Parent company Martindale, LLC Official website www.martindale.com Founder James B. Martindale Parent organization RELX Inc. | Nonfiction topics law Country of origin United States of America Founded 1868 | |
Headquarters location New Providence, New Jersey, United States Profiles | ||
How to find a lawyer using 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 concise and convenient summary of laws around the world. Martindale-Hubbell is currently owned by consumer website company Internet Brands.
Contents
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. The lines of business in which we have been for years engaged is one that has enabled us fully to anticipate the business want in this regard... Numerous lists of what are termed "reliable lawyers" are published in the world every year, and the public are cooly asked to take the publisher's mere say so that such lawyers are responsible; the public well knowing, at the same time, that such lists are mere advertisements, and that whoever paid the highest price could have his name inserted. It is unsafe to trust such lists, so far as we know, nobody does trust them. We give such reports of our attorneys as will enable those needing their services to judge for themselves of their merit... The DIGEST OF COMMERCIAL LAWS of the several States, we feel proud to say, are fuller and more comprehensive than any ever before published in a similar work. We wish, in this public manner, to express our thankfulness for, and appreciation of, the kind services rendered us by the distinguished and able Attorneys whose names appear in the captions of these Digests as compilers thereof. 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 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 Digest, 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 commmenced 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."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 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.