One of Charlotte's largest law firms is merging with a national powerhouse this month, creating one of the three biggest law offices in town, the firms said Wednesday.

Helms Mulliss & Wicker, which has more than 145 lawyers in Charlotte, Raleigh and Wilmington, is combining with McGuireWoods, a 750-attorney firm based in Richmond, Va.

McGuireWoods, which is among the 50 biggest law firms in the country, opened its Charlotte office in 1998.

When the merger takes effect March 31, the firm will keep the McGuireWoods name and will have about 160 attorneys in Charlotte, including 120 from Helms Mulliss & Wicker.

"We've been watching the market, and everything going on, and we're just doing what any business would do," Helms Mulliss Chairman Peter J. Covington said Wednesday from a conference room on the 30th floor of the firm's uptown office tower.

The merger is the latest sign of Charlotte's changing legal landscape, with national law firms flocking here for the big banks and businesses. Some attorneys worry the competition, along with clients' increasingly sophisticated legal needs, has put pressure on local firms, sparking talk of mergers.

Helms Mulliss had flirted with the idea of a merger with Charlotte's Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman, but the firms decided to maintain separate practices in 2004.

Helms Mulliss has done well in the changing market, said Covington, who will become McGuireWoods' vice chairman. Its clients include Bank of America, Wachovia, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education and The Charlotte Observer.

"We also know our clients are growing, and for our best interest and the interest of our clients," the merger made sense, he said.

The new firm will rank third in size in Charlotte, behind Kennedy Covington and Moore & Van Allen.

Helms Mulliss started talks with McGuireWoods several months ago, drawn to the firm because it shared clients, expertise and Southern roots, Covington said.

Last week, after discussions with clients and lawyers at both firms, the firm's owners and partners voted overwhelmingly to move forward with the merger, he said.

Both firms are expected to hold a final vote in coming weeks.

Richard Cullen, McGuireWoods' chairman, said partners there respect Helms Mulliss and support the merger.

McGuireWoods, which was established in 1834 and now has 15 offices worldwide, has a long history of growth through mergers, it said.

McGuireWoods merged with Blakeney & Alexander to establish a presence in Charlotte and a year later merged with Fennebresque, Clark, Swindell & Hay.

The merger with Helms Mulliss will boost the firm's presence in Charlotte and throughout North Carolina, Cullen said Wednesday.

"We have an aspiration to be a great national law firm," he said. "This is a giant step toward that."

Changing names

Helms Mulliss & Wicker was formed in 1922, when Fred B. Helms, a Wake Forest Law School graduate, opened his law office in Charlotte. Soon, William F. Mulliss, a Harvard Law School graduate, joined him.

Later, the firm became Smith Helms Mulliss & Moore and grew to be one of the biggest in the state.

In 2002, the firm split into two firms, and Helms Mulliss & Wicker was established in Charlotte. The new name reflected the addition of former N.C. Lt. Gov. Dennis Wicker, who joined the firm's Raleigh office in 2001.

The court had been scheduled to rule on a 2005 petition by then-Attorney General Claudio Fontelles, who argued that a law passed that same year allowing embryonic stem cell research was unconstitutional because it violates the right to life.

The law opened the way for research with embryos resulting from in-vitro fertilization that have been frozen for at least three years.

The session was suspended, almost five hours after it began, when Justice Carlos Alberto Menezes Direito formally requested more time to consider the issue. He has 10 to 30 days to present his opinion during another session, according to the court's press office.

Before the adjournment, current Attorney General Antonio Fernando Souza and a lawyer for Brazil's Roman Catholic Church argued that embryonic stem cell research should be banned because the process involves destroying embryos, which they said ends human life.

Other attorneys representing the government and Congress defended the 2005 law, saying research with embryonic stem cells could lead to cures of diseases such as Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis and diabetes.

While embryonic stem cell research is currently legal, scientists have put most projects on the back burner pending the Supreme Court's ruling.

On the way home from work in Rochester, Patricia Martinez stopped at a liquor store and bought a small bottle of Champagne to celebrate her marriage to another woman. The wedding took place in Canada nearly four years ago, but it wasn’t until Feb. 1 that a New York appellate court declared it valid in the state.

Last week in Manhattan, a State Supreme Court justice, ruling in a divorce proceeding, recognized the Canadian marriage of two New York City women, known publicly as Beth R. and Donna M. - or Mom and Mommy to the two young children they had been raising together.

Less than two years after New York’s highest court refused to legalize gay marriage, leaving it up to a divided Legislature, courts in Rochester and Manhattan, as well as state and local officials, have begun to carry out what some say is the de facto legalization of gay marriage - and gay divorce - in New York for the price of, say, a ticket to Toronto.

Advocates for same-sex marriage say the two court decisions last month granting reciprocity in New York to gay marriages in other jurisdictions simply underline what most people would consider common sense.

Prosecutors are recommending a 30-year prison sentence for 42-year-old Adam Gault of West Hartford.

Judge David Gold indicated Wednesday that he will order at least 20 years in prison.

Gault pleaded guilty to eight charges, including second-degree sexual assault and kidnapping.

Authorities say the girl was 14 when she ran away from home to live with Gault in 2006. Police, who feared she was dead, found her hiding in a small storage area during a search of Gault's home last June. Gault's wife and another woman living with him were also arrested.

Court records show that between April and mid-December, Billy Long, 55, accepted $17,400 in what he was told were payments from convenience store owners "to protect their video poker business and other illegal activity," such as products used to make methamphetamine.

Long was arrested Feb. 2. He has since resigned as Hamilton County sheriff and remains in custody at the Bradley County Detention Center.

He appeared at a hearing at which U.S. Magistrate Bill Carter set a May 13 trial.

In addition to possession with intent to distribute cocaine, Long is charged with extortion, money laundering, providing a gun to a felon and possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking.

A conviction on all charges would carry a minimum prison sentence of 10 years and a maximum sentence of life.

Long's attorney, Jerry Summers of Chattanooga, told the judge he intends to seek bond. Summers earlier opted to not seek a detention hearing but said Wednesday it is not practical to prepare for trial with Long in custody 30 miles away.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Humble at a previous hearing described the sheriff as a danger to the community.

The affidavit said Long also accepted $6,550 in cash as "his payoff to the undercover to a cooperating witness supposedly laundering $625,000 in drug trafficking proceeds." Long was told the drug money was being sent to a funeral home in Mexico hidden in cremation urns.

The affidavit said the sheriff in December gave the undercover informant a loaded revolver, knowing the recipient of the gun was a convicted felon and telling him never to say where he got it and to get rid of it if he shot anyone.

An FBI agent's affidavit shows Long first told agents he was doing his own investigation, although no one else at the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department knew about it.

Chief Deputy Allen Branum is running the department until voters in August elect a successor to finish Long's term.

Summers said Wednesday there is no evidence that anyone else in the department was involved in the case.

A Jessamine County District Court judge says 64-year-old David Blaisdell of Lexington must spend three days in jail for contempt of court. Blaisdell was wearing sunglasses and dressed in a rhinestone-studded shirt with a scarf draped around his neck when he was sentenced.

County Attorney Brian Goettl said Blaisdell was in court for a pretrial conference on misdemeanor charges of stalking and violating a protective order. Goettl says the judge had Blaisdell tested for intoxication. The result was nearly twice the .08 level at which a person is considered legally drunk in Kentucky.

Goettl says Blaisdell told the judge he had had a few drinks the night before his court appearance Tuesday.