Pasadena, CA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 09/10/2007 -- Inc. magazine today ranked LawCrossing on its 26th annual Inc. 500 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S.

“If you want to find out which companies are going to change the world, look at the Inc. 500,” said Inc. Editor Jane Berentson. “These are the most innovative, dynamic, fast-growth companies in the nation, the ones coming up with solutions to some of our most intractable ills, creating systems that let us conduct business faster and easier, and manufacturing products we soon discover we can’t live without. The Inc. 500 list is Inc. magazine’s tribute to American business ingenuity and ambition.”

LawCrossing (www.lawcrossing.com) features the largest collection of active legal jobs in the world, including more than 80,000 positions at top law firms, corporations, public interest organizations, and government offices throughout the U.S.

Since its launch in July 2003, LawCrossing has become the world’s largest legal-career-placement website. The company is a brainchild of CEO A. Harrison Barnes, who also founded the hugely successful parent company of LawCrossing, Juriscape, in 2000. LawCrossing’s team of more than 500 staff members monitors the hiring needs of more than 250,000 legal employers throughout the U.S. and worldwide. With literally thousands of legal jobs in its database, LawCrossing counts tens of thousands of law students, attorneys, and legal staff professionals as members.

“In response to LawCrossing’s success, we are in the process of launching at least 30 other Crossings, which are now experiencing similar growth to LawCrossing. Our staff is pushing even harder than before to empower people in every profession,” said Barnes.

The 2007 Inc. 500, as revealed in the September issue of Inc. magazine (on newsstands August 28-October 2), reported aggregate revenue of $16 billion and median three-year growth of 939%. Most important, the 2007 Inc. 500 companies were engines of job growth, having created more than 64,064 jobs since those companies were founded.

Complete information on this year’s Inc. 500, including company profiles and a list of the fastest-growing companies that can be sorted by industry and region can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000.

Hottest Regions for Fastest-Growing Companies

After several years of losing ground to the Washington, DC, area, California is flush with 81 Inc. 500 companies in 2007, up from 66 last year. Texas is home to 38 of the fastest-growing companies (up by six), followed by Virginia with 35 (up by one company from last year), New York with 26 (down by eight companies), and Florida with 26 (up by one company).

Washington, DC, is the top metropolitan area for the fifth consecutive year, with 40 of the fastest-growing companies, down slightly from 43 last year. New York City is a close second, with 38 (down four companies from last year), followed by San Francisco with 26 (up seven companies from last year), Los Angeles with 25 (no change), and Boston with 22 (down two companies).

Interestingly, finance and advertising--two industries often associated with New York--contributed a quarter of California’s total.

Hottest Industries for Fastest-Growing Businesses

The most notable median growth categories among Inc. magazine’s list of the 500 fastest-growing businesses is in the environmental services category (which grew by 1,425.4% on average), followed by food and beverage (which grew by 1,336.8% on average), media (which grew by 1,179% on average), health (which grew by 1,105.5% on average), and telecommunications (which grew by 1,056.5% on average).

The largest business category is IT services, with 55 Inc. 500 companies in this category. Advertising and marketing and human resources (both with 48 companies), government services (38 companies), and software (37 companies) round out the top five industries ranked on the 2007 Inc. 500.

Industries reporting the highest total revenue from 2003-2006 are health ($3.2 billion), real estate ($2.1 billion), advertising and marketing ($1.14 billion), human resources ($883 million), and retail ($873.6 million).

Methodology

The 2007 Inc. 500 list measures revenue growth from 2003 through 2006. To qualify, companies had to be U.S. based and privately held, be independent--not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies--as of December 31, 2006, and have had at least $200,000 in revenue in 2003 and $2 million in 2006.

Companies can apply for next year’s Inc. 500 and Inc. 5,000 by registering with IncBizNet, the new social network for private companies that will launch this fall on Inc.com.

Introducing the Inc. 5,000--The Inc. 500 Plus 4,500 New Fast-Growing Companies

This year, Inc. expanded the Inc. 500 list tenfold to create the first-ever Inc. 5,000, the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy--America’s independent-minded entrepreneurs. Complete results of the Inc. 5,000 can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000, where you can scan profiles of honorees, view lists of the fastest-growing companies by industry and region, and sort the data according to your own parameters.

About Inc. Magazine:

Founded in 1979 and acquired in 2005 by Mansueto Ventures, LLC, Inc. magazine (www.inc.com) is the only major business magazine dedicated exclusively to owners and managers of growing private companies that delivers real solutions for today’s innovative company builders. With a total paid circulation of 681,421, Inc. provides hands-on tools and market-tested strategies for managing people, finances, sales, marketing, and technology.