Boutique technology law firm Daniels Daniels & Verdonik, whose members were major players during the go-go, dot-com years, is closing shop and will be absorbed into the Raleigh outpost of New Bern-based Ward and Smith.

Founded in 1982, DD&V was well known among the local entrepreneurial intelligentsia, with clients including Etrials Worldwide Inc., EMC Corp. and StrikeIron Inc. The shop's offerings included corporate and tax law, structuring venture financing deals and patent and copyright work.

DD&V always has been a small firm, with its attorney roster maxing out at eight a few years ago. But after losing a couple of attorneys to Hutchison Law Group in the spring, DD&V's roster dwindled to just four lawyers, including name partners Walter Daniels, Linda Markus Daniels and Jim Verdonik.

"Daniels Daniels & Verdonik is a specialized firm with exceptionally knowledgeable attorneys who will strengthen our firm's full service capabilities," says Ward and Smith co-managing director Kenneth R. Wooten.

Partners at DD&V believe size will benefit the lawyers as well as the clients.

"We chose to combine with Ward and Smith to utilize their talented group of attorneys to provide additional resources to our clients," says Verdonik. "We are excited about this combination, and we look forward to continuing to serve the technology community with a wider range of services and a much deeper team."

Keith Kapp, who leads Williams Mullen Maupin Taylor's Raleigh office, sees benefits of the merger for DD&V.

"It would make good business sense and would better serve clients to be able to offer multiple specialties," says Kapp, who helped shepherd Raleigh-based Maupin Taylor through its recent merger with Virginia firmWilliams Mullen earlier this year.

Walter Daniels, a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and wife Linda operated the firm as Daniels & Daniels for years. That changed in 2003, when tech and securities maven Verdonik jumped ship from Kilpatrick Stockton to join them.

In addition to the Danielses and Verdonik, intellectual property lawyer Jose Cortina works at DD&V.

The four lawyers are in the process of moving to Ward and Smith, which opened a Raleigh office in 1990. Excluding the DD&V crew, Ward and Smith's downtown Raleigh office has about 20 employees, including attorneys and support staff.

While specialization can have its advantages, DD&V was hamstrung by its size and practice limitations - especially after Caroline Horton Rockafellow and Amalie Tuffin departed the firm in March to join competitor Hutchison Law Group. A major chunk of DD&V's clientele is aspiring technology companies. They have the potential to soar to the moon, but many flame out on the launch pad.

Law firms can get burned along the way, notching plenty of billable hours working for a client that ends up not being able to pay because it encounters financial difficulty. Having to kiss a lot of frogs in order to find a prince is a better proposition at a bigger firm, which can weather tough times because it has other revenue-generating practice areas to fall back on.

A small firm such as DD&V also can be at a disadvantage because larger competitors can offer clients a wider diversity of services. For instance, DD&V competitors such as Smith Anderson and Wyrick Robbins Yates and Ponton both have dozens of lawyers and more practice areas, allowing clients to have much of their legal work taken care of under one roof. Hutchison Law Group has a niche similar to DD&V but is much bigger, having grown to 24 attorneys since its founding in 1996.

After the DD&V lawyers move over, Ward and Smith will have more than 70 attorneys and north of 200 support staff combined in Greenville, New Bern, Wilmington and Raleigh.

"With established offices in Wilmington and Greenville, two growing technology centers in eastern North Carolina, Ward and Smith will also expand the geographic reach of our technology practice," says Verdonik.

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McGlone is accused of illegally distributing human growth hormone and steroids to body builders in several states, and allegedly got some of the drugs from a Florida-based pharmaceutical company charged by New York authorities in a larger steroid case.

Prosecutors say McGlone advertised in bodybuilder publications and recommended the drugs for anti-aging and weight-loss purposes. Federal law restricts the use or distribution of human growth hormone to specified medical uses, such as wasting disease associated with AIDS.

McGlone took orders over the phone and paid two New York doctors to write prescriptions for the drugs even though they never met or examined the patients, according to prosecutors.

He made more than $860,000 through the scheme between April 2004 and August 2006, prosecutors said. Authorities seized more than $125,000 and two Dodge Vipers from McGlone, according to federal court documents.

McGlone sent the prescriptions to pharmacies, including Orlando, Fla.-based Signature Pharmacy, according to prosecutors. The company is not charged in the Rhode Island case.

One doctor pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy and illegal drug distribution charges. The other doctor had initially agreed to plead guilty, then declined to do so at a court hearing last month.

"I have read the (plea) agreement, and I accept responsibility," Crutchfield told U.S. Judge J. Daniel Breen.

Defense attorney William Farmer characterized the money that Crutchfield admitted taking as a "gratuity" rather than a bribe.

"They gave him a gratuity _ thanks for all your help _ long after he had already agreed to support this bill," Farmer said outside court.

Crutchfield and former Sen. Kathryn Bowers, D-Memphis, were the last of the Tennessee Waltz lawmakers still facing trial. The others have pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial.

Bowers' attorney, William Massey, said she would plead guilty on Monday.

"She brings this one blemish to the courtroom but a lifetime of good work and a positive history in the community," Massey said. "We hope to convince the judge it's not necessary to punish her severely."

If prison time is ordered, he said, "that's what she'll do. She's strong."

Tennessee Waltz indictments were returned in May 2005, charging the five with taking payoffs from a company called E-Cycle Management, which turned out to be a creation of the FBI.

Farmer said that Crutchfield, who has served in the General Assembly for 31 years, plans to resign "in due time," before the Legislature returns to session in January.

Crutchfield still will be eligible for a $42,000 annual pension because his membership in the state's retirement system predated changes in a law designed to strip benefits from convicted lawmakers.

He faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, though federal guidelines for a first-time offender would call for a much lighter sentence. Sentencing was set for Nov. 28.

The indictment against Crutchfield accused him of splitting $12,000 in bribes with a so-called "bagman" and former lobbyist, Charles Love. Love pleaded guilty and was to testify against Crutchfield at trial.

Prosecutors say the Tennessee Waltz investigation is ongoing.

Pushing through a crowd of reporters and photographers outside the Memphis courthouse, Crutchfield refused to talk about Tennessee Waltz.

"I'm ready to go home to Chattanooga right now," he said.

Crutchfield was first elected to the state House in 1956 and served 14 terms in the Senate. He was Senate Democratic leader for six years until losing a caucus vote about five months before the Tennessee Waltz investigation became public.

"It is our hope that this does not obscure what was a record of noteworthy public service. Senator Crutchfield represented the people of his district with distinction for a very long time," Democratic caucus chairman Joe Haynes said in a statement.

In all, 11 people have been indicted on Tennessee Waltz charges, including several officials in Memphis and Chattanooga. Nine of those charged, including Crutchfield, now stand convicted.

London-based law firm CMS Cameron McKenna is to make almost half of its IT staff redundant as part of plans to outsource more work to India.

After embarking on a review of its IT operations at the end of last year, the law firm has now signed a £10m deal with Indian outsourcing company HCL.

CMS Cameron McKenna's IT services will now be delivered by a combination of in-house IT workers and dedicated HCL staff in London and Chennai, India.

Before the changes the size of CMS Cameron McKenna's IT department was 70 people, which included around 20 non-IT print room staff. Now that figure will be almost halved to 40 people as part of the outsourcing deal.

A spokesman for CMS Cameron McKenna said the consultation process is still ongoing but added that 20 IT staff will be made redundant and around 10 will transfer across to HCL. The moves are expected to be finalised over the next few weeks.

The spokesman said: "The target was to get a more flexible and highly skilled workforce to assist us with future development. There are cost issues as well."

Philip Rooke, head of IT at CMS Cameron McKenna, said the decision to make staff redundant was "not taken lightly".

He said in a statement: "We have been at pains to keep staff informed and consulted both within the department and with the firm's Staff Council throughout this review."

While some dedicated on-site IT support will remain in-house, HCL will be responsible for CMS Cameron McKenna's data-centre support, network, security and managed desktop services and application development, support and management.

Montreal consumer Olivier Dumoulin started a class-action lawsuit against Dell, arguing that the company wouldn't honour Axim sales made on its Canadian website, before the erroneous prices of $89 and $118 were rectified. The real prices were $379 and $549 respectively.

At issue for the Supreme Court is a caveat used by Dell and a growing number of retailers on the sale of everything from computers to cellphones.

It's a clause that obliges dissatisfied customers to challenge companies through arbitration - and not class-action lawsuits.

"This clause for us is abusive. Its goal is to block class-action lawsuits," said Charles Tanguay, a spokesperson for Quebec's Union des consommateurs, which is spearheading the case with Dumoulin. "What we're defending here is a principle. When a price is advertised, it must be sold at that price."

In 2004, the Quebec Superior Court granted the union and Dumoulin class-action certification.

Each member of the class is asking for Dell to supply the Axim at the transaction price, plus compensatory damages of $100 and punitive damages of $1,000, court papers show.

A lawyer for Dell couldn't be reached for comment yesterday.

Dell's appeal of the Superior Court's decision has broad implications for most Canadian provinces. While such arbitration clauses are no longer permitted in Quebec - their use is also forbidden in Ontario - Friday's decision would set the standard for retailers in other provinces, legal experts say.

"There's a big trend of retailers favouring arbitration clauses," said Frederic Bachand, a McGill University law professor.

Bachand was part of a team of lawyers representing a neutral intervenor in the Dell case.

While the trend is more limited in Canada, Bachand estimates that these clauses are used in more than half of U.S. consumer contracts - or purchases of goods and services.

Arbitration is advantageous for big business because it's done privately - sparing companies potentially negative publicity - and usually less costly, he said.

Some arbitration clauses also force customers to challenge a company as individuals, which could dissuade customers from taking action because of fees.

"What the big-business side is trying to do is to force the consumer to go to individual arbitration," he said. "We've seen some cases that are obviously abusive, where companies are trying to shift the cost (of arbitration) to the consumer."

Dell wasn't trying to gouge customers on fees, Bachand said.

Along with the Dell case, the Supreme Court is also expected to decide on a similar lawsuit involving Rogers Wireless.

A Quebec customer trying to launch a class-action lawsuit against Rogers for high mobile fees was also told he had to go to arbitration instead of court.

Duane Morris said Thursday it has officially opened law offices in Vietnam's two principal cities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

The expansion plans were originally revealed as the Philadelphia-based law firm announced the opening of a Singapore office in late December.

As with Singapore, the Vietnam effort will be led by Duane Morris partner and former Mexican Ambassador to Singapore Eduardo Ramos-Gómez.

The Vietnam offices will be staffed with three lawyers and focus on the areas of corporate finance, project finance, energy, cross-border transactions, restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, real estate and telecommunications. The firm's Asia-based lawyers service clients in, or with interests in, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. The office and staff are fluent in the major languages of those countries.

Sheldon Bonovitz, chairman of Duane Morris, said Vietnam has thriving manufacturing, information technology and high-tech industries and a heavy investment concentration from Singapore and other countries in Asia, as well as from the United States. In addition, Bonovitz said Vietnam's accession to membership in the World Trade Organization in January promises further economic development in the future.

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