of simple solutions in the world that are expensive. It's simple to hire a house cleaner to clean your house for you, but not everybody can or wants to spend their money that way. Solutions that help you do things yourself while still keeping it simple and inexpensive -- those are worth their weight in gold. As jazz great Charles Mingus said,

Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.

I'm not laying claim to possessing any great measure of creativity, but I'm on that path trying to figure it out. If you're reading this, I'm guessing you are, too.

When I am not working or writing, I volunteer a lot of time with the Law Practice Management Section of the American Bar Association. I'm currently on the Planning Board of ABA TECHSHOW, and in the past I've been on the Editorial Board of Law Practice Today. I'm also active in the National Association of Bar Executives, and currently serve on its Program Committee.

And when I am not doing any of that stuff, I like hanging out with my wife and beagle in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Thanks for stopping by.