NEW PROVIDENCE, N.J. - LexisNexis(R) Martindale-Hubbell(R), the leading client development company for the legal profession, today announced the launch of law firm diversity profiles on martindale.com, a new online marketing offering that helps law firms improve their business development outreach to prospective clients and enhance their recruiting efforts for fresh legal talent.

LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell is active in promoting law firm diversity initiatives, including a close association with the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA), the only privately funded national organization exclusively dedicated to diversity management issues in the legal profession. The company worked side-by-side with the MCCA to create the new Diversity Profiles product as a vehicle for law firms to spotlight their commitment to workforce diversity with in-depth descriptions of tactics and goals to recruit, retain and promote minorities.

"When evaluating and selecting outside counsel, emphasis is increasingly being placed by in-house counsel on finding law firms that demonstrate a dedication to building and maintaining a diverse workforce," said Veta Richardson, executive director of the MCCA. "Moreover, top recruits have become more selective; today's highly skilled, intelligent and well rounded candidates choose to interview at law firms that seek to foster an open and diverse culture."

The diversity profiles on martindale.com allow firms to underscore their diversity initiatives, paint a picture of their open culture, make it to the short list for potential client engagements that require diversity commitments, and differentiate themselves from other firms when it comes to recruiting new legal talent. The profiles are easily accessed from law firm listings on martindale.com, the Internet attorney directory most frequently searched by in-house counsel and other members of the legal profession. In fact, visitors can now select a box on the Martindale.com Lawyer Locator search engine that allows them to only view the listings of firms with diversity profiles in the database.

According to the MCCA's Richardson, the new offering provides a valuable tool for legal professionals to quickly identify those firms with a demonstrable commitment to diversity.

"With corporate law departments growing more diverse and expecting the same commitment from their outside counsel, those firms that implement diversity programs have a competitive advantage in winning and retaining key clients," said Paul Gazzolo, chief operating officer of New Providence, N.J.-based LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell.

"Diversity Profiles on martindale.com enable law firms to effectively communicate progress against their diversity initiatives and for in-house counsel to efficiently locate firms that have demonstrated a commitment to diversity," said Gazzolo. "With more than 3 million searches per month, martindale.com is the industry's leading online source for information about lawyers and law firms, providing exposure for law firm credentials that far exceed that which comes from their own Web sites and other online attorney directories."

About LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell
LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell is the leading client development company for the legal profession and is the number-one resource for information about lawyers and law firms worldwide, consulted daily by lawyers, business executives and consumers. With 4 million searches per month, this unrivaled network connects lawyers and law firms with their clients and potential clients, facilitates communication between members of the legal profession, and makes available a wide range of biographical information and professional credentials regarding attorneys in private, corporate and government practice. It is powered by a database of more than 1 million lawyers and law firms around the world.

Martindale-Hubbell is also the leading provider of Web sites for lawyers and has recently announced a number of new products and services to facilitate client development initiatives for lawyers and law firms. These client development vehicles include opportunities to publish articles on the Web and in respected industry newsletters, invitations to speak at highly regarded professional conferences, and new products designed to market law firm practice area and industry groups. LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell is part of the LexisNexis Group, a member of the Reed Elsevier Group plc. For more information, visit www.martindale.com.

About LexisNexis
LexisNexis(R) (www.lexisnexis.com) is a leader in comprehensive and authoritative legal, news and business information and tailored applications. A member of Reed Elsevier Group plc (NYSE:ENL)(NYSE:RUK) (www.reedelsevier.com), the company does business in 100 countries with 13,000 employees worldwide. In addition to its flagship Web-based Lexis(R) and Nexis(R) research services, the company includes some of the world's most respected legal publishers such as Martindale-Hubbell, Matthew Bender, Butterworths, JurisClasseur, Abeledo-Perrot and Orac.

LexisNexis

LexisNexis

More from LexisNexis