Martindale-Hubbell is an information services company to the legal profession that was founded in 1868. The company publishes the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, which provides background information on lawyers and law firms in the United States and other countries. It also published the Martindale Hubbell Law Digest, a concise and convenient summary of laws around the world. Martindale-Hubbell is currently owned by consumer website company Internet Brands.
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History
Martindale's Directory was first published in 1868 by James B. Martindale, a lawyer and businessman. He wrote in the Preface:
In 1870, the first edition of Hubbell's Legal Directory appeared. As stated in the Introduction:
By 1896, Martindale's Directory included basic information that still appears in the modern "Practice Profile" listings, ratings and a section on foreign lawyers and firms. The Law Digests of all the States and Provinces constituted a new and valuable feature, being the substance of the law adapted to the comprehension of business men, and not mere copies of statutes, as had been the case with most similar publications. The same year, the twenty sixth volume of the Hubbell's Legal Directory appeared, containing 1,600 pages of finely printed information.
In 1916, Martindale's American Law Directory contained the following: In Part I - tabulated laws, collection rates, lawyers of the U.S., of Canada, of Newfoundland, lawyers of fourteen largest cities, Canons of Professional Ethics. In Part II - foreign attorneys, diplomatic service of the U.S., Tariff of American Consular Fees, U.S. Consular Service. Part III - Law Digests of the U.S. and Canada, Law Digest of Newfoundland, Cuba Law Digest, English Law Digest, French Law Digest, German Law Digest, Mexico Law Digest, the Netherlands Law Digest, U.S. Bankruptcy Law Digest, U.S. Patent Law Digest, U.S. Trademark Law Digest, U.S. Court Calendar and Court Calendar of States.
In 1930, the Martindale Company purchased the publishing rights to Hubbell's Legal Directory, which consisted of a digest of the collected laws of each state; court calendars; and a selective list of lawyers and firms.
Through the combination of the Martindale's Directory and Hubbell's Legal Directory, the first edition of the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory was produced in 1931 as a two-volume set. Volume I consisted of, other than lawyers listings, lawyers in America (complete list of the Bar of the USA), lawyers of the Dominion of Canada and the Colony of Newfoundland (complete list of the Bar), selected list of foreign lawyers, list of patent attorneys and a biographical section. Volume II contained the Law Digests, which included a topical index, Digests of the Laws of the States, Territories and Possessions of the USA, Digests of the Laws of Canada, Digests of the Laws of 40 Foreign Countries, United States Patent, Tax and Trademark Law Digests, Court Calendars and Uniform Acts, approved and recommended for adoption by the National Conference on Uniform State Laws and Proceedings. The Preface to the Law Digest commenced with the words:
In 1951, a digest was added for the new country of Israel. Meanwhile, internal conditions as well as difficulties of communication with Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Rumania had made it necessary to withdraw publication of law digests for these countries. These law digests were revised and again published in the 1990s. Throughout the years Martindale Hubbell Law Digest, which was revised and published annually, has been considered as an incomplete encyclopaedia of comparative law in English.
In 1963, Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory was published in four volumes. Volumes I, II and III contained in the geographical section a roster as complete as possible of the Bar of the U.S. and Canada with ratings and other information, listings of the U.S. Government lawyers located at Washington, D.C., grouped by Departments, Agencies etc. A special section contained names of lawyers registered before the United States Patent Office. A similar section for Canada was included. In another part of the Directory was presented a selected list of lawyers in other countries. Volume IV contained digests of the laws and court calendars for the fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and digests of the U.S. Copyright, Patent and Trademark laws. Some of the Uniform and Model Acts were also included as well as were digests of the laws of the Dominion of Canada, of the Canadian Provinces and of 53 countries or jurisdictions, including Germany, the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics, the Republic of China, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia.
In 1990, Martindale-Hubbell was purchased by Reed International P.L.C. Reed Elsevier came into being in 1992, following the merger of Reed International, a British trade book and magazine publisher, and Elsevier, the Netherlands-based scientific publisher.
The 2006 printed edition of the Martindale-Hubbell International Law Directory presented in-depth profiles on more than 8,000 law firms and 100,000 lawyers from 165 countries, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. The 2006 edition of the Martindale Hubbell Law Digest appeared in a two-volume set. The first volume of this described and advertised as "the single most useful legal compendium available in the world" contained comprehensive digests of the laws of each of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, digests of the U.S. Federal, Copyright, Patent and Trademark laws of the United States, the Model Rules for Professional Conduct of the American Bar Association, the Code of Judicial Conduct and the composition, jurisdiction and rules of procedure of the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility. The second volume contained digests of the laws of 82 major trading countries as well as brief descriptions of their government and legal systems. In case of Australia and Canada, digests of the states and provinces of these countries were included along with the digest of their federal laws, and a separate digest of the European Union law, because of its significance for a number of European countries. The aim of the digests was: "to present the points of law most likely to be of assistance to a lawyer with a matter at hand, some facet of which is controlled by the law of that country". The digests were compiled and revised by distinguished lawyers and legal scholars of the respective states and countries. The second volume contained also the texts of ten international conventions, to which the United States of America was a party, the complete texts of many Uniform Acts including the Uniform Commercial Code and the Uniform Probate Code and four Model Acts including the Revised Model Business Corporation Act.
In 2007, Martindale Hubbell Law Digest ceased to be printed in the standard bound two volumes and became available via CD-ROM and via subscription On-line. Individual digests became available for purchase via amazon.com. In 2009, all the 150 Law Digests could be consulted free of charge on martindale.com.
In October 2013, Reed Elsevier entered into a joint venture with Internet Brands, LLC. In March 2014, the joint venture was completed resulting in the combination of Martindale-Hubbell, Lawyers.com and Internet Brand's Nolo legal division creating the largest online legal network. The joint venture operates under the name of Martindale-Hubbell.
Products and services
- Martindale-Hubbell Ratings provides reviews of lawyers and law firms for consumers and professionals. Martindale.com contains the profiles of over one million lawyers and firms globally.
- Lawyers.com and martindale.com began offering free, online legal assistance to the public in June 1998, and has more than one million lawyers and law firms worldwide in its database. The site contains the most comprehensive database of lawyers in the United States and allows users to search for lawyers using factors like geography, specialty, language and law school. Lawyers in the database are assigned an ISLN (International Standard Lawyer Number).
- The Law Blog includes posts from lawyers on issues, trends and news in the legal profession such as immigration, personal injury, estate planning, etc. In November 2011 the Lawyers.com blog launched a New Jury Roundup weekly news feature entitled, "Editor's Choice: Jury Awards Edition." The news feature reports on some of the largest jury awards won by individuals in recent personal injury cases.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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