Blank Rome said Friday that longtime Chairman David Girard-diCarlo will step down at the end of next year and will be replaced by partners Alan Hoffman and Mike Dyer. In addition, Carl Buchholz was re-elected managing partner and CEO and Gary Goldenberg was named finance partner. Girard-diCarlo has served as either managing partner or chairman at the 500-lawyer firm for 20 years, during which time the firm has more than doubled in size and opened offices in New York, Washington and Hong Kong.

Girard-diCarlo, 64, returned to Philadelphia last spring after spending six years in Washington, where he helped grow the firm's office and client base there. He was aided by his close relationship with President Bush, for whom he was a chief fundraiser in 2000. Bush appointed Girard-DiCarlo to the board of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Hoffman, 59, and Dyer, 61, will become co-chairmen of the firm Jan. 1, 2009. Philadelphia-based Hoffman is head of the 200-lawyer litigation department and Dyer heads the Washington office and the firm's business department. He joined the firm when it acquired Dyer Ellis & Joseph in 2003.

Buchholz, 41, replaced Fred Blume, 66, as managing partner last year. The Girard-diCarlo announcement completes the firm's management succession planning.

Buchholz will be responsible for running the firm on a daily basis while the chairman traditionally provides strategic management and guidance.

Wachtler, 77, blamed his stalking of socialite Joy Silverman on a mental breakdown.

He spent 10 months in jail, writing a prison memoir in 1993 called "After the Madness." He was reinstated after he told a state panel he wants to do legal work for the poor and mentally ill.

"I'm delighted," Sol Wachtler said after his license was reinstated Tuesday. The former judge had told a state panel he hoped to do legal work for poor and mentally ill clients. He currently teaches at Touro College's Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center in Central Islip, on Long Island.

Wachtler, now 77, was the Court of Appeals' top judge and a potential Republican candidate for governor when he was arrested in 1992. He was accused of harassing socialite and GOP fundraiser Joy Silverman after she ended their affair.

The former Attorney-General, Lord Goldsmith, QC, is joining a top American law firm today to lead its European litigation practice.

Lord Goldsmith, who retired from Government in June after six years – just before be was expected to be sacked – has landed a job with Debevoise & Plimpton.

He will take on a wide range of work involving litigation, investigations, arbitration and public interna-tonal law. Within months he will qualify as a solicitor, while remaining a barrister, and become a partner within the firm. Last year its partners each made annual earnings of $1.8 million (£890,000).

The move is a big coup for the firm, which in the past four years has ranked top of the American/inter-national law firms that have bases in London. Lord Goldsmith said: “I am delighted to be joining one of the world’s leading international law firms and to be heading up Debevoise’s high-quality global litigation practice from Europe.” He said that he had received several “very tempting offers”.

It is known that top commercial chambers, as well as a number of leading British law firms, tried to lure him to join. Top of those disappointed with his choice is likely to be his old chambers at Fountain Court.

Lord Goldsmith, who will be based in London, said that the global work of Debevoise, coupled with its public service work, had enticed him to the post. His post of European chair of litigation will involve him in all aspects of global litigation, including advocacy in British courts.

Lord Goldsmith resigned in June after six years as Attorney-General, where he had a mixed record. Widely praised for his work in boosting the Crown Prosecution Service, his reputation diminished over the legal advice that he gave on the war in Iraq; and subsequently over the dropping by the Serious Fraud Office of the investigation into BAE Systems.

His refusal to stand aside from any decision – ultimately made after he had left the post – over the “cash-for-honours” investigation prompted the current inquiry into whether the post of Attorney-General should be reformed or broken up.

Lord Goldsmith, 56, said that he had to obtain official clearance for taking up the post from the committtee on business appointments, chaired by Lord Mayhew of Twisden, and that he was told that it was “entirely proper” once three months had elapsed. He declined to comment on his earnings but added that they would not “be as much as they would have been at the Bar”.

Debevoise & Plimpton was named “America’s best law firm” in the yearly rankings for 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007, compiled by the magazine American Lawyer.

"Milberg Weiss understands that a second superseding indictment will be issued tomorrow that will include new charges against the firm and also Melvyn Weiss," the statement said.

Weiss, 72, long reigned as the king of U.S. class-action litigation, casting himself as the protector of the common investor and creating enemies throughout corporate America. Weiss' lawyer was not immediately available for comment.

Milberg Weiss said it remained proud of its and Weiss' accomplishments and did not anticipate the indictment would interrupt its work.

News of Weiss' pending indictment came a day after another of the firm's former partners, William Lerach, agreed to plead guilty to criminal conspiracy and go to prison for his involvement in the scheme.

On its Web site, the Wall Street Journal said another former partner at Milberg Weiss, Steven Schulman, is on the verge of reaching a plea deal with the government that will likely be clinched this week. The report cited two people familiar with the situation, who said Schulman's deal may include jail time.

Schulman, who was indicted along with the law firm, which has pleaded not guilty to participating in a scheme in which several individuals were secretly paid to serve as plaintiffs in more than 150 lawsuits.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles declined to comment on media reports regarding Schulman and the statement issued by Milberg Weiss.

Lerach's fall represents a stunning development for one of the nation's most prominent – and wealthiest – plaintiff lawyers. He specialized in class-action lawsuits against corporate America.

Lerach oversaw litigation that recovered more than $7 billion in settlements arising from the Enron fraud. He filed tobacco lawsuits against R.J. Reynolds over its Joe Camel advertising campaign and antitrust lawsuits against Microsoft and the Nasdaq market. His personal income in 1998 was more than $13 million, according to evidence presented in a 1999 civil lawsuit.

The federal investigation that began seven years ago was focused on misconduct at Lerach's previous law firm, now known as Milberg Weiss.

Lerach's single conspiracy count resulted from information that a former Milberg Weiss law partner, David Bershad, provided to prosecutors, according to one source familiar with the terms of Lerach's plea.

The conspiracy count alleges that Lerach knew that a Milberg Weiss client, former Los Angeles eye surgeon Steven Cooperman, lied when he swore under oath that he was not being paid to serve as a plaintiff in a lawsuit. Cooperman has been at the center of news accounts concerning Milberg Weiss since he went to jail in 2001 for art insurance fraud.

The New York law firm was indicted in July by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles, based on allegations that the firm made more than $11 million in unlawful payments to clients.

Prosecutors allege that Milberg Weiss orchestrated a scheme that recruited clients who bought shares or owned stock in companies the firm had targeted for lawsuits. Maintaining a stable of ready plaintiffs enabled Lerach and his team to be the first to file their lawsuits, which was a crucial advantage under the law at that time. Filing first enabled them to win control of the class-action cases and collect bigger slices of settlements and court victories. The clients were then rewarded with the improper payments, which were kept secret from the court and others.

The Milberg Weiss firm has denied any wrongdoing, as has Steven Schulman, a former partner charged in the case. Both are scheduled for trial next year.

Bershad, who oversaw the firm's finances, pleaded guilty in July to conspiracy, admitting that he and others agreed to hide payments the firm had arranged with certain plaintiffs in a variety of class-action lawsuits. As part of his plea, Bershad agreed to forfeit $7.75 million.

Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles, declined to comment. Lerach's defense attorney, John Keker, did not return a phone call to his office after business hours last night.

Terms of the plea agreement, which required months of negotiations, specify that Lerach is not required to cooperate with the government's continuing investigation.

The agreement also confirms that the Coughlin Stoia law firm will face no criminal charges or liability in the matter, a provision that became a sticking point in talks between the two sides.

Another issue was Lerach's request for a binding deal so that if the court rejects the proposed plea agreement for some reason, either side can withdraw from the agreement.

Prosecutors began scrutinizing Milberg Weiss and Lerach in 2000, examining thousands of lawsuits that spanned a 20-year period.

Ironically, Lerach began his career as a corporate lawyer in Pittsburgh.

He switched sides, though, when he moved to San Diego in 1975 to set up a one-room outpost for Milberg Weiss. As a plaintiff lawyer, he put everything at risk by taking cases on contingency.

In the ensuing decades, Lerach established San Diego as Milberg Weiss' West Coast headquarters, and supervised the firm's operations as co-chair, with Mel Weiss, of the law firm's management committee.

Lerach's ferocious tactics and penchant for invective, however, made him a lightning rod for America's captains of industry – especially among the Silicon Valley technology companies that were his favorite targets.

He often compared Milberg Weiss to a private enforcement arm of the Securities and Exchange Commission – except that it was unburdened by politics and put its own capital at risk.

In 1995, Congress passed legislation to curb many of the abusive practices in shareholder lawsuits that Lerach helped pioneer. The bill was officially known as the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, but in some congressional circles, it was better known as the "Get Lerach Act."

Cheng Cohen LLC, a Chicago-based firm focusing in corporate, franchise, technology and business litigation today announced that Andrew J. Sannes has joined the firm as counsel.

"Andrew's experience in mergers and acquisitions and hospitality will provide a valuable service to our growing client list," said Amy Cheng, partner of Cheng Cohen LLC.  "We welcome Andrew to our firm and his experience and enthusiasm will play an important role in the growth of Cheng Cohen."

Most recently, Sannes was an associate at DLA Piper US where he concentrated his practice in mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity and general corporate matters. As a member of the Global Hospitality and Resort Group, Sannes has worked with blue chip hotel and resort companies on their business matters from acquisitions, negotiations and all development, financing, and ownership needs.

Sannes is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he received his Bachelor of Arts in History, and The John Marshall Law School where he received his J.D.

Founded in 2007, Cheng Cohen LLC provides experience in a wide range of legal matters including corporate, litigation and franchising. The firm innovatively tailors legal services to meet each of their clients' specific needs effectively and efficiently.