International law firm Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP and leading Spanish law firm Ramón & Cajal are delighted to announce that they have entered into an independent correspondent relationship to ensure clients have access to top-tier legal services in key geographic business centers. The relationship establishes formalized cooperation, client development and referral arrangements between the two firms.

Ty Fahner, Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw’s Chairman for the past eight years, said that this important relationship further extends the firm's global footprint into Continental Europe following the announcement of a similar relationship with Tonucci & Partners (formerly Studio Legale Tonucci) in January 2006.

"This pairing with Ramón & Cajal increases our ability to provide clients with superior service no matter where they need it,” said Paul Maher, Vice-Chairman elect and London Senior Partner, Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw. “Significant commercial activity over the last few years in Spain, combined with an increase in foreign companies doing business in Spain as well as Spanish companies seeking to invest outside of the country, highlights the strategic importance of Spain."

Ramón & Cajal primarily advises corporate and financial clients and focuses on the provision of high quality legal advice to Spanish and international companies doing business in or from Spain.

Chairman of Ramón & Cajal, Pedro Ramón y Cajal Agüeras, and partner Alberto Alonso Ureba are, together with Francisco Palá Laguna and Francisco J. Bauzá Moré, managing and co-managing partners of the firm, respectively. They maintain day-to-day management of the merged firm while remaining focused on client transactions and relationship development.

"We look forward to working with an international firm which is as well respected globally as Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw,” said Francisco Palá Laguna managing partner at Ramón & Cajal. “We are ideally placed to assist its clients looking to expand their operations in Europe, and in particular, into Spain. The firm has an enviable market reputation, partner expertise and global capabilities. We welcome our new colleagues to Spain and look forward to introducing our people and clients to those who will help take this important two-way relationship forward."

Today, Ramón & Cajal has more than 70 lawyers, of whom 20 are partners. This enables both well staffed transactions for clients and the personal commitment and involvement of partners. It maintains offices in Madrid and serves clients operating across Spain and more widely in Europe and into South America.

The firm has a consolidated client base which includes many of the largest Spanish companies in terms of market capitalization. Over recent years, the firm has provided services to almost half of the companies comprising the Ibex-35 Index. Ramón & Cajal’s clients also include the Spanish Government and related agencies and companies as well as a growing number of foreign corporations.

"We are independent law firms but with complementary practices, so we have begun cross-referring work in a meaningful way particularly into and out of Paris,” said Jean-Philippe Lambert, Partner-in-Charge of Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, Paris. “We look forward to developing this relationship with our firm’s 13 other offices around the world to ensure our clients are receiving the best legal opportunities available."

"This announcement follows a year of close collaboration for Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw in Italy with Tonucci & Partners and the opening of the firm’s Hong Kong office,” continued James D. Holzhauer, Chairman elect, Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw. “With the inclusion of Ramón & Cajal to our extensive European and global network we are ever closer to realizing the goals we outlined when we combined Mayer, Brown and Rowe & Maw in 2002. Spain is an exciting and competitive market. Increasingly its largest companies are becoming global players in the business world. This is a great development for both firms."

The relationship between the two firms is significant in that there is an enormous overlap of the type of work on which both firms advise, including corporate (mergers and acquisitions, commercial advice and corporate governance), finance and banking, capital markets, restructuring and turnaround, competition and regulation, administrative law, real estate, planning, tax and litigation and dispute resolution.

The complementary service offerings will provide a strong platform for the establishment of the ongoing cross-referral of work as well as joint business development and marketing initiatives to help the two firms to work closely together across all areas of legal advice to clients.

Former Enron prosecutor Kathy Ruemmler has joined the law firm of Latham & Watkins in Washington, D.C.

Ruemmler was one of three Assistant U.S. Attorneys who took leading roles in the 2004 Enron Nigerian barge case and the criminal trial of former Enron executives Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay last year.

Prior to joining the Department of Justice in 2001, Ruemmler was Associate Counsel to President Bill Clinton. She also handled white collar criminal defense cases and civil litigation at both Latham and Zuckerman Spaeder in Washington.

She joins former Enron Task Force chief Sean Berkowitz, who joined Latham in November.

The woman who claims to be James Brown's fourth wife wants half of the singer's estate and to be allowed back into the South Carolina home she was locked out of soon after his death.

Tomi Rae Hynie's lawyer said she filed a petition in Aiken County probate court Thursday, claiming that she is the surviving spouse of the singer and entitled to part of his estate, according to court documents obtained by the Associated Press.

She wants the court to allow her to return to Brown's Beech Island home to retrieve "personal possessions" that belong to her and their 5-year-old son, including furniture she picked out for the home, according to the court papers.

"She's not asking the court to live there," said Robert Rosen, Hynie's attorney. "They locked her out and wouldn't let her in but she has a right to go in and get her stuff - furniture, her clothing, her son's toys. They keep saying that they're going to do it but they never do it so we're going to ask a judge to order them to do it."

Brown's attorney and trustee, Buddy Dallas, said Hynie never asked for any personal items from the singer's home.

"She never requested anything," Dallas said. "She's used a camera crew and a lawsuit. I'm sure the court will inquire into it and make a proper determination."

Muhammad Salah and Abdelhaleem Ashqar, two of three men indicted in 2004 by a US federal grand jury on charges of engaging in a 15-year conspiracy of providing funds to Hamas, were found not guilty of racketeering Thursday. While the men were exonerated of the most serious crime alleged, they were convicted of lesser charges. Salah, who spent 5 years in an Israeli prison in 1993 after confessing to transporting funds for Hamas, was convicted of obstruction of justice for providing false answers in a civil case involving an American student killed by the terrorist group while in Israel. Ashqar was convicted of obstruction of justice and criminal contempt for his refusal to testify before a federal grand jury after receiving immunity. The third man indicted, Abu Mousa Marzook, is currently living in Syria, and is considered to be a fugitive.

Controversy in the case arose when US District Judge Amy St. Eve closed the courtroom during the testimony of two Israeli security agents who were called to counter Salah’s claims that his 1993 admission to being in Hamas was false, and the product of Israeli torture during his interrogation. In a statement made after Thursday’s ruling, Amnesty International USA, while pleased with the “generally favorable verdict,” remains concerned that “evidence likely obtained by the use of torture even entered the courtroom.”

Opponents of the legislation said the issue was settled in the November election and lawmakers should not have revived it.

This year's bill would allow rape victims to get abortions if they report the rapes to police within 50 days. Doctors would have to confirm the report with police and would have to take blood from aborted fetuses and give that information to police for DNA testing.

In the case of incest, a doctor would have to get the woman's consent to report the crime along with the identity of the alleged perpetrator before an abortion could be performed. Blood samples from fetuses would have to be provided to police in incest cases, too.

Abortions could be done only until the 17th week of pregnancy in cases of incest and rape. The bill carries a tougher maximum penalty for illegal abortions than last year's bill - 10 years in prison instead of five.

It would allow abortions to save women's lives and in cases in which their health would be seriously jeopardized by a continued pregnancy. However, a doctor could perform an abortion only if a doctor from another practice concurs that a woman's health is in jeopardy.

In Utah, a state House committee voted 6-2 on Tuesday to ban abortion, setting the stage for a costly legal battle if the bill clears the Legislature and is signed into law. The committee sent the measure to the full House.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said the bill likely is unconstitutional and if it becomes law could be costly to defend against any legal challenges.

Woodcock Washburn, Philadelphia's largest intellectual property law firm, said Tuesday that it has elected two new members to the three-person policy committee that manages the firm.

Partners Joseph Lucci and Steven Samuels will join the committee Feb. 1, joining incumbent member Steven Rocci. They replace two of the firm's most senior partners, Dianne Elderkin and Dale Heist, who are stepping down after having served since 2001.
 
Rocci said the firm's partners felt that it was important that the new committee reflect the makeup of the firm, while also maintaining continuity. The committee will be composed of one senior, one midlevel and one junior partner, representing the firm's various legal and technical practice areas.

Rocci, 52, specializes in patent litigation, counseling and procurement for a wide range of clients, including companies in the software, telecommunications, and Internet industries.

Lucci, 46, specializes in patent litigation, prosecution, interferences and client counseling, particularly in the areas of pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

Samuels, 40, represents companies in the fields of electronics, computer hardware and software, digital and analog communications, electrical power transmission and business methods.

Rocci said Heist, 58, and Elderkin, 53, will still be involved in firm management, with Heist taking a larger role in business development and Elderkin taking a larger role in the litigation department.

Woodcock Washburn has 90 lawyers. It has offices in Atlanta and Seattle and just moved its Philadelphia office from One Liberty Place to Cira Centre. The firm's clients include Microsoft, Cingular, Du Pont, Johnson & Johnson, Sunoco and Wyeth.

http://www.woodcock.com

If Miller is called to answer the questions and refuses, she could face charges of perjury, as she did in July of 2005 when she was jailed after refusing to reveal sources in conjunction with the federal criminal investigation into the leak of Plame's identity. Miller resigned her post at the Times after her release from the 85-day jail term.

Libby is charged with perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with the CIA leak investigation.