Professional networking for lawyers
Jinfo Blog

31st January 2009

By Penny Crossland

Item

Legal services provider Martindale-Hubbell, part of LexisNexis, announced this week (http://digbig.com/4yeqh) that it had signed up the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) (http://www.mcca.com) and an association of independent law firms, Lex Mundi (http://digbig.com/4yeqj) to its Martindale-Hubbell Connected Alliance Partner Program (http://www.martindale.com/connected). This professional networking site for lawyers is currently in beta testing (with 20 pilot members) and scheduled to launch in the first quarter of this year. The partner programme will enable MCCA and Lex Mundi to host its own secure networking community on the Martindale site, thereby allowing its 40,000 plus members to network with each other and the wider legal community. Aimed at legal associations and non-profit legal organizations, the Alliance Partner Program will enable members to pursue business development opportunities via the Martindale Connected link and participate in discussion forums and blogs. In addition, networking participants will be able to form groups or communities of interest outside their own company group. It is free to join the Connected site, however members who are also subscribers to Martindale-Hubbell will benefit from its other legal services. The online publisher spotted the need for a dedicated networking facility for lawyers more than six months ago, as reported in Livewire (http://www.vivavip.com/go/e9347), and Martindale-Hubbell has been working on establishing and building an online community site ever since. There is obviously a need amongst professionals to network in a secure and trusted environment and Martindale has cleverly tapped into this. One wonders if other online niche publishers will follow suit?

« Blog