The high court on Monday left in place a federal appeals court ruling that state officials were within their rights in trying to keep viewpoints on abortion off of Illinois license plates. Choose Life Illinois, Inc. sued to force the state to issue the plates.

The administrators of Lehman Brothers' assets in Europe said Monday that they may seek a direct agreement with hedge funds and other creditors to return money tied up since the collapse of the parent company as an alternative to a court-sanctioned settlement.

PricewaterhouseCoopers — which controls some $8.9 billion in assets from Lehman Brothers International (Europe) since the parent company went bankrupt on Sept. 15, 2008 — has proposed a contractual agreement with creditors following an adverse ruling by the High Court in London. The court ruled in July that it had no power to grant the administrators' request to set a "bar date" or deadline for creditors to file claims.

PricewaterhouseCoopers is appealing the court ruling, with a hearing expected on Oct. 26, but meanwhile it has disclosed a timetable for the alternate settlement.

The administrators sought a bar date because they had not received responses from all clients of Lehman Brothers, they could not depend on the accuracy of Lehmans' record and had not received all the information requested from custodians, depositories and affiliates of Lehman Brothers International (Europe).

There were 13 law firm mergers during the third quarter of this year, up from seven deals recorded during the second quarter, according to a new report from Altman Weil Inc.

Most of the quarter's mergers were tiny acquisitions, reflecting "the continuing caution of law firms in response to the recent economic turmoil," said Bill Brennan, principal of Altman Weil.

The meatiest deal reported was Boston-based Bingham McCutchen’s acquisition of McKee Nelson, a 120-lawyer firm with offices in Washington and New York. The merge formed a 1,100-lawyer firm called Bingham McCutchen LLP.

Also during the quarter, Washington-based Howrey LLP acquired Day Casebeer Madrid and Batchelder, a Silicon Valley intellectual property boutique.

While those two deals involved large firms, eight of the quarter’s 13 deals were all small regional combinations. Brennan explains that law firms are not looking to assume the risks inherent with big mergers right now and are instead scooping up small firms or groups of lateral partners with portable business.

There were 25 law firm mergers and acquisitions reported in the first quarter of 2009.

Lawyers representing South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford in an ethics investigation are asking the state Supreme Court to keep the report out of the hands of a Legislature expected to consider impeaching him.

Sanford has been under pressure to quit since revealing he disappeared for a week from the state in the summer to visit his mistress in Argentina.

His lawyer said Wednesday that he wants the court to force the State Ethics Commission to keep its investigation secret until after it decides whether Sanford broke laws by using state planes for personal and political purposes.

In August, Sanford said the commission could release its complaint against him.

Sanford contends the commission wants to give lawmakers an early report on the probe. Ethics Director Herb Hayden says that will not happen.

A Florida appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling that the NCAA must release documents on Florida State's appeal of an academic cheating penalty.

The 1st District Court of Appeal upheld a circuit court decision Thursday. The Associated Press and other media groups had sued, saying the NCAA's desire to keep the process private violated Florida open records laws.

The documents focus on Florida State's appeal of the NCAA's intention to strip coaches and athletes of wins in 10 sports.

That includes football coach Bobby Bowden, who stands to lose 14 victories. It would dim his chances of again becoming major college football's winningest coach. Bowden has 384 victories — two behind Penn State's Joe Paterno.

Investor Jeffry Picower, described as the biggest beneficiary of Bernard Madoff's fraud, is now being sued for $7.2 billion, $2 billion more than the trustee in the case demanded in May.

Picower, newly listed as one of the 400 wealthiest Americans by Forbes magazine, was complicit in the fraud, trustee Irving Picard said in court documents on Wednesday responding to the investor's motion to dismiss his lawsuit.

"Picower makes the paradoxical argument that he could not have been complicit in the Ponzi scheme because he made too much money from it," Picard wrote in the filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.

"The unusual, if not unlawful activity in his accounts, including one negative net cash balance of approximately $6 billion at the time of Madoff's arrest, was clear evidence that something was seriously amiss."

Picower, 67, of Palm Beach, Florida, was listed 371st and worth $1 billion on the Forbes list published this week.