As in the past, when large firms like 700-lawyer Simpson Thatcher announce a salary hike, others are quick to follow. Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison matched Simpson Thacher's increase to $160,000 Tuesday afternoon. Last February's increase to $145,000 was first announced by Sullivan & Cromwell, and other firms wasted little time jumping on the bandwagon. Firms generally succumb to the pressure to match salaries to remain competitive in nabbing talent from a small pool of top law students.

Simpson Thacher's decision also comes after a pay increase at a number of California firms, which upped their first-year salaries to $145,000 from $135,000. New York firms may also follow Simpson Thacher's lead in an effort to maintain the Big Apple's status as the top market for associate pay.

A coalition of businesses and environmental groups on Monday called for federal legislation to limit emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. In a letter to President Bush a day before his State of the Union Address, the US Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) advocated a "cap and trade" system, in which companies whose emissions exceed mandatory limits could buy credits from companies that produce less pollution. "This approach will ensure emission reduction targets will be met while simultaneously ... stimulating investment and innovation in the technologies that will be necessary to achieve our environmental goal," USCAP wrote in A Call for Action, a 16-page report released by the group Monday. Specifically, USCAP recommended that Congress set short-term and long-term targets for cutting emissions, ranging from a 10 percent reduction within 10 years to as much as 80 percent by 2050.

Scientific research suggests that man-made greenhouse gases contribute to global warming. USCAP's 14 members include large corporations such as Alcoa, BP America, DuPont and General Electric as well as the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Pew Center on Global Climate Change and the World Resources Institute [advocacy websites]. Its report is the culmination of a year-long effort. White House press secretary Tony Snow responded to the USCAP proposal  during his daily briefing, noting that although Bush opposes mandatory CO2 limits, he will discuss alternatives to fossil fuels in his address to Congress on Tuesday. AP has more. C-SPAN has recorded video of the USCAP press conference.

Christopher J. Steskal, a lead prosecutor of a federal task force investigating the backdating of stock options at Apple Inc. and other companies, is leaving his San Francisco post to join a law firm, the United State Attorney’s office in San Francisco confirmed late Friday.

Mr. Steskal’s decision follows the recent resignation of his boss, United States Attorney Kevin V. Ryan.

Mr. Steskal also was the lead prosecutor in the government’s case against Gregory L. Reyes, the former chief executive of Brocade Communications Systems.

Mr. Steskal, who was to try Mr. Reyes’s case in June in San Francisco, is the second of five assistant United States attorneys on the task force to leave since its formation in July. He said he would join the San Francisco office of Fenwick & West within 30 days.

William J. Portanova, a criminal defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, said that he believed that the Brocade case would not suffer, no matter who is picked to succeed Mr. Steskal.

“The government has people stacked up ready to pick up the case and run with it,” he said.

Luke Macaulay, a spokesman for the United States Attorney’s office in San Francisco, said that one of two prosecutors the office is planning to hire would replace Mr. Steskal on the task force.

Ralph Klein, the former Alberta premier whose grip on office earned him the sobriquet King Ralph, has gone from reigning to making rain.

The one-time TV reporter and high-school dropout announced yesterday he is joining national law firm Borden Ladner Gervais LLP as senior business adviser, just one month after resigning as premier and three days after relinquishing his seat in the Alberta Legislative Assembly.

Although not licensed to practise law, Mr. Klein says he will act as a resource for BLG lawyers working on files of key personal interest, such as energy development, health care reform and the evolution in securities law, among other things -- "although I need to bone up a bit on securities legislation."

Klein will devote about spend two-thirds of his time to the law firm and be based out of its Calgary office.

He is working with former Newfoundland premier Brian Tobin to develop an energy policy for the Fraser Institute and he’s joining another conservative think-tank, the Manning Centre for Building Democracy.

Klein will be a guest lecturer in the fall at the prestigious Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. The former premier also has commitments to be executive in residence at the University of Alberta, and chair of communications at Calgary’s Mount Royal College.

The Justice Department, easing a Bush administration policy, said Wednesday it has decided to give an independent body authority to monitor the government's controversial domestic spying program.

In a letter to the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said this authority has been given to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and that it already has approved one request for monitoring the communications of a person believed to be linked to al-Qaida or an associated terror group.

The court orders approving collection of international communications _ whether it originates in the United States or abroad _ was issued Jan. 10, according to the two-page letter to Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa.

"As a result of these orders, any electronic surveillance that was occurring as part of the Terrorist Surveillance Program will now be conducted subject to the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court," Gonzales wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.

"Accordingly, under these circumstances, the President has determined not to reauthorize the Terrorist Surveillance Program when the current authorization expires," the attorney general wrote.

The Bush administration secretly launched the surveillance program in 2001 to monitor international phone calls and e-mails to or from the United States involving people suspected by the government of having terrorist links.

The White House said it is satisfied that the new guidelines meet its concerns about national security.

"The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has put together its guidelines and its rules and those have met administration concerns about speed and agility when it comes to responding to bits of intelligence where we may to be able to save American lives," White House press secretary Tony Snow said.

Snow said he could not explain why those concerns could not have been addressed before the program was started. He said the president will not reauthorize the present program because the new rules will serve as guideposts.