The high court, in a 5-4 ruling, overturned the 1986 Michigan v. Jackson ruling, which said police may not initiate questioning of a defendant who has a lawyer or has asked for one unless the attorney is present.

The Michigan ruling applied even to defendants who agree to talk to the authorities without their lawyers.

The court's conservatives overturned that opinion Tuesday, with Justice Antonin Scalia saying "it was poorly reasoned, has created no significant reliance interests and (as we have described) is ultimately unworkable."

Scalia, who read the opinion from the bench, said their decision will have a "minimal" effects on criminal defendants. "Because of the protections created by this court in Miranda and related cases, there is little if any chance that a defendant will be badgered into waiving his right to have counsel present during interrogation," Scalia said.

The Michigan v. Jackson opinion was written by Justice John Paul Stevens, the only current justice who was on the court at the time. He dissented from the ruling, and in an unusual move read his dissent aloud from the bench. It was the first time this term a justice had read a dissent aloud.

"The police interrogation in this case clearly violated petitioner's Sixth Amendment right to counsel," Stevens said. Overruling the Jackson case, he said, "can only diminish the public's confidence in the reliability and fairness of our system of justice."

The court Tuesday unanimously overturned a decision by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va.

The law makes it a felony to use a communication device in "committing or in causing or in facilitating" a drug purchase.

Prosecutors say that Salman Khade Abuelhawa's use of a cell phone for a misdemeanor purchase of around $120 of cocaine fell under the statute. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the conviction.

But the high court said Congress did not intend for phone buyers to get more jail time than people who walk up to dealers and buy drugs.

Mike Stefani "engaged in conduct that is contrary to justice, ethics, honesty or good morals," the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission said in a nine-page complaint. Staff at the grievance commission act as investigators and prosecutors of misconduct by lawyers.

"I was simply representing my clients to the best of my ability," Stefani said. "I'm not going to accept allegations that I'm dishonest or committed a crime." He added: "I'm going to defend my reputation."

The text messages were "irrefutable" evidence that Kilpatrick, a lawyer, committed perjury at a 2007 civil trial when he denied having an affair with a top aide, but Stefani didn't notify the commission in a timely manner, investigators said.

Stefani obtained Kilpatrick's text messages by sending a subpoena to SkyTel Inc., the city's communications provider.

The messages arrived in October 2007, a few weeks after the police officers' trial. The officers claimed Kilpatrick punished them because they were investigating wrongdoing by his inner circle.

A California man has pleaded guilty to opening tens of thousands of bogus online brokerage accounts and then pocketing tiny test deposits made by companies like E-Trade Financial and Charles Schwab.

Michael Largent, 23, of Plumas Lake, Calif. pleaded guilty Thursday to computer fraud charges in connection with the scam, which ran between November 2007 and May 2008.

Largent's arrest was widely covered on the Internet last May, where it was likened to so-called Salami Slicing scams depicted in movies such as Superman III and Office Spaces.

According to prosecutors, Largent wrote a script that opened more than 58,000 online accounts at instructions such as E-trade and Schwab. He used fake names, including cartoon monikers such as Hank Hill and Rusty Shackelford to open these accounts and then profited when the brokerage firms would make tiny test deposits to make sure they were linked to his account.

Typically these deposits were between $0.01 and $2 but they added up. In total he made or tried to make more than $50,000 in the scam, the Department of Justice said.

Largent is also alleged to have received more than $8,000 in micro-deposits from Google, although he was not charged with this in his May 22 indictment.

He is set to be sentenced on Aug. 13 and faces up to five years in federal prison on two computer fraud charges, a U.S. department of Justice spokeswoman said Thursday.

The Reed Smith law firm said it will cut salaries for all U.S. associates by 10 percent across the board, effective July 1.

In an internal memo that was originally leaked to the Web site Abovethelaw.com Wednesday afternoon, managing partner Gregory Jordan said the firm had already adopted changes to its business plan because of the recession, changing client demands, and the competitive landscape in the legal industry. Among other things, Jordan said it has meant lower compensation levels for partners, though he did not specify by how much.

A spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh-based firm, which has about 280 employees in Philadelphia, confirmed the authenticity of the memo.

Jordan said the firm will set the salaries for the incoming class of first-year associates in the United States at a later date, but they will be at least 10 percent lower than the current levels. Jordan said the firm will freeze associates’ salaries in its European and Middle Eastern offices, and will set the starting salary for newly qualified associates in the United Kingdom about 10 percent lower than the current level. Asian operations are not affected by the action.

Herzfeld & Rubin P.C. is relocating its headquarters to 125 Broad St. in New York's Financial District, after a 50-year stint at 40 Wall St.

Mack-Cali, which owns roughly 40 percent of the 40-story office tower, signed the global law firm to a 20-year, 56,322-square-foot lease. The new deal brings the REIT's 525,000-square-foot portion of the 1.3 million-square-foot high-rise to full occupancy. Mark Shapses, Joseph Messina and Jason Schwartzenberg with Studley represented Herzfeld & Rubin.

The law firm joins prominent tenants such as Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), both of which own their space. Herzfeld & Rubin's 64,736-square-foot lease at 40 Wall St., which encompasses floors 50 through 56, is up at the end of this year. The new space offers comparable size, but on less than two floors.

The new deal brings a nearly four-year search to an end. "We were hired in 2005 to find a more cost-effective, efficient occupancy solution for the firm, and periodically went out into the market looking for space," said Shapses. "The market went through extraordinary price and availability changes in that period. The right situation with the right economics hadn’t surfaced until now."

Schwartzenberg noted that the space hadn't even hit the market yet. "We knew it would soon be vacated so we moved quickly to secure it."

Mack-Cali will cover 100 percent of the modifications Herzfeld & Rubin requires. The concession package also includes free rent and furnishings.

Continuing its string of long-term deals, Mack-Cali also signed Global Aerospace to a 12-year lease in Parsippany, NJ. The aerospace insurer took 47,891 square feet at One Sylvan Way at the Mack-Cali Business Campus. Kenneth Flynn of Jones Lang LaSalle represented Global Aerospace.

Global Aerospace is relocating its U.S. headquarters from 22 Sylvan Way, also part of the Mack-Cali Business Campus. Wyndham Worldwide Operations leased the entire 250,000-square-foot office building for 15 years in January, according to CoStar information.

A computer expert claims in a lawsuit that Minneapolis law firm Leonard, Street and Deinard owes him $775,000 for storing digital evidence in a case involving the city’s two largest newspapers.

Mark Lanterman of Computer Forensic Services said he stored 62 terabytes of Star Tribune data, costing $155,000 a month, for five or six months before he deleted it, the Star Tribune reports. He claims the law firm still owes him $775,000 in unpaid bills.

The law firm’s reply to the suit says Lanterman has already been paid "handsomely" for every invoice he submitted on time, for a total of $854,000, the story says. The last invoice came in too late for the firm to bill the Star Tribune, ordered to pay expenses in the case, the court document said. The firm also says it didn’t have a signed contract with Lanterman.