Richard "Dickie" Scruggs admitted he was involved in a scheme to entice a judge to rule in his favor in an asbestos case by promising he'd be appointed to the federal bench with help from Scruggs' brother-in-law, former U.S. Sen. Trent Lott.

Scruggs, who already is serving five years in jail, was sentenced Tuesday to a seven-year term that will run at the same time, basically adding two years to his sentence. He was also fined $100,000.

Scruggs' name was also removed from a sealed indictment that has not been made public. U.S. Attorney Jim Greenlee declined to give details about it.

Scruggs, who was in leg-irons and wore a dark suit during the hearing, told the court that the first time he pleaded guilty he had vowed to come out of the ordeal a better man, a pledge he renewed Tuesday.

"I acknowledge and own up fully to my role and responsibility," Scruggs told the court. "I'm going to do everything I can to make it as right as I can. I'm going to cooperate fully with federal authorities."

U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson told Scruggs he had recently read a saying he thought was fitting: "The Romans had a proverb that money was like sea water. The more you drink, the thirstier you become."

Scruggs, who was led out of the courthouse in an orange jumpsuit and shackles, did not acknowledge reporters as he was loaded into a white van with dark-tinted windows.

Lott, who talked to Hinds County Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter but ultimately recommended someone else, has not been accused of wrongdoing.

Scruggs, 62, gained national prominence and earned hundreds of millions of dollars in the 1990s with a case that led to a multibillion-dollar settlement from tobacco companies. His efforts were portrayed in the 1999 film "The Insider" starring Al Pacino and Russell Crowe.

But his star fell last year when he admitted conspiring to bribe another Mississippi judge in a dispute over $26.5 million in legal fees from Hurricane Katrina insurance cases. He was disbarred and is serving a five-year sentence in a federal prison in Kentucky.

The judge recommended he be moved to a prison closer to his Oxford home to be near family and the federal authorities investigating the bribery case. Scruggs asked to be sent to the same Arkansas prison where his son is jailed for knowing about the Katrina bribery scheme and not reporting it.

Bell was being treated for complications due to pancreatic cancer, and suffered from kidney disease for years.

A spokesman for Bell's law firm, Les Zucke, says Bell died at 9:40 a.m. Monday. Bell's firm, King & Spalding, is based in Atlanta.

Carter's choice of Bell, a longtime friend, as attorney general was considered the most controversial of his Cabinet picks after the 1976 election.

At the time, the NAACP and other civil rights groups complained Bell, as a federal judge, didn't force Southern schools to integrate quickly enough. But Carter called Bell's civil rights record superb, and many black Georgians came forward to support him.

John Cabaniss, a trial attorney for the Milwaukee law firm von Briesen & Roper SC, is leaving the firm to launch his own practice in Mequon focusing on personal injury cases.

The move will alleviate some of the conflicts of interest that arose while he worked for von Briesen & Roper, said Randall Crocker, president and CEO of the law firm.

"We’ve discovered that John’s practice as a plaintiff’s trial lawyer and the firm’s continued growth in health care, toxic tort defense, management labor and general business has created conflicts of interest that have precluded John from taking the cases that he’s particularly good at," Crocker said in a press release Friday.

Cabaniss concurs.

"Regrettably, a personal injury plaintiff’s practice is, at times, not consistent with a large corporate, health and business law firm,” Cabaniss said.

The new firm will be known as the Cabaniss Law Office and will be at 10200 N. Port Washington Road in Mequon.

On a cold January day, in a tower high above Chicago's downtown Loop, nearly two dozen partners on a national law firm's executive committee gathered to talk about opening a new office.

The attorneys had spent months studying the new city, clients there and firms that served them, managing partner Thomas Fitzgerald recalled.

Finally, it was official: Winston & Strawn, the Chicago powerhouse with 11 offices and more than 900 attorneys worldwide, was headed to Charlotte.

The executive committee announced the decision a few days before the 19-lawyer office opened Jan. 14 in the Bank of America Corporate Center uptown, saying the move would better serve the firm's clients, particularly Charlotte's big banks, Fitzgerald said.

The scenario is playing out more often than ever, with a string of national firms expanding into Charlotte for its banks and businesses and the promise of closer, better relationships with them.

The surge means Charlotte has the power to attract top legal minds. But it also has a downside: Some worry that the influx is smothering local firms and raising questions about how long the city's big corporate clients, faced with a slowing economy, can feed the rush.

Local firms are responding to the changing legal landscape by boosting big salaries even higher, and the city's legal community is abuzz with talk of possible mergers.

In the last year or so, at least five national firms have opened offices in Charlotte.

Now, 15 of the nation's 100 largest law firms, by number of employees, have offices here, compared with three in 1990.

"I'm not aware of any other city that is currently experiencing this much attention," said James Bryant, managing partner at New York firm Dewey & LeBoeuf's Charlotte office, which opened last year. "Charlotte, as a financial center, is gaining respect."

Charlotte has been on the national radar since the mid-1980s, when Winston-Salem's Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice and Petree Stockton, which would become Kilpatrick Stockton, opened here.

As Bank of America and Wachovia helped turn the city into the country's second-largest financial center, and businesses such as Duke Energy leaped onto the national scene, others followed.

A Wachovia spokeswoman declined to comment for this story, and Bank of America officials did not return phone calls.

The latest law firms to enter the market are national players with top-notch attorneys who advise clients on areas such as corporate finance and real estate.

While the attention has helped Charlotte recruit top associates, the national firms are also putting pressure on local law firms, luring away their business and employees.

In some cases, national firms have merged with local or regional firms -- which can help the larger firms establish a local presence and the smaller firms stay afloat.

The latest rumors of a merger involve Charlotte firm Helms Mulliss Wicker and Richmond, Va., firm McGuireWoods, which came to Charlotte in 1998. Neither firm immediately returned calls late Tuesday.

"I think, in five years, there probably won't be more than one or two significant local firms left," said Tom Cottingham, managing partner of Richmond firm Hunton & Williams' Charlotte office. "The best work and the best lawyers are moving to the national firms."

Neal Capria, an environmental lawyer and a pioneer in Democratic politics who helped bring his party to power in Brookhaven in the 1970s, was found dead in his Port Jefferson Station condominium Tuesday morning. He was 66.

Capria, who last month began work as an aide to the Suffolk legislature, was found in his bed by his son Justin who came by to drive his father to work.

"He was one of the trailblazers," said Richard Schaffer, Suffolk Democratic chairman. "People should know who he was because he is partly responsible for where we are today," referring to recent party victories in the county and various Suffolk towns.

Capria served as part of the Democratic majority on the Brookhaven Town Board from 1978 to 1982. He was the last elected Democratic town board official until the party regained power in 2006. For the past 18 months, Capria worked as an assistant town attorney, but was let go last month when Republicans regained control of the town board.

From 1982 to 1987, Capria was also a law partner of the late state and county Democratic chairman Dominic Baranello. He continued to share offices with him until 1995. He also served as a counsel to the state Senate minority for five years in the 1980s.

Capria also made his mark as an environmental attorney. In 1991, he won a $7.2-million settlement for 550 South Setauket homeowners who were damaged by a 1-million gallon spill - the largest in Long Island history - caused by leaks in a Northville Industries pipeline.

Brookhaven Supervisor Brian X. Foley, a Democrat, lauded Capria as "very principled" throughout his career. "What clearly came across with Neal was his sense of decency, his concern for his community," Foley said.

For the past four years, friends said Capria had problems with his eyesight, requiring him to use a large screen computer, and make large print copies of documents.

"He was never negative about it and used the right kind of tools," said Mark Grossman, a Foley aide. But the eye problems, he added, "Gave him a real sensitivity to the special needs issue and had him advocating for other employees."

Born in Brooklyn, Capria attended public schools, moved to Freeport at age 16 and later graduated from C.W. Post College, and later Chicago Kent College of Law.

He also served in the Navy and later became a reservist in the Navy. He worked in New York City for several years as a Legal Aid attorney, before moving to Suffolk. He married in 1970 and had two children. He and his wife Denise, divorced in 1994.

"We was a very nice man, who always listened to you," said his son Justin of Holbrook. "Only a few weeks ago, we watched the Super Bowl together. We bonded and had a great time together."

E. Leroy Tolles, a co-founder of the Los Angeles law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson, which grew from seven lawyers into a nationally prominent firm with about 200 lawyers, died on Jan. 28 in Palo Alto, Calif. He was 85 and lived in San Marino, Calif., and Montecito, Calif.

The cause was cardiopulmonary failure after a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, his firm announced.

Mr. Tolles, known as Roy, helped found the firm in 1962 with six colleagues. He spent three decades there, working in a range of fields, including tax law and mining law.

Mr. Tolles was also an investor and partner at Wheeler, Munger & Company, an investment firm. He practiced “value investing,” an investment technique made famous by Warren E. Buffett, and became a wealthy man at a young age, said Charles T. Munger, a fellow founding partner, who is now vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Mr. Buffett’s holding company.

Edwin Leroy Tolles Jr. was born in Winstead, Conn., in 1922 and grew up in Mount Vernon, N.Y. He graduated from Williams College and served as a Marine pilot in the South Pacific in World War II. He received his law degree in 1948 from Harvard.

He is survived by his wife of 63 years, the former Martha Gregory, and four children in California, Stephen, of Pasadena; Roy III, of Piedmont; Thomas, of Santa Monica, and Cynthia Tseng of Palo Alto; and 11 grandchildren. Another son, Henry, died before him.