DURHAM, N.C.--Lisa Lanier, founder of Lanier Law Group, was recently invited to join the BB&T Corporation Regional Advisory Board. Lanier joins the BB&T Board with more than 12 years of experience managing her notable North Carolina personal injury law firm. Lanier Law Group is one of the largest and fastest-growing, with eight locations across the state.

“I am honored and very enthusiastic about serving in an advisory role with BB&T,” said Lanier. “I respect its stability in this region and the ongoing corporate commitment to the communities it serves.”

Lanier manages a heavyweight legal group with a strong reputation for personal injury law. She is a member of the N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers, N.C. Bar Association, American Trial Lawyers Association, and is a former chairperson for the Education Committee of the N.C. Association of Women Attorneys. Born in High Point, N.C., Lanier received both her undergraduate and law degrees from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Lanier Law Group, P.A., is among the largest and fastest-growing North Carolina personal injury law firms, with eight offices across the state in Durham, Raleigh, Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Wilmington, Fayetteville and Greenville. The firm consists of 50 professionals, North Carolina personal injury lawyers, insurance adjusters and paralegals that specialize in assisting clients with issues such as health insurance problems, property damage and total loss evaluations.

A unique team approach at Lanier Law Group manages each case with a dedicated attorney, an insurance adjuster, and a paralegal to provide full attention and counsel not available from most personal injury law firms. Visit www.LanierLawGroup.com or contact the firm’s 24-hour statewide consultation center at 1-888-CONSULT for a free evaluation of your case. It costs you nothing to get the facts about your rights.

Winston-Salem, N.C.-based BB&T Corporation and its subsidiaries offer full-service commercial and retail banking and additional financial services such as insurance, investments, retail brokerage, corporate finance, payment services, international banking, leasing and trust.

BB&T operates more than 1,450 financial centers in the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Indiana and Washington, D.C.

With $118.5 billion in assets, BB&T Corp. (NYSE: BBT) is the nation’s 11^th largest financial holding company. Visit www.BBT.com for more information about the company.

BOSTON--The Gordon Law Group, a leading Massachusetts employment law firm which specializes in representing employees in wage, termination and compensation litigation, announces that managing partner, Philip Gordon, has been named to the Boston Business Journal’s prestigious “40 Under 40” list. In its ninth year, the Journal’s program recognizes emerging business leaders in Greater Boston that help drive the regional economy.

Gordon’s practice focuses on the employee, with particular attention to those matters related to overtime, minimum wage, commission, wrongful termination, employee misclassification, severance agreements, non-compete agreements, wrongful deductions, record keeping and equity compensation.

He was nominated to the 40 under 40 list by Gordon Law Group, LLP clients and community leaders, who described him as a “strategic, big-picture thinker.” “Philip designs effective strategies to make use of the law and achieve extraordinary results,” they continued. “He’s also proactive and trustworthy. Not one to languish on an idea, Philip stays on top of our issues, sometimes even pushing us.”

His work has been noted also within the legal community, including coverage in Boston Magazine, where he was named one of Massachusetts’ Top 100 Lawyers in the 2005 list of “Massachusetts Super Lawyers.”

He is also extensively involved in pro bono work, supporting education and medicine. He is one of the Senior Partners for Justice of the Wage and Hour Project of the Volunteer Lawyers Project, and he serves as Vice Chairman of the Public Policy Committee of the Jewish Community Relations Council, a member of the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, and a member of the Board of Governors of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies.

The Gordon Law Group, LLP is considered among a select set of boutique law firms focused on employees. The firm’s attorneys offer a level of sophistication and excellence unusual in a firm of its size, and concentrate on claims for regular wages, overtime pay, minimum wages, commissions, health insurance contributions, vacation benefits, bonuses and severance payments, as well as stock options and other forms of equity. The firm also has expertise with respect to misclassification of employees as independent contractors, treatment of non-exempt employees as exempt and enforcement of executive liability.

Long known as a leader in the Boston community, the Gordon Law Group is proud of his service.

Fewer Guantanamo Bay prisoners will be charged with war crimes this week than originally expected, chief prosecutor USAF Col. Moe Davis told Reuters Monday. Revised charges were expected to be filed against up to 20 suspected members of al Qaeda and the Taliban by February, but new procedural rules implemented earlier this month will delay the trials for at least half of those detainees. Under the new rules, hearings must take place before a tribunal judge within 30 days of the filing of charges; the trial must commence within 120 days of the charging. Davis also pointed to Guantanamo's limited facilities as partially responsible for the delay, as only one courtroom is available.

Davis said that he was very likely to recommend the death penalty for some of the 14 high-value detainees moved to the camp from CIA secret prisons in September. First evidence is expected to be presented by this summer. Davis also said Monday that Australian detainee David Hicks will likely be among those charged this week.

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich.--James C. Adams, one of the leading real estate attorneys in Michigan, has joined Butzel Long as a shareholder in the firm’s Bloomfield Hills office.

Mr. Adams spent nearly twenty years at the Dykema firm, including as the Managing Director of the Real Estate and Environmental Services Department and Leader of the Real Estate Practice Group. He has most recently been practicing at a Troy-based real estate and business law boutique.

“Jim is one of the most respected leaders in the real estate bar and his experience includes many of the most visible commercial and redevelopment projects in Detroit and Southeast Michigan,” said Philip J. Kessler, Chairman of Butzel Long. “There are few lawyers in the Midwest who have the skills and track record that Jim brings to the table. He is a great fit for our firm and for our very active real estate practice.”

Butzel Long is recognized for having one of the most dynamic and diverse real estate practices in the state, including a lead role in structuring the $175 million redevelopment of the Book Cadillac project in Downtown Detroit.

Mr. Adams’ experience includes representation of developers, lenders, architects, construction contractors and construction managers, public and private corporations, municipalities and public agencies, in connection with all aspects of real estate, including: acquisition; public and private financing; tax incentives and other economic inducements; affordable housing development; condominium structuring and development, land use and zoning; distressed project work-outs; construction of municipal, commercial, and residential projects; selling, leasing, and otherwise disposing of property; and funding, construction, operation, and maintenance of urban transit systems.

He is listed in Best Lawyers in America, Who’s Who in America, Chambers USA, Michigan Super Lawyer and Who’s Who In American Law. He is a 1983 Recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the Detroit Bar Association.

Mr. Adams is a frequent speaker on real property and construction issues. He has published numerous articles including: “Real Estate Trends Reshaping Legal Needs,” Michigan Real Estate Journal (May 5, 2004) and “Building Win/Win Business/Government Partnerships” (co-authored with Stewart L. Mandell and Kimberly G. Ross), Michigan Forward (October, 2002).

He is a member of the American Bar Association (Real Property and Probate Section), the State Bar of Michigan (Real Property Law Section), the International Council of Shopping Centers, and the Urban Land Institute. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Washtenaw Land Trust.

Mr. Adams is a graduate of University of Michigan School of Law (J.D., magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, 1974) and Michigan State University (B.A., High Honors, Phi Eta Sigma, Phi Kappa Phi, Honors College, 1971).

Butzel Long was established in 1854 and is headquartered in Detroit. Butzel Long is one of Michigan's oldest and largest law firms, with 215 attorneys and offices in Detroit, Bloomfield Hills, Lansing, Ann Arbor, and Holland, Mich., Washington, D.C. and Boca Raton, Fla., as well as Alliance offices in Beijing and Shanghai, China. The firm represents clients from diverse industries on a regional, national and multi-national level and is the sole Michigan member of Lex Mundi, a global association of 161 independent law firms.

Visit the Butzel Long website at www.butzel.com

NEW YORK- Further demonstrating its commitment to addressing the legal profession’s top challenges, CT, part of Wolters Kluwer Corporate Legal Services, today announces several new enhancements to its Litigation Solutions offerings. And, as an indication of others’ confidence in CT’s products, the company’s solutions have been named as a finalist for five Law Technology News^® Awards.

The Fourth Annual Law Technology News Awards recognize leaders in the field—both in innovation and implementation. CT is nominated in the following five categories: Records Management Software, CT’s hCue; EDD System, CT Summation CaseVault; Knowledge Management System, CTAdvantage.com; Litigation Support Service/Consultant, CT Summation Professional Services; and Litigation Support Software, CT Summation. The winners, as selected by Law Technology News readers, will be announced on January 29, 2007 at the Law Technology News Awards Dinner.

“We are delighted to be nominated in multiple categories this year. We strive to provide the best solutions for our customers, and it’s always nice to have that validated by some of the very people we aim to please,” said Gene Landoe, president and CEO of CT and Wolters Kluwer Corporate Legal Services. “Building upon these nominations, we continue to expand our solutions and are eager to share some new offerings with the LegalTech NY audience. In particular, we are excited about the rapid growth in hosting and eDiscovery, which our CaseVault solution successfully addresses. We are looking forward to even greater growth in 2007 with the addition of a full range of eDiscovery services to complement the CaseVault product, which we believe will cement CT Summation's position as a leader in litigation support software and services.”

CT continues to improve upon its award-winning—and award-nominated—solutions by announcing a new client communications extranet portal, 360° Connections, from CT TyMetrix; the latest version of CT TyMetrix 360°, version 6.12; the release of CT Summation CaseVault 5.0; and the expansion of its CT Summation Enterprise platform support to include Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

“Legal professionals have a lot of challenges facing them each day, such as new rules and regulations and increased work loads—and many different technologies from which to chose that can potentially help,” said Tom Rump, vice president of Litigation Solutions for Wolters Kluwer Corporate Legal Services. “The right mix of technology and in-house expertise can make all the difference when selecting the best tools and services. We strive to find a balance of both worlds to offer our customers solutions that work for them. These latest enhancements are yet another example of our commitment to growing our Litigation Solutions offerings in 2007.”

CT is announcing the following new offerings and enhancements at LegalTech New York:

• CT TyMetrix “360° Connections”: To better serve clients and respond quickly to the management technology needs of a sophisticated market, 360° Connections is a new client extranet from CT TyMetrix. Using a Web browser, clients can securely access information specific to their engagement and find out the latest news about CT TyMetrix developments. And, to elicit feedback from its most important audience, the extranet includes space for clients to post suggestions for enhancements to CT TyMetrix products.
• CT TyMetrix 360° Version 6.12: This new release includes collaborative budgeting with budgeting approval workflows, support for VAT management through tax handling rules, initial support for the LEDES XML 2.0 and additional offerings in the CT TyMetrix 360° reporting suite.
• CT TyMetrix University: To ensure rapid system adoption for new users and expanded platform utilization for experienced users, CT TyMetrix announces CT TyMetrix University. This newly formed group includes a dedicated team of professionals with legal/claims industry experience and training expertise. The 2007 schedule includes a wide array of regular training sessions for all end-users, including clients and their law firms. Participants can take advantage of the CT TyMetrix University via the Web, at client sites and at the CT TyMetrix headquarters in Hartford, Conn.
• CT Summation CaseVault Version 5.0: This major new release delivers ESI workflow to the latest ASP.NET environment. Version 5.0 is the latest advancement in CT Summation's effort to reduce "attorney glass time”—the time attorney's are required to spend using software to search, navigate and categorize evidence. This enables them to spend more time on valuable tasks such as evidence analysis. Also, an intuitive interface and easy to navigate features will enable additional time and cost savings for corporations and law firms.
• CT Summation Enterprise Microsoft SQL 2005 Support: As part of its initiatives to continually upgrade and innovate CT Summation products, CT Summation is expanding its Enterprise platform support to include Microsoft SQL 2005, Vista IE7 and Office 7. Users can take advantage of the platform’s capacity, speed, performance and security enhancements. In addition, law firms who have already adopted Microsoft SQL 2005 can now implement or upgrade existing CT Summation systems. Microsoft SQL 2005 support will be available in early March 2007.

In addition to these enhancements, CT is showcasing its CT Summation LG/iBlaze Version 2.8 with enhanced tagging and foldering to support ESI Review, CT EDGAR Solutions and CT TyMetrix 360° at LegalTech New York from Jan. 29-31, 2007.

About Law Technology News

Law Technology News^® provides timely information and insight into the latest technologies, products and services available for the legal marketplace. Each month, the award-winning magazine features new product announcements, as well as monthly articles and columns written by industry experts and senior law firm decision makers. LTN is distributed to more than 40,000 selected subscribers and is also available on the Web at www.lawtechnologynews.com. The magazine is published by ALM.

About CT

CT, a Wolters Kluwer business, provides intelligent software and service solutions that empower legal professionals to more effectively manage dynamic information, speed workflows and make critical decisions. CT is the market leader for corporate compliance and governance services and solutions, including solutions for managing statutory representation, corporate transactions, and jurisdictional and securities compliance; UCC products and services for corporate due diligence, secured lending, bankruptcy, and real estate, among other areas; matter management and e-billing applications, litigation support software, and eDiscovery services; and innovative trademark research offerings. CT is based in New York City. For more information, please visit www.ctlegalsolutions.com.

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer is a leading global information services and publishing company. The company provides products and services for professionals in the health, tax, accounting, corporate, financial services, legal and regulatory, and education sectors. Wolters Kluwer has annual revenues (2005) of €3.4 billion, employs approximately 18,400 people worldwide and maintains operations across Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific. Wolters Kluwer is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Its shares are quoted on the Euronext Amsterdam (WKL) and are included in the AEX and Euronext 100 indices. For more information, visit www.wolterskluwer.com.

JOPLIN, Mo. - A seventh grader who opened fire at a middle school will be one of the youngest suspects ever tried as an adult in Missouri, resulting in a legal response that straddles two courts.

Thomas White is accused of taking an assault rifle to Joplin Memorial Middle School on Oct. 9 and pointing it at administrators, teachers and students before firing a shot into the ceiling.

He then allegedly repeatedly tried to shoot Principal Stephen Gilbreth as Gilbreth ushered him out of the school. Police said the rifle jammed because of the improper setting of an ammunition clip in the gun. No one was wounded.

White dressed in a trench coat, camouflage pants and a crudely fashioned mask the day of the incident. He allegedly had a pellet gun, a Marine Corps manual and a map of a Kansas park campground in his backpack, authorities have said.

At White's certification hearing in December, juvenile officer April Foulkes recommended he be tried as an adult because of the seriousness of his alleged offense and the threat it posed to the community.

White, now 14, is charged with first-degree assault, armed-criminal action and attempted escape. He is being held at the Jasper County Jail, awaiting a preliminary hearing. His bond is set at $250,000.

He is one of the youngest offenders ever to be certified as an adult in the state. Three St. Louis girls, two age 14 and one 13, were tried as adults in a 2004-2005 murder case.

Missouri enacted a new juvenile crime law in 1995. The state based its policies on a philosophy that young offenders were not fully developed criminals and could be changed, said Tom Breedlove, the Division of Youth Services deputy director.

Before 1995, an offender had to be 14 or older to be certified for trial as an adult. Like many other states, Missouri lowered the age to 12 for any felony and eliminated a minimum age for the most serious violent crimes.

Judges now must hold adult-certification hearings for any juvenile accused of murder, rape, sodomy, first-degree assault, first-degree robbery or drug trafficking, and for any young offender with two prior felonies. The judge is allowed to decide whether the case should remain in juvenile court.

In White's case, if he is convicted, he faces an approach to juvenile crime known as blended sentencing and a state program involving dual courts' jurisdiction.

Foulkes said if White were to be adjudicated as a juvenile, the court's options would be limited to placing him on probation or committing him to DYS.

Brent Buerck, senior program administrator with DYS, said young offenders sentenced under the dual-jurisdiction program can actually be kept up to the age of 21. The program first began in 1996 and saw its first releases in 1999.

"With the dual jurisdictions, 83 percent of the kids who have successfully completed the program are not in prison," Buerck said.

ATLANTA--The Grizzard Signature Group today announced it has been selected to manage fundraising direct-response initiatives for the Pacific Legal Foundation. The award extends the direct marketing agency’s relationship with the Pacific Legal Foundation through the 2007 calendar year.

Founded in 1973, Pacific Legal Foundation is America’s oldest and largest public interest legal organization dedicated to limited government and individual liberty. Pacific Legal Foundation is particularly renowned for its expertise in the area of private property rights, its opposition to racial discrimination by government, and its litigation against oppressive regulations and in support of a balanced approach to environmental protection.

“We are working with Grizzard in order to advance our fight for freedom,” said Rob Rivett, President of Pacific Legal Foundation. “Year in and year out, we win victories in court for property rights and other constitutional liberties, but our ultimate success also requires raising our profile and letting many more people, throughout the country, learn about our important work and the vital principles that inspire what we do. Our relationship with Grizzard will help us achieve that crucial goal.”

The contract with Pacific Legal Foundation underscores Grizzard's entrepreneurial roots and aligns with the company's core philosophical values. Pacific Legal Foundation fights in court for the little guy against the virtually bottomless resources of "big government" agencies. The foundation aims to “rescue liberty” from the grasp of government, and is a voice for all Americans. Similarly, Grizzard's fundraising efforts on behalf of its client base of non-profits seek to make the world a better place.

"By adding Pacific Legal Foundation to our roster of cherished clients, we extend our hope for a better, freer, more just society," said Barbara Johnson, Vice President of Grizzard Signature Group.

About Pacific Legal Foundation

Pacific Legal Foundation (www.pacificlegal.org) is the oldest and largest public interest legal organization dedicated to property rights, limited government, and a balanced approach to environmental protection.

About the Grizzard Signature Group, the Grizzard Agency

The Grizzard Signature Group is a distinctive direct-response strategic consultancy that formulates an analytics-based, donor-focused plan that reflects a nonprofit organization’s unique needs and goals. Signature Group principals draw on the talents and resources of its parent company, the 87-year-old Grizzard Communications Group, which has been led by four generations of the Grizzard family.

Through offices in Atlanta and Los Angeles, the Grizzard Communications Group serves nonprofits across America. Clients include: The Salvation Army, American Red Cross, Rescue Missions, Food Banks, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, state Sheriffs’ Associations, Habitat for Humanity affiliates, Lutheran Hour Ministries, Prostate Cancer Foundation, National Urban League, and various Animal Welfare and Humane Societies. More information can be found at www.grizzard.com.

The Grizzard Communications Group is part of Omnicom Group, Inc. (NYSE: OMC) (www.omnicomgroup.com). Omnicom is a leading global advertising, marketing and corporate communications company. Omnicom’s branded networks and numerous specialty firms provide advertising, strategic media planning and buying, direct and promotional marketing, public relations and other specialty communications services to over 5,000 clients in more than 100 countries.