As in the past, when large firms like 700-lawyer Simpson Thatcher announce a salary hike, others are quick to follow. Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison matched Simpson Thacher's increase to $160,000 Tuesday afternoon. Last February's increase to $145,000 was first announced by Sullivan & Cromwell, and other firms wasted little time jumping on the bandwagon. Firms generally succumb to the pressure to match salaries to remain competitive in nabbing talent from a small pool of top law students.

Simpson Thacher's decision also comes after a pay increase at a number of California firms, which upped their first-year salaries to $145,000 from $135,000. New York firms may also follow Simpson Thacher's lead in an effort to maintain the Big Apple's status as the top market for associate pay.

It's a good thing audiences like to watch ads during the Super Bowl: every year there are more of them.

According to a new report from TNS Media Intelligence, ad clutter in sports television's biggest annual event has been creeping upwards for the last 11 years.

The 2006 Super Bowl featured 47 minutes and 20 seconds worth of ads, a 30% increase over the 1996 games.

It's not hard to figure out why.

"As rights fees [for the games] have escalated, ad clutter has escalated," says Jon Swallen, senior vice president of research for TNS. "Networks can increase the price, but adding ad time is a more palatable way of making the economics work."

Despite the increased volume of ads and the gradually declining ratings for the event, Super Bowl ad prices have continued to climb. In 1987, a 30-second unit cost an advertiser $600,000. This year the same unit is expected to cost $2.6 million, a slight increase over last year's $2.5 million.

Mr. Swallen credits the price increases to savvy marketing by the networks and the National Football League, and the fact that it's harder than ever for marketers to reach a large audience.

"There's the cachet of the Super Bowl itself," he says of the pricey ads. "And it's still the single largest audience in television by a wide margin."

That's one reason the event's biggest category of advertiser isn't beer or cars, but promotional spots for the host network's own shows. Last year, 22% of all ad time in the Super Bowl was devoted to network promotions.

"Over the long haul, the potential ad revenue windfall you can generate from your regular series programming is much greater than what you can generate from a one-time event," Mr. Swallen explains.

Responding to the enormous demand for lawyers with a sound knowledge of intellectual property issues, dozens of law schools worldwide now offer specialized IP law programs and courses as a part of their LL.M. programs.

John N. Riccardi directs one of these programs – the Intellectual Property Law LL.M. program at the Boston University School of Law. Riccardi says his students get a “solid grounding in the theory behind the key doctrines of intellectual property law – in copyright, patents and trademark/unfair competition law – while also gaining exposure to some of the cutting-edge issues that individuals and enterprises face as a result of the rapid technological advances taking place throughout the world, whether in digital and information technology or the biological sciences.”

According to the US News & World Report 2006 law school survey, the top-ranked IP programs in the United States are Stanford, UC Berkeley (Boalt Hall), and George Washington University (GW Law).

Robert Brauneis, who co-directs the IP LL.M. program at GW Law, suggests one of the keys to a successful program is catering to the needs of both US- and foreign-trained lawyers, who often have different reasons for pursuing an LL.M. US-trained lawyers, for example, often come to GW to make the switch to IP law from another field of law, or to get a degree from a higher-ranking school than where they received their J.D. Foreign-trained lawyers, however, may already have lots of experience practising IP law in their home country, but want to learn more about US law or prepare for a US bar exam.

“Because we offer a large number of both US and international and comparative courses, students can choose to focus more on domestic or more on international issues”, says Brauneis. “These days, the two are also often intertwined – to understand a provision in US law, you need to understand that it was required by an international treaty, and learn something about the background of that treaty.”

“Many of our graduates who stay in the U.S. go to law firms,” says Brauneis. “You will find GW LL.M.s in most major firms with substantial IP practices, such as Finnegan Henderson, Wilson Sonsini, Foley and Lardner, Fish & Richardson, Howrey, Banner & Witcoff, Kenyon & Kenyon, and many, many others.”

“We also have graduates in government, not only at the Patent and Trademark Office but also as judicial clerks and legislative aides,” adds Brauneis. “Many are also in-house counsel in corporations, although they often start out at firms. There is a similar mix among foreign students who go back to their home countries, though the mix differs somewhat from country to country.”

The list of high-quality IP programs in the United States is perhaps too long to reproduce here, but along with the aforementioned schools, a short list would certainly also include Cardozo-Yeshiva, Duke, Santa Clara, Columbia, Houston, Franklin Pierce, John Marshall, Case Western Reserve University, Chicago-Kent, DePaul, University of Washington (Seattle), Michigan State, and Fordham.

There are also excellent IP programs to be found in the United Kingdom, including those at Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and the University of London schools (Queen Mary, King’s, UCL). Perhaps the leading specialized program on the European continent is the Munich Intellectual Property Law Center (MIPLC) in Germany, which is a cooperative project of the Max Planck Institute, the universities of Munich and Augsburg, and GW Law.

Some LL.M. programs – including those at Berkeley, Stanford, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Ottawa – give students the opportunity to focus squarely on information technology or “law and technology".

Whichever of these programs you might choose, professors in the field agree that the demand for IP lawyers and IP LL.M. graduates shows no signs of abating in the coming years.

“I believe that the future career prospects for LL.M. graduates in IP will remain strong,” says Jeffrey M. Samuels of the University of Akron, the home of another specialized IP LL.M. program in the United States.

“The level of activity in the areas of patent, trademark, and copyright law, and the importance of IP to the national and global economy, will require an increasing number of attorneys well versed in this area of the law,” adds Samuels. “I would anticipate that the demand for IP attorneys will increase over the years, given the expanding scope of patentable subject matter, the advent of new technologies, and increased globalization.”

John Riccardi from Boston University agrees: “I have every reason to believe that the demand for US intellectual property law studies among foreign-trained lawyers will stay strong – and even increase – particularly among the rapidly growing Asian economies of China and India,” says Riccardi.

“As US businesses expand into these markets, they will need competent local counsel that understands local laws, as well as the US perspective. This is not just in Asia – it's around the world – but the surge in interest among Asian economies within the past five years has been dramatic.”

The US House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill Tuesday to deny retirement pensions to any member of Congress "convicted of any of certain offenses," including fraud, bribery and perjury. Currently, federal lawmakers can only be stripped of their benefits for treason or espionage. The new legislation, passed by a vote of 431-0, adds to the list the crimes of bribery, acting as a foreign agent, breaking restrictions on becoming a lobbyist, committing perjury, convincing another person to commit perjury, and conspiracy to commit one of these crimes. Some legislators even sought to go further, including Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) who failed to secure passage of an amendment that would have also put crimes such as tax evasion, wire fraud, and racketeering on the list. The House bill still needs to be reconciled with the Senate's version before a final vote can be held. Neither the House nor Senate version of the bill is retroactive.

Tuesday's unanimous vote signals House lawmakers' desire to improve their image after a year in which several bribery and influence-peddling scandals made headlines. Most notably, former US Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) was forced to resign [JURIST report] and former US Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) was sentenced to prison for their connections to lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Meanwhile, former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA) received a record sentence in March 2006 for taking bribes from a defense contractor, and Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) came under investigation in a separate bribery investigation.

Montgomery Law Group Expands Its Practice With Addition of Partner Jonathan Noble Specializing in Representation of Emerging Growth Companies and Venture Capital Firms

MENLO PARK, Calif - Montgomery Law Group, LLP, a corporate law firm dedicated to helping clients build enduring, sustainable enterprises, today announced that Jonathan J. Noble has joined the firm as a partner in its corporate and securities practice. Prior to joining Montgomery Law Group, Mr. Noble founded the Noble Law Group in Palo Alto, California, and served as an attorney in the corporate and securities group of Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian, LLP in Menlo Park, California.

"We are thrilled to have Jon as part of our team,” said John Montgomery, chairman of Montgomery Law Group. “His established practice closely aligns with ours and he brings a wealth of experience in corporate and business transactions, including representation of venture capital firms. His addition to our firm will enable us to better serve our clients and expand services to our growing practice.”

Mr. Noble’s practice focuses on the representation of private, emerging growth companies, which encompasses entity formations, private financing transactions and mergers and acquisitions, and the representation of venture capital firms in connection with their formations, fund raising and portfolio company investments. Mr. Noble graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with an A.B. in Legal Studies, a J.D. from the Boalt Hall School of Law and an M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business.

About Montgomery Law Group, LLP

Montgomery Law Group provides legal and business counseling to emerging growth companies, entrepreneurs and professional investors. Montgomery Law Group is located at 525 Middlefield Road, Suite 250, Menlo Park, California, 94025, and can be contacted at www.MontgomeryLawGroup.com or by calling (650) 331-7000.

State Farm insurance company reached a settlement Tuesday with hundreds of Mississippi policyholders whose claims were denied after Hurricane Katrina, bringing an end to s trial that began January 9 in the US District for the Southern District of Mississippi. The agreement between State Farm and Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood will award $80 million to the more than 600 named homeowners who filed the lawsuit. Hood, who compared negotiations to "a death roll with an alligator for the last two months," said the settlement also provides for an additional $50 million for thousands of other homeowners in Mississippi who did not sue State Farm after their claims were denied. That $50 million figure however, is just a minimum and could easily reach hundreds of millions, depending on the number of applicants.

Tuesday's settlement only applies to Mississippi litigants and State Farm as additional lawsuits against the insurance company still are pending in other states affected by the Katrina disaster. The settlement does, however, end Hood's investigation into allegations of fraudulent claim denials by State Farm, including allegations the company pressured its engineers to doctor their reports. In Mississippi, Hood also has also brought action against other insurance companies including Allstate and Nationwide.

"The attorney-general, with the agreement of the state attorney, reached the conclusion that there is sufficient prima facie evidence to indict the president," the Justice Ministry said in a statement.

The scandal erupted last year when several former staffers filed complaints with police, accusing Katsav of sex crimes. The ministry said an indictment would include the charge of raping one of the four women who accused Katsav of sexual assault.

In the statement, Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz gave Katsav a last chance to present legal arguments before a final draft of the indictment, proposing a hearing at which he promised to hear the president's response with an "open heart and a willing soul".

Asked on Channel 10 television if Katsav intended to resign, his lawyer, Sharon Nahari, said: "I think it is too early to say. What is important is that this is a very difficult day for Israel. We hope all will become clear after the hearing."

The ministry said a date for the hearing would be set soon.

While serving as president, Katsav can be put on trial only if he is impeached by parliament. He has said he would suspend himself from office if indicted.

Katsav has been president since 2000 and is due to stand down in July.