Gregory V. Bell

Joining Dianna Leach as a partner in life as well as this business, Gregory Bell is a Principal Attorney Editor with the legal publisher West, which is part of Thomson Reuters, one of the preeminent global information solution providers to businesses and professionals. Through hands-on experience while at West, Greg has built a broad understanding of the publishing process, author relations, content presentation and management, new product development, and marketing of printed and online products. He has also evangelized and is consulting with his colleagues at West on the use of social media, including blogs and wikis.

Prior to joining West in 1998, Greg practiced law with Gillio & Associates, a law firm in Chicago, concentrating his practice in representing small companies, colleges and universities in labor and employment and higher education law matters. He received his J.D. from Chicago-Kent College of Law in 1993 and remains licensed to practice law in Illinois (he is not licensed, however, in the State of New York). He graduated from the University of Chicago in 1983 with an A.B. in Political Science.

Greg maintains an active life in the Rochester, New York, community and the bar. He currently serves as  the President of the University of Chicago Club of Western New York. He recently finished serving as a co-chair of the Pro Bono Work Committee of the American Bar Association’s Section on Labor and Employment Law, where he has helped to coordinate and develop pro bono projects for the Section’s more than 22,000 members and built and maintained the Committee's web presence. Greg has also recently served as Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Friends of Brockport Dance, who help to raise funds to support students studying in the Department of Dance at SUNY College in Brockportm in addition to creating and maintaining the group's blog/website. Greg is also a member of the Communications Committee of the Monroe County Bar Association.

Greg is an avid jazz fan and has maintained the Jazz@Rochester weblog covering live jazz music in and around Rochester, NY, since April 2005. Through this blog, Greg has developed relationships with a jazz musicians, venue owners, and others throughout the live music scene in Rochester. The blog was one foundation for Greg's interest in the uses of social media and expertise in creating and using blogs and other social media tools in business and personal life.