Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner stepped up pressure on China to make more progress in moving toward flexible exchange rates.

Geithner said Wednesday that it is particularly important to see appreciation in countries where the currency is significantly undervalued. Geithner never mentioned China, but the speech was clearly aimed at the world's second-largest economy.

U.S. manufacturers contend that the Chinese yuan is undervalued by as much as 40 percent, giving Chinese companies a significant competitive advantage. Geithner's comments came in advance of upcoming global finance meetings.

Geithner said the problem was that when large economies kept their currency undervalued, it encouraged other nations to do the same.

"The collective impact of this behavior risks either causing inflation and asset bubbles in emerging economies or else depressing consumption growth," Geithner said.

Geithner's remarks came in a speech at the Brookings Institution where he previewed the U.S. goals for upcoming meetings of the 187-nation International Monetary Fund and its sister lending institution, the World Bank.

In addition to those talks, which begin Friday, finance officials of the Group of 20 major economies are scheduled to meet on the sidelines. The G-20 nations includes the world's richest nations plus major emerging countries such as China and Brazil.

U.S. officials said they will push the G-20 nations to honor commitments made a year ago in Pittsburgh to work to rebalance the global economy. Doing so would promote more sustainable growth and avoid a repeat of the severe recession.

Ex-trader Jerome Kerviel was convicted on all counts Tuesday in history's biggest rogue trading scandal, sentenced to three years in jail and ordered to pay his former employer a mind-numbing euro4.9 billion ($6.7 billion) in damages.

The ruling marked a huge victory for Societe Generale SA, one of France's most blue-blooded banks, which has worked to clean up its image and put in place tougher risk controls since the scandal broke in 2008.

The 33-year-old former futures index trader stood expressionless as the court convicted him and pronounced a five-year sentence with two years suspended. Kerviel was found guilty on charges of forgery, breach of trust and unauthorized computer use for covering up bets worth nearly euro50 billion between late 2007 and early 2008.

In the most stunning blow, the court ordered Kerviel to pay the bank back the euro4.9 billion that it lost unwinding his complex positions in January 2008 -- a punishment he would almost certainly be unable to pay. He was also banned for life from working in the financial industry.

States increasingly are imposing fees on poor criminal defendants who use public defenders even when they can't pay, causing some to go without attorneys, according to two reviews of the nation's largest state criminal justice systems.

A report out Monday by New York University School of Law's Brennan Center for Justice found that 13 of the 15 states with the largest prison populations imposed some charge, including application fees, for access to counsel.

"In practice, these fees often discourage individuals from exercising their constitutional right to an attorney, leading to wrongful convictions, over-incarceration and significant burdens on the operation of courts," the Brennan report concludes.

In Michigan, the report says, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association found the "threat" of having to pay the full cost of assigned counsel caused misdemeanor defendants to waive their right to attorneys 95% of the time.

Three states studied — Florida, North Carolina and Virginia — have no provisions for the courts to waive some of the fees if defendants can't pay. In Virginia, defendants may be charged up to $1,235 per count for some felonies, the report says.

A separate report of five state justice systems out Monday by the ACLU produced similar findings.

Both studies say the fees are a little-known source of revenue in the criminal justice system that are steadily rising.

Armstrong Teasdale lawyer Daniel J. Burke has been selected for the 2010-2011 class of Leadership Clayton, a development program sponsored by the Clayton Chamber of Commerce. A total of fifteen individuals have been accepted into this year’s program.

An attorney at the firm since 2006, Burke concentrates his practice in the areas of real estate development, banking and financial services, and public finance. He has also been deeply involved in the creation and development of Armstrong Teasdale’s Future Energy Group.

Burke received his J.D. from Washington University School of Law in 2006 and his B.A., cum laude, in 2003 from Miami University-Oxford in Oxford, Ohio, where he was also selected for Phi Beta Kappa.

Leadership Clayton, which began in 1972, is a nine-month program for emerging and existing leaders aimed at broadening their knowledge of community issues, sharpening their leadership skills and challenging their ability to find solutions to problems affecting the surrounding area. Participants must live or work in Clayton County, demonstrate leadership ability and possess a strong commitment to serve the community.

About Armstrong Teasdale LLP: Armstrong Teasdale LLP, with nearly 250 lawyers in offices across the U.S. and China, has a demonstrable track record of delivering sophisticated legal advice and exceptional service to a dynamic client base. Whether an issue is local or global, practice area specific or industry related, Armstrong Teasdale provides each client with an invaluable combination of legal resources and practical advice in nearly every area of law. For more information, please visit www.armstrongteasdale.com.

The big law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe has seen its share of merger discussions fizzle out in recent years. Add its talks with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld to the list.

Less than a week after confirming that they were in preliminary discussions to merge, Orrick and Akin Gump released a joint statement Monday morning announcing that their brief flirtation has already petered out.  The decision to end their talks was described as a mutual one.

“The firms appreciated the opportunity to have the discussions, which confirmed their mutual respect for one another,” the statement said. “However, the firms have determined not to proceed.”

Last week, consultants who specialize in law-firm mergers described the fit between Orrick and Akin Gump as a good one, considering they did not overlap much in terms of offices or strong practice areas.  Together, the firms would have employed nearly 1,900 lawyers with combined revenues in excess of $1.5 billion.

But the breakdown in talks is not particularly surprising, given how delicate merger discussions between big law firms tend to be. As The American Lawyer has pointed out, Orrick is something of a model for aborted merger talks, with its unsuccessful deal with what was then Dewey Ballantine in 2007 standing out as the most notable example.

The owner and former assistant director of a New York day care center where a 2-year-old girl choked to death on a carrot have pleaded guilty to criminal charges.

Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice says Carousel Day School owner Eugene Formica (for-MY'-kuh) pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment Monday. Formica will receive three years of probation.

Former assistant director Kathryn Cordaro pleaded guilty to running an unlicensed day care center for toddlers. She'll receive a conditional discharge, meaning the arrest will be purged if she stays out of trouble.

Prosecutors say Olivia Raspanti choked to death March 17, 2009, after getting the carrot from a teacher's bag.

They say the corporation that operates the Hicksville facility pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment and running an unlicensed day care for toddlers and preschoolers. The corporation will be fined $15,000.