The firm also hopes the 48-year-old Prince George's County resident will raise its profile in political Washington.

"As the issuance of Congressional subpoenas continues to surge, Michael will also play a lead role in providing counsel to elected officials and executives brought before Congress," the statement said.

Steele is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University and Georgetown University Law Center. He was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in June 1992 but let his law license expire during his four-year term as lieutenant governor. He renewed March 1, paying a $375 fee, according to the Pennsylvania's Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court.

Steele, a former head of the Maryland Republican Party, has not practiced law in more than a decade. He worked for six years after law school in the Washington office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. He told The (Baltimore) Sun in 2002 that he left the firm when he realized he would not make partner.

A Reno woman has filed a federal lawsuit against the manufacturer of recalled pet food. She claimsIams brand food killed her 20-year-old cat, "Patches."

Marion Streczyn seeks unspecified damages from Ontario, Canada-based Menu Foods in the suit filed last week in U.S. District Court in Reno. A Menu Foods spokesman says the company has no comment.

The company, which makes "cuts and gravy style" dog and cat food sold under nearly 100 store labels and major brands, recalled 60 million containers in mid-March after cats fell sick and died during routine company taste tests.

The recall has since expanded to include earlier dates and other brands, and at least six pet food companies have recalled products made with imported Chinese wheat gluten tainted with an industrial chemical.

Streczyn's attorney Brian O'Mara says the suit joins a growing number of others filed around the country against the pet food maker and is believed to be the first in Nevada.

It raises claims of negligence, product liability and breach of implied and express warranty. It further argues that the company received "unjust enrichment" by selling the tainted pet food.

Recent FDA tests found a toxic chemical in some menu products were related to at least 16 pet deaths around the country.

The O'Mara law firm is looking for pet owners affected by the dangerous pet food to join the lawsuit.

It wasn't immediately clear what prompted Kanovsky's suicide.

"He was interviewing a client," said a man who works in the suite. "He just got up, opened the window and jumped."

According to news reports, more than 30 people have committed suicide by jumping from the 103-story building since the skyscraper opened in 1931.

Former US vice-presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, convicted in March of perjury and obstruction of justice, will be appealing the verdict according to documents filed in court Friday. Libby's defense team had previously planned to request a new trial, bids for which are rarely granted. Libby's appeal may focus on a decision by US District Judge Reggie B. Walton to allow prosecutors to present evidence to the jury that Libby's defense viewed as being prejudicial, such as White House briefing room videos which US Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald played to show Libby's eagerness to publicly conceal conversations he had with reporters about CIA official Valerie Plame.

Libby was convicted by a federal jury after 10 days of deliberation in a case that began January 23. Libby was convicted of two counts of perjury, one count of lying to the FBI and one count of obstruction of justice. He was acquitted on one count of lying to the FBI. Libby's sentencing is scheduled for June 5.

Winton Hinkle can't keep up with the demand for transactional attorneys at his Wichita firm, Hinkle Elkouri Law Firm LLC. It's a legal art, his attorneys say, building a large transaction puzzle out of tiny, detailed pieces. Leave one out, and the deal crumbles.

That's one big reason Hinkle and his partners pitched the merits of business law, Wichita and their firm Friday to a group of 20 Washburn Law School students.

The day-long seminar, "Anatomy of a Business Transaction," gave the lawyers-to-be a hands-on look at how Hinkle Elkouri would handle the sale of a fictional business.

Washburn professor David Pierce brought his students to Wichita to translate the classroom tenets he teaches into the world of business buying and selling. And for Hinkle, it was an opportunity for nine attorneys on his business sales team to interact with -- and recruit -- prospective new attorneys.

"The business is growing," he said. "We find ourselves adding one or two attorneys every year. It's pretty competitive, and we think this is a great chance to pitch Wichita to them." It's Pierce's first venture into a day in the life of a law firm.

"Our students get a view of how what they're learning in the classroom is applied in a major legal practice," he said. "And they get to see first-hand how complicated the practice of business law actually is."

The Hinkle Elkouri attorneys spent the day outlining those detailed little pieces to the business sales puzzle -- from preliminary agreement issues to due diligence and the issues a buyer faces as it assumes employees.

And in the middle, they heard from Hinkle Elkouri client C.R. Hall, owner of Hall's Culligan Water, on how a business owner interacts with his attorneys. The upshot: Handling a business deal is a detailed business.

"It's absolutely critical for you to get as much information as possible about the company you're buying," attorney Donna Bohn, a former Koch Industries transactional attorney, told the students. "I'm always amazed how much information there is on the Internet." But there's more: Company assets have to be catalogued, as do personal property and machinery.

Business inventory is a separate issue, rarely included in the purchase price because valuation is impossible until closing.

And the purchase price can remain on the table until the moment of closing. It was enough to leave third-year law student Jeremy Atwood's head spinning. "What really stands out to me are the number of things to consider that I'm going to have to understand," he said.

"You can listen to lectures," said second-year law student Amber Whitlock. "This is a great first-hand look at what we're learning in action." There will be more class trips into the real world, Pierce said.

Prosecutors in Louisiana are investigating Shelton in connection with the death of Justin James, 19, in October 2005. Coroner's officials ruled his death a homicide, saying he died of an overdose of cocaine, Xanax and morphine. Shelton was the last person with James.

Shelton's career at Manhattan Beach ended in 2003 after he accused former Chief Ernest Klevesahl and other officers of harassing him because he was gay. He later was arrested on drug prescription forgery charges in Long Beach and for trespassing with an 18-year-old man on a ranch in Moorpark.

BOSTON, MASS - A veteran Massachusetts state trooper has been found guilty of three counts of raping a woman while on duty last year.

Daniel Grant, 42, of Holbrook, a married 17-year veteran of the state police had been accused of threatening to plant drugs on a 26-year-old woman unless she complied with his demands for sex in an incident which occurred Jan. 20, 2006.

Prosecutors said that while on duty, Grant approached a car which was parked behind a hotel and occupied by a 26-year-old woman and a man. After running a computer check on the car's license plate, he determined that there was an outstanding warrant for the man's arrest.

Prosecutors said that Grant allegedly offered the man money and told him to leave. He then told the woman that he had done her a favor because the man was "bad" and suggested that she should repay him with sexual favors. He allegedly showed her cocaine and said that if she didn't do what he wanted, she would be arrested for drug possession and would be sent to prison. Prosecutors said he then allegedly took her to a nearby building where be sexually assaulted her.