The State Investment Council has hired a law firm to help recover damages and losses from questionable investments and fees paid to third-party marketing agents.

The council on Tuesday approved the selection of a Day Pitney LLP, which has nine offices on the East Coast, including in New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Hartford, Conn.

The law firm will receive a sliding scale contingency fee based on what it recovers for the state.

1 of the council's former outside investment advisers has pleaded guilty in a New York pension scandal and acknowledged that some investment deals in New Mexico were done because of pressure from politically connected individuals. The names of those people have not been disclosed.

With more than $67 billion of its insurance coverage placed into a special receivership fund, Ambac Assurance Corp. is flirting with financial ruin. Yet at the same time, lawyers and consultants helping Wisconsin regulators navigate the complex case have collected nearly $18 million for their efforts.

And the meter is still running.

At the top of the billing list, state records show, is Foley & Lardner, the Milwaukee-based law firm with close ties to Gov. Jim Doyle. Employees of Foley have contributed $355,596 to Doyle's campaigns since 1999, more than any other group from one employer, according to data analyzed by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Democracy Campaign at the Journal Sentinel's request.

Foley, the state's largest law firm, has billed the state $6.6 million for its work on the Ambac case since it was hired in February 2008 - more than four times the next highest sum paid to an outside special counsel for one case since Doyle took office in 2003, according to the state attorney general's office.

Three Foley attorneys, including David Walsh, a longtime friend and major contributor to Doyle, have billed more than $1 million each for their Ambac work. Walsh and members of his family have contributed $64,520 to Doyle's campaigns since 1999, including $40,520 since 2003, topping the list of all individual contributors to Doyle, according to the Democracy Campaign, which analyzes campaign finance reports filed with the state.

Marc Marotta, a Doyle confidant who chaired his 2006 campaign and served on the governor's cabinet, is a Foley partner who has billed 24 hours on the Ambac case. State Insurance Commissioner Sean Dilweg, who hired Foley for the Ambac case, was a top aide to Marotta in the state Department of Administration before being named insurance commissioner in 2007.

The $20 billion that BP has set aside to pay for losses caused by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill will start making payments in early August.

Ken Feinberg, who is in charge of paying individuals and businesses for lost income, told a meeting of government officials in Louisiana on Thursday that he expected a seamless transition from BP management to his administration.

"My goal is to improve that system," Feinberg said. "I'm determined to come up with a system that is more beneficial to the people using it."

BP currently has 35 offices in the Gulf Coast area accepting claims. The oil company will turn the entire operation over to Feinberg and not be involved in any of the claims against the $20 billion fund, except to supply more money if it's needed, Feinberg said.

The offices will be open for three years, and claims can be filed at any time, he said. Once filed, they must be paid within 90 days, Feinberg said.

The fund has not been tapped yet, but Feinberg said by the end of the first week of August his group would be ready to make payments.

There are still some issues to settle, Feinberg said. One of them is how much transparency the fund should have. Data from the program will be available, but there is still debate on providing names of people applying.

A local law firm is now offering a reward for information that leads to the capture of the person who shot and killed University of Tampa student Ryan McCall last August.

McCall and a friend were walking near the campus when a man robbed and shot them. The law firm of Winters and Yonker wants to give $50,000 to anyone who leads police to McCall's killer.

A cell phone recording of the exchange that happened the night McCall died captured an unknown voice saying, "Get over here. Get the (expletive) over here. Get over here. Get over here. Get the (expletive) over here. Get over here."

If you have any information that could help lead police to Ryan McCall's killer, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-873-TIPS.

As the Senate prepares to vote on whether Elena Kagan should fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, there remain a substantial number of other vacancies in the nation’s lower federal courts that urgently need filling.

Currently, there are about 100 vacancies in the lower federal courts. The American Bar Association says the lack of judges is affecting the efficiency and fairness of the justice system.

ABA President Carolyn B. Lamm said, “Our courts are already terribly strained at the federal level because of the caseload and the workload, and when you’re a hundred justices down…that’s a big gap.  We have speedy trial rules that require them to put criminal cases first.  As a result, all of the civil proceedings are put off and there is a real gap in terms of a significant delay as a result of the vacancies. It is edging toward a crisis not to have a full bench.”

Even if all the vacancies were filled, said Lamm, a significant number of new judgeships would still be necessary to handle caseload growth.  In fact, the Judicial Conference of the United States is recommending 67 new permanent and temporary judgeships. 

Beyond the existing 100 vacancies, more than 20 additional judges have announced that they will retire in the next several months. Since the start of the 111th Congress, President Obama has made 78 nominations to fill the empty seats, and the Senate has confirmed 36 of the nominees.  

Lamm noted that most nominees have moved through the Senate with little dissent and little delay.

When they finally are scheduled for a vote by the Senate, Lamm commented, “None of them have in fact engendered huge debate on the floor of the Senate….  No one has seen a pattern of inappropriate people being nominated; it is simply very slow and it really needs a full bipartisan effort to move these nominations. And quite frankly, it is becoming urgent,” said Lamm.