Martindale-Hubbell

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 summary of laws around the world. Martindale-Hubbell is currently owned by consumer website company Internet Brands.

History
Martindale's Directory was first published in 1868 by James B. Martindale, a lawyer and businessman. He wrote in the Preface:
"The object of the work is to furnish to Lawyers, Bankers, Wholesale Merchants, Manufacturers, Real Estate Agents, and all others who may have need of business correspondents away from home, the address of one reliable law firm, one reliable bank, and one reliable real estate agent in each city and town in the United States; also to give the laws of the several States on subjects of a commercial character that are of interest or importance to business men, or have a bearing on mercantile transactions and the collection of debts. ...
In view of constant and rapid changes occurring among Law firms, by reason of death, retirement, election of office, dissolution, and an occasional degeneracy, making the best list of necessity short-lived, and in view of the continual changes being made in the commercial laws of the several States, we will thoroughly revise this work once a year, and publish it annually, on the first of every January."

In 1870, the first edition of Hubbell's Legal Directory appeared. As stated in the Introduction:

"...The vast and extending relations of business, the immense territory over which this business must be transacted, and the difficulties that often occur in obtaining reliable correspondents and information respecting the collection of debts in the different States, seem to create a necessity for a work of this character..."

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 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:

 "No feature of the modern directory is of more value to the law office than the section which is devoted to the synopses of laws of the several states and foreign jurisdictions."

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 contained 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 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. The joint venture operates under the name of Martindale-Hubbell.

Products and services
 Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Ratings™, has been used to recognize lawyers for their strong legal ability and high ethical standards for more than a century. 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 a 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 large jury awards won by individuals in recent personal injury cases.

References

External links

 
 The Historical Archives of Martindale's Law Directory, Hubbell's Legal Directory and Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory from 1868 to 1963 may be consulted via HeinOnline
 

Category:Reference publishers
Category:Legal literature
Category:Companies established in 1868
Category:1868 establishments in the United States
Category:Companies based in Union County, New Jersey