The Lawyer Group acquires Lawzone from Sift

The Lawyer Group, part of Centaur Communications Ltd, today
announced that it has acquired the online legal community LawZone from Sift for an undisclosed sum.

Rachel Lesiter, managing director of The Lawyer Group commented: ìThe addition of LawZone to The Lawyer Group complements our current online offering through The Lawyer.com and makes us the clear leader in online news
and business for the UK legal profession.î

Launched in April 1999, LawZone is an online legal community, providing daily news and information to a membership of over 19,000 legal professionals. Appealing to a wide spectrum of the profession, LawZone will
significantly improve The Lawyer Groupís ability to deliver services to a broader range of legal professionals and introduce innovative web solutions across all online products.

The Lawyer Group also announced today that it has appointed Sift, provider of online community solutions, learning networks and knowledge management applications, to redevelop The Lawyer.com in addition to continuing to
support LawZone.

Rachel Lesiter explained, ìSift was appointed following an extensive selection process as they successfully demonstrated that much of the functionality we needed already existed within the SiftGroups platform. This
appointment means we are now in a position to launch an innovative range of integrated online services within a few months.î

As well as incorporating significant new community elements, The Lawyer.com will benefit from a completely new look and feel, which includes better navigation and a complete redesign. LawZone will be incorporated into the
new The Lawyer.com site when it is launched this summer.

Daniel Brill, commercial director of The Lawyer.com commented: ìThe rationale behind The Lawyer.com is to create a vibrant online community coupled with comprehensive information resources and compelling content. Weíre aiming to create recommendable and addictive channels that people come back to again and again. The legal professionís interest in the web is increasing dramatically, and this investment underlines our dedication to itî.

Ben Heald, managing director of Sift commented: Whilst we're sad to see LawZone go, we are delighted to commence work for Centaur on the new The Lawyer.com site. With our experience of developing our own online publishing portals and online publishing platform, we feel that we've got
plenty to add to the project. With the addition of LawZone, the UK's leading community based site for lawyers, Centaur has a sure-fire winner!