New York Non-Profit Lawyer Named First Winner of LexisNexis® Martindale-Hubbell® Legal Fellowship

Funds to Support Innovative Program Assisting Young People Emerging from Juvenile and Criminal Justice Systems

New Providence, N.J. - August 4, 2005 – Laurie Parise, an attorney at the New York-based Legal Action Center (LAC), has been named the first recipient of the LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell Legal Fellowship, a new program to promote education, the practice of public interest law and diversity in the legal profession.

The $15,000 fellowship will be awarded to Parise in order to support her work with LAC's National Hire Network, an outreach program that is designed to provide legal assistance to young men and women with criminal records to re-enter the job market and participate fully in society as productive, responsible citizens. Parise is currently an Equal Justice Works fellow at the non-profit LAC. Parise's project, "Re-Entry and Employment Barriers: Supporting Youth Emerging from the Juvenile and Criminal Justice Systems," was launched last fall and includes the development of various printed materials, one-on-one counseling sessions, the creation of an informational Web site and as-needed litigation assistance for individuals whose rights have been violated.

"Every day, more than 21,000 youth are confined in adult correctional facilities, and every year more than a quarter million youth under the age of 18 are tried and sentenced in an adult criminal court," said Parise, who graduated from Brooklyn Law School in 2004. "This year alone, more than 200,000 juvenile and young adults will return to their neighborhoods after being released from correctional facilities, but unfortunately many of them will lack the knowledge or tools necessary to adjust to their re-entry into the job market and their community. With no means of financial support and no resources to help them protect their rights, many young people will wind up right back in the criminal justice system."

The new LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell Legal Fellowship awards two $15,000 grants each year - one in the summer and one in the winter - to individuals or associations whose applications are selected by the company's Legal Fellowship committee. The deadline for the second fellowship of the year is December 31, 2005, with the winner to be announced in January 2006. For more information or to complete and submit the application for a fellowship grant, please go to www.martindale.com/ratings and click on the "Fellowship" tab.

"Our goal with this program is to give back to the legal profession by providing financial support to individuals who have a passion for advancing the practice of law in socially relevant ways," said Paul Gazzolo, chief operating officer of New Providence, N.J.-based LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell. "It's essential for youth who have been convicted of crimes and released from correctional facilities to gain employment if they are to regain their dignity and become productive participants in our society. Laurie's program is an excellent example of how the non-profit legal community can make a meaningful difference in the lives of others."