LAWYER

The hand counting of write-in and absentee ballots continues in Alaska today, where incumbent Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski appears on the verge of a historic victory over tea-party Republican nominee Joe Miller.

The percentage of women lawyers in America's top 250 law firms has declined, according to findings based on NLJ 250, The National Law Journal's annual ranking of the nation's largest law firms.

The Manhattan Supreme Court has dismissed a petition by Diandra Douglas, the former wife of Michael Douglas, putting to a halt to her bid of receiving a share of profit from the blockbuster movie sequel Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

A two-year investigation into possible ethics violations by U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-NY, led today to the beginning of a trial before an eight-member, bipartisan House subcommittee. Rangel’s first move was to request a postponement.

Drug legalization could reduce government costs and raise tax revenues, but opponents worry over health and social ills

Hewlett-Packard Co's top lawyer, Mike Holston, came to the company on the wings of a board spying scandal in 2006. He is now at the center of another storm, this time surrounding the ouster of his friend, Chief Executive Mark Hurd.

Three of the four Rio executives on trial in Shanghai pleaded guilty to taking bribes, including the Australian national Stern Hu, a lawyer for one of the accused said on Monday.

A House panel on Thursday subpoenaed confidential company documents that a former Toyota lawyer has said prove the automaker routinely concealed evidence from the courts and federal regulators, a committee staffer said.

Lawyers for authors, publishers, corporations and governments came to a New York court to challenge or hail a proposed deal over Google Inc's plans to digitize millions of books, but the judge said he would not rule on Thursday.

American International Group Inc , which was bailed out with a $182.3 billion U.S. aid package, named a former top Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc lawyer as general counsel on Tuesday.

Congress should enact a law laying the groundwork for protecting consumers who use the Internet cloud to store data before states come in with an unwieldy patchwork of conflicting legislation, said Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith on Wednesday.

The lawyer of a French teaching assistant who was arrested on spying charges after Iran's disputed June election said he was hopeful she would be acquitted after a court held its last trial session on Saturday.

A French attorney for Roman Polanski who said the film director would not return voluntarily to the United States to face child sex charges is not authorized to speak in the case, Polanski's U.S. attorneys said on Friday.

Roman Polanski will not agree voluntarily to being extradited to the United States over a 1970s child sex case, the film director's lawyer said in an interview with French daily Le Figaro published on Friday.

A former enforcement lawyer with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission pleaded guilty to impersonating two people to help confessed Ponzi scheme operator Marc Dreier defraud hedge funds.

A lawyer for Roman Polanski denied on Wednesday that the film director, now in Swiss custody, may opt to face justice in the United States, where he is wanted on a 1977 sex charge, to avoid lengthy extradition procedures.

* First weeks of Madoff's prison life* Drug dealer, child molester, mob boss and spy

Film director Roman Polanski, now in Swiss detention, may decide to face justice in the United States, where he is wanted on a 1977 sex charge, to avoid lengthy extradition procedures, one of his lawyers said on Wednesday.

Film director Roman Polanski, arrested in Switzerland three weeks ago to face extradition in a U.S. sex case, has been moved from jail for medical treatment, his French lawyer said on Saturday.

Former Bear Stearns hedge fund manager Matthew Tannin, on trial for fraud and lying to investors early in the financial crisis, might have made strategic mistakes but he did not conspire with colleagues to commit a crime, his lawyer said on Thursday.

Former Bear Stearns hedge fund manager Matthew Tannin, on trial for fraud and charges he lied to investors early in the financial crisis, could not have foreseen problems in the subprime mortgage market in 2007, his lawyer said in opening his defense on Thursday.