Private Equity Solutions

LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell Expands Relationship with MSN to Deliver lawyers.com Attorney Database to Fast-Growing Hispanic Audience

NEW PROVIDENCE, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 28, 2004--LexisNexis(TM) Martindale-Hubbell(R), the leading client development company for the legal profession, today announced that it has expanded its successful relationship with the MSN(R) network of Internet services, a world leader in delivering Web services to consumers and small businesses, to deliver convenient access to Martindale-Hubbell's lawyers.com attorney database of lawyers and law firms from the MSN Spanish-language site.

MSN Latino, currently visited by more than 422,000 unique users monthly, will now feature a new link on the home page that reads "Busca un Abogado" ("Locate a Lawyer"). When visitors click on this link, they will immediately go to a new Spanish-language version of the lawyers.com home page.

"The Hispanic market is one of the fastest-growing demographic audiences in the U.S. and, by 2020, Hispanics are projected to represent 21 percent of the total U.S. population," said Joseph Douress, vice president of business development and marketing for New Providence, N.J.-based LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell. "This is an important audience for our customers because 51 percent of U.S. Hispanic households are online and they spend more time on the Web each day than the general marketplace of Internet users."

The agreement is the latest innovative Web collaboration between lawyers.com and MSN. Lawyers.com is Martindale-Hubbell's Web site for the general public and small business owners, and features a database of more than 440,000 lawyers and law firms nationwide. MSN attracts an audience of more than 84 million unique users in the U.S. each month. Previous agreements have included a wide range of linking arrangements on MSN's Search, Yellow Pages, the former Learning & Research (now MSN Encarta(R)), MSNBC and Microsoft(R) Small Business Center sections.

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 more than 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 (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 research service, LexisNexis, the company includes some of the world's most respected legal publishers such as Martindale-Hubbell, Matthew Bender, Butterworths, Les Editions du Juris-Classeur, Abeledo-Perrot and Orac.

About MSN and Microsoft

MSN attracts more than 350 million unique users worldwide per month. With localized versions available globally in 38 markets and 18 languages, MSN is a world leader in delivering Web services to consumers and ad sales to businesses worldwide. The most useful and innovative online service today, MSN brings consumers everything they need from the Web to make the most of their time online. MSN is located on the Web at http://www.msn.com/. MSN worldwide sites are located at http://www.msn.com/worldwide.ashx.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Microsoft, MSN and Encarta are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Contacts

http://www.latino.msn.com/

Teague Communications
for LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell
Daryn Teague, 661-297-5292
dteague@teaguecommunications.com
or
Waggener Edstrom
for Microsoft
Rapid Response Team, 503-443-7070
rrt@wagged.com

[ Comment, Edit or Article Submission ]