Law firms are circling geothermal energy company Ormat Technologies, after a class action law suit was filed accusing the firm and its executives of knowlingly falsifying its accounts.

Pennsylvania firm Howard G Smith filed the class action lawsuit on behalf of investors, after Ormat revealed back in February that it would have to revise its accounts for the year up to December 2008.

Ormat announced on February 26 that it had reviewed its accounting procedures, and decided the way it had treated costs associated with discontinued geothermal projects had been “discontinued”.

The move will see its income for 2008 downgraded by $6.2 million.

The law suit has arisen since Ormat’s admission apparently led to its share value dropping by nearly 13%. The class action alleges that Ormat and its executives were liable for investors’ losses.

A number of law firms came out over the weekend, chasing Ormat investors with the offer of representing them in the class action suit. These include the Colorado-based Shuman Law Firm, Oklahoma City firm Federman & Sherwood, Connecticut-based Izard Nobel, Dallas firm Kendall Law Group and the New York-based Brualdi Law Firm.

The law firm Krugliak, Wilkins, Griffiths & Dougherty Co. has opened an office in downtown Akron, the firm’s first in Summit County.

The firm has offices in Jackson Township, Alliance, New Philadelphia and Sugarcreek.

Managing Director Terry A. Moore said the firm’s clients in and around Summit County have asked for a location in Akron, and it appeared the timing was right.

In the Akron Centre at 50 S. Main St., Suite 501, the office will be managed by attorney Edward V. Buehrle, who recently joined Krugliak as a shareholder and director.

Buehrle’s practice is focused on real estate and financial and business-related transactions. He received his bachelor’s degree from Hillsdale College and a master’s of business administration and law degree from the University of Akron.

The law firm was founded in 1958. For more information, visit www.kwgd.com.

A gender justice group took African National Congress Youth League president Julius Malema to the Johannesburg Equality Court after he made the comment to students in January 2009. Jacob Zuma was acquitted of rape in 2006 after he insisted the sex was consensual and went on to become president last year.

Just hours after the conviction, a court official sent a second round of hate-speech complaints to Malema. These complaints address Malema's decision last week to lead college students in singing a song that calls for the killing of white South African farmers.

The judge who convicted Malema ordered him to make an unconditional public apology within two weeks and pay 50,000 rand ($6,700) to a center for abused women, called People Opposing Women Abuse, within a month, South African media reported.

"Instead of perpetuating rape myths, public figures should make it clear that rape can happen anywhere ... We need to make sure that women who have been raped are not stigmatized and are not made to feel like the crimes against them were their fault," said Mbuyiselo Botha, spokesperson for the Sonke Gender Justice group that took Malema to court.

Malema was not present in court to hear Monday's judgment. Malema's lawyer said his client will appeal soon.

Senior adviser David Axelrod and press secretary Robert Gibbs refused to retreat from criticism Obama leveled during his State of the Union address, with six of the nine members of the court sitting a few feet in front of him. The two White House officials defended Obama's statement that the ruling was seriously flawed.

"Under the ruling of the Supreme Court, any lobbyist could go in to any legislator and say, `If you don't vote our way on this bill, we're going to run a million-dollar campaign against you in your district.' And that is a threat to our democracy," Axelrod said. "It's going to further reduce the voice of the American people, and it's something we have to push back vigorously on."

Chief Justice John Roberts said this week that Obama's unusually open criticism was "very troubling" and questioned whether justices should attend the annual address.

The Bloomfield Hills law firm of Lipson, Neilson, Cole Seltzer & Garin, P.C. is holding a 25th anniversary celebration May 6 where it is giving 25 small businesses or entrepreneurs a half day of free legal and business counseling at Automation Alley in Troy.

Lipson Neilson was founded in 1985, at the cusp of an economic recovery beginning to develop 25 years ago. Since its modest beginnings with only three attorneys, Lipson Neilson has grown into a full-service law firm with four offices and 26 attorneys in two states.

To celebrate its silver anniversary, Lipson Neilson will be reaching out to entrepreneurs and emerging business owners who are charging down the same path that Lipson Neilson itself embarked upon 25 years ago.

“In 1985, after a period of some of the darkest days in Michigan’s economic history, the state began to come back with a vengeance," said the law firm's co-founder and managing partner Jeffrey Neilson. "We want to use our 25th anniversary to help inspire another rebirth for the companies that can most make a difference in our state’s economic future, the small business entrepreneurs.”

Lipson Neilson will host its free consulting event for 25 entrepreneurial companies selected from submissions to the firm. The event will be held in the Automation Alley atrium on May 6 from 8:30 a.m. to noon. Attorneys from the Lipson Neilson firm will cover a myriad of areas that most start-up and emerging businesses encounter, including company organization, structure, financing, and marketing.  The firm will provide a full complement of sound advice to help entrepreneurial companies negotiate these difficult times and help them develop a plan for success in the Michigan economy.

A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld a Nevada law that bars legal brothels that operate in some of the state's rural areas from advertising by newspaper, leaflets and billboards in Las Vegas, Reno and other places where prostitution is illegal.

Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto hailed the ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in San Francisco, while a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada promised to appeal.

The laws had been challenged by the ACLU, a Nye County brothel called the Shady Lady Ranch and two newspapers: the High Desert Advocate and Las Vegas City Life.

Prostitution is illegal in Clark and Washoe counties — which include Las Vegas and Reno — and three other Nevada counties. Ten Nevada counties authorize prostitution by local ordinance.

The 9th Circuit panel reversed a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge James Mahan in Nevada that two 1979 state laws prohibiting brothel advertising in counties where prostitution is illegal were overly broad and unconstitutional.

The laws also prohibit brothel advertising in theaters and on streets and public highways.

The 9th Circuit noted in its ruling that Nevada was unique among states because it has a "nuanced boundary," rather than total criminalization of prostitution.

But the state still seeks to confine the sale of sex acts through licensing and advertising restrictions, the judges said.