• Transactions and Finance
• Land Use and Zoning

Additionally, the Guide recognized Chicago Real Estate shareholders Corey Light (Transactions and Finance) and Mark McCombs (Land Use and Zoning).

The Legal 500 US - Volume IV: Real Estate, Labor and Employment, and Tax is the fourth of four guides covering the U.S. legal market. The guide provides independent and unbiased commentary on pre-eminent law firms, and lawyers, in the world’s strongest and most competitive legal market.

About Greenberg Traurig, LLP

Greenberg Traurig, LLP is an international, full-service law firm with more than 1,700 attorneys and governmental affairs professionals in the U.S., Europe and Asia. The firm is ranked seventh on The American Lawyer's Am Law 100 listing of the largest law firms in the U.S., based on number of lawyers.

Greenberg Traurig serves clients from offices in: Albany, NY; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Atlanta, GA; Boca Raton, FL; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Dallas, TX; Denver, CO; Fort Lauderdale, FL; Houston, TX; Las Vegas, NV; Los Angeles, CA; Miami, FL; Morristown, NJ; New York, NY; Orange County, CA; Orlando, FL; Philadelphia, PA; Phoenix, AZ; Sacramento, CA; Silicon Valley, CA; Tallahassee, FL; Tampa Bay, FL; Tokyo, Japan; Tysons Corner, VA; Washington, D.C.; West Palm Beach, FL; Wilmington, DE; and Zurich, Switzerland. Additionally, the firm has strategic alliances with the following independent law firms: Olswang, London and Brussels; Studio Santa Maria, Milan and Rome; and Hayabusa Asuka Law Offices in Tokyo.

For additional information, please visit the firm's Web site at www.gtlaw.com.

"There's some good news," Fidler told the jurors before letting them go for the day. "We will give you new instructions that may be a benefit to you." Jurors will return this morning.

On Tuesday, the jury of nine men and three women said it was split 7-5 on whether famed record producer Spector, 67, shot actress Lana Clarkson, 40, on Feb. 3, 2003. The jury was not allowed to say whether the majority supported guilt or acquittal.

When Fidler polled the jurors yesterday morning, they indicated they had questions about Special Instruction 3. They also said they had discussions about how to determine reasonable doubt.

Special Instruction 3 lays out the prosecution theory of the encounter between Spector and Clarkson on Feb. 3.

"It is the prosecution's contention that the act committed by the defendant that caused the death of Ms. Clarkson was to point a gun at her, which resulted in that gun entering Ms. Clarkson's mouth while in Mr. Spector's hand," Fidler told the jurors Sept. 10 before sending them off to deliberate.

"The prosecution bears the burden of proving that defendant Spector committed that act. If you do not find that the prosecution has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the act, you must return a verdict of not guilty," Fidler said.

The problem with the instruction, Fidler said yesterday, was that the last sentence misstated the law. "I can see why the jury is confused," he said.

The judge said he would give both sides a chance to reargue before the jury resumes deliberations.

Johanns was expected to announce his candidacy as early as Monday for the seat being vacated by fellow Republican Chuck Hagel after two terms. Analysts say Johanns would be the front-runner of four men seeking the GOP nomination.

Nebraska is a Republican-leaning state. Democrats have talked of recruiting Bob Kerrey, a former U.S. senator and Nebraska governor who is now a university president in New York City. Democrats control the Senate, 51-49.

As agriculture secretary, the mild-spoken Johanns pressed U.S. trading partners to remove barriers to U.S. beef, erected out of fears of mad cow disease, and to expand farm exports, which account for a quarter of farm income. He took the lead in administration proposals to deny farm subsidies to the wealthiest Americans.

In his resignation letter to Bush, Johanns said the U.S. farm sector "is stronger than ever before," with high crop prices and record farm exports.

"After careful thought and difficult deliberation, I am writing to inform you that I have decided to pursue a new opportunity to serve this great nation," wrote Johanns.

Nebraska is a major grain and cattle-producing state. Democrats in Nebraska said Johanns was leaving USDA without completing an important task -- overhaul of U.S. farm policy this year.

Johanns resigned as governor to become agriculture secretary in January 2005. Born in Iowa, Johanns practiced law in western Nebraska before election as mayor of Lincoln, the state capital, in 1991 en route to the governorship in 1998. He once said that for a former farm boy, being agriculture secretary was a dream job.

Deputy Agriculture Secretary Charles Conner was named acting secretary until Bush nominates a permanent replacement.

The Agriculture Department, with 100,000 employees, is in charge of crop subsidies, the national forests, a vast research network and public nutrition programs including school lunch and food stamps.

Ferd Hoefner of the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, said Johanns was the first USDA chief in decades to try to rein in farm payments and to show interest in beginning farmers.

But lawmakers have faulted Johanns for the faltering campaign to create a nationwide animal-tracking system, originally embraced by the administration as a key safeguard against mad cow and other fearsome diseases. USDA relies on voluntary participation in the program.

"He has been a clear and open advocate for ethanol within the administration," said Jay Truitt of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. Truitt said Johanns "was the first to understand" how the explosive growth of the fuel ethanol industry would squeeze livestock and meat producers.

Hicks, 32, who was convicted by a US military court of supporting terrorism, was yesterday shown mug shots of persons of interest to Australian police when they interviewed him in jail in Adelaide.

But his lawyer, David McLeod, said Hicks had largely been unable to assist them.

The hour-long interview at the Yatala maximum-security prison was the first to be conducted with Hicks on Australian soil.

Mr McLeod described it as a "sweeping up exercise" ahead of Hicks's scheduled release from jail on December 29. "He was basically asked a series of questions and shown various images," said Mr McLeod, who sat in on the questioning.

"He was unable to assist in most of it, though his intention was to assist as best he could."

Mr McLeod said Hicks had told him he would honour the US-imposed ban on speaking immediately after his release, meaning Australians would not be able to hear his account of his time with Taliban forces in Afghanistan and his treatment by the Americans until March next year at the earliest.

While the Howard Government has warned Hicks it would intervene to prevent him from profiting from the sale of his story, Mr Ruddock has acknowledged that the US gag on non-paid media interviews probably could not be enforced in Australia.

But Mr McLeod said Hicks wanted to take no chances with breaching the conditions of his plea bargain with the US military, under which he returned home in May to serve out the balance of his sentence. Under the deal, clinched in March at the controversial detention centre in Guantanamo Bay where Hicks spent most of his five years in US custody, he agreed not to speak to the media for at least a year.

More delinquencies and foreclosures can be expected in the subprime, adjustable-rate mortgage market as borrowers face interest-rate resets, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Thursday.

In testimony to the House Financial Services Committee, Bernanke also said the market for those mortgages has "adjusted sharply," and that markets "do tend to self-correct."

He outlined steps the Fed is taking to help reduce the risk of foreclosure and stressed the need to beef up underwriting practices.

Just two days after the Fed lowered the federal funds rate by 50 basis points, Bernanke also said the central bank stands ready to foster price stability and sustainable economic growth.

"Recent developments in financial markets have increased the uncertainty surrounding the economic outlook," Bernanke said. "The [Federal Open Market] Committee will continue to assess the effects of these and other developments on economic prospects and will act as needed to foster price stability and sustainable economic growth," he said.

Bernanke said the recent surprise half-percentage point rate cut was designed to forestall potential effects of tighter credit conditions on the broader economy.

"We took that action to try to get out ahead of the situation," Bernanke said.

Bernanke said the central bank's economists would constantly review their internal forecast.

"There is quite a bit of uncertainty, so we're going to have to continue to monitor how the financial markets evolve and how their effects on the economy evolve and try to keep reassessing our outlook and adjusting policy to meet" the Fed's twin goals of price stability and low unemployment.

Still, he said, the global financial system is "in a relatively strong position" to work through the recent credit and market turbulence.

The two officers placed on paid leave for using a Taser on a University of Florida student explained Wednesday why they felt it necessary to use a stun gun on the unruly student.

Andrew Meyer, 21, refused to sit down at the end of a question-and-answer session with Sen. John Kerry and insisted that his questions be answered, they said.

The officers added that Meyers' rant, directed toward Kerry after the question and answer period was over, included a reference to a sex act.

Police also suggested Meyer staged the incident. They said he handed a woman next to him a camera and asked her, "are you taping this? Do you have this? You ready?"

When, police said, Meyer would not be quiet to let Kerry answer, his microphone was cut off and organizers of the event asked officers to escort him out.

"The man lifted me up and pushed Officer Wise to avoid being taken in to custody," Officer Nicole Mallo said.

When more officers were called in, they said he continued to "push, kick and elbow the officers."

When officers were only able to place one handcuff on Meyer, Sgt. Eddie King gave the order to use the Taser.

"One contact Tase to the man's left shoulder was deployed," King said.

One officer said he drew his Taser on Meyer but was ordered not to use it.

Police said it was only after his continued, active, physical resistance to being arrested that the order was given to Tase Meyer.

On his way to jail, Meyer became lighthearted, police said.

According to the police report, Meyers told officers: "I am not mad at you guys, you didn't do anything wrong, you were just trying to do your job."

Meyer's lawyer said the Taser was unnecessary and promised to vigorously fight the charges police filed, which include inciting a riot and disrupting a school function.

The videotaped incident in Gainesville, Fla., has rekindled a national debate over the controversial stun guns.