It can hardly come as a surprise that Barack Obama, Harvard Law Class of '91, is popular with lawyers. They've given him $21 million in donations so far, compared with a measly $7 million for Republican rival John McCain.

But like all things Obama, the picture is cloudier than it first appears. Most of Obama's lawyer money came from defense firms. He got the single biggest slug of cash from Kirkland & Ellis, the Chicago law firm that represents Marlboro merchant Philip Morris and asbestos manufacturers, among others. He also co-sponsored a bill designed to cut down on malpractice litigation in 2005, and voted for the Class Action Fairness Act, a law that made it harder for trial lawyers to file some of their most lucrative cases.

Those actions send pangs of doubt through die-hard supporters of the unfettered right to sue, such as Graham Steele, a staff attorney at consumer watchdog group Public Citizen.

If liberals are worried, however, conservatives should be terrified. Whether Obama or McCain wins in November, tort reform appears dead in Washington for at least the next two years. A catchall phrase for legislative measures designed to make it harder for individuals to sue businesses, tort reform has long been a pet project of Republicans. Not coincidentally, it reduces the earning power of plaintiff lawyers, some of the biggest contributors to the Democratic Party.

The detective accused the mayor of pushing another investigator while recently trying to serve a subpoena on a friend of Kilpatrick. The two counts of assaulting or obstructing a police officer are each punishable by up to two years in prison.

"In my almost 20 years, first as a prosecutor and now as an attorney general ... I cannot recall ever seeing let alone hearing of a situation where a police officer trying to serve a subpoena was assaulted," Attorney General Mike Cox said at a news conference.

Kilpatrick spent Thursday night in a one-man jail cell with no TV for violating his bond in a criminal perjury case that has dogged him for months. Then Wayne County Circuit Judge Thomas Jackson altered the ruling of the lower court judge who ordered the mayor to jail.

Jackson said District Judge Ronald Giles went too far by not attaching some kind of cash bond to his ruling.

In order to get out of jail, Kilpatrick must pay a $50,000 cash bond and wear an electronic tether. He won't be allowed to travel.

NCAA officials announced Thursday that the U.S. district court in Los Angeles had approved the proposal Tuesday.

As part of the deal, the NCAA will create a $10 million fund for former student-athletes, thousands of whom joined in the class-action lawsuit. Those students, who attended school between Feb. 17, 2002 and Aug. 4, 2008, have three years to file claims with the NCAA.

As part of the deal, the NCAA denied it any wrongdoing in the case and said it agreed to settle to avoid additional expenses.

A judge has disqualified a lawyer from representing a woman suing former state Sen. Gary George, saying his law firm has a potential conflict of interest.

The firm must withdraw because it employs former Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager and her deputy, who have confidential information that could be used against George, U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled.

She ordered Victor Arellano of Lawton & Cates to stop representing Delilah Tucker, who once worked in George's Capitol office.

Tucker is suing George and his former chief of staff Dan Rossmiller for violating her constitutional rights to free speech. She claims the two retaliated against her after she raised concerns about having to do personal and campaign work for the Milwaukee Democrat. She says she was ultimately fired and replaced by "a European beauty."

Brocade's special litigation committee emphasized that Sonsini, who had played controversial dual roles at Brocade as both its corporate counsel and as a board member, and his firm had maintained that they had been misled by Reyes.

The filings revealed that another reason was a $9.5 million "contribution" from Wilson Sonsini to defray legal expenses related to the scandal.

"These guys did a very thorough investigation and found it would be inappropriate to pursue a claim against the firm or any one of its lawyers," said Wilson Sonsini spokeswoman Courtney Dorman.

In its 307-page filing, the litigation committee said it would assert claims against the defendants under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO, for violations of federal law.

The new Brocade suit also targets Stephanie Jensen, Brocade's former vice president of human resources, who was also convicted of federal crimes. It also names five other former

executives and three directors on Brocade's audit committee: Neal Dempsey, Mark Leslie and Seth D. Neiman.
Reyes' attorney Richard Marmaro said it is "sad" that the Brocade committee "has chosen to denigrate the accomplishments of so many past and present employees by recklessly suggesting that at the height of its success, Brocade was used as a racketeering enterprise."

Brocade was among the first companies to come under suspicion for secretly manipulating stock options to benefit insiders, foreshadowing a national scandal that raised suspicions at more than 200 firms. The scandal prompted criminal charges, the ousters of scores of executives and billions of dollars worth of financial restatements.

Former Beaufort County Magistrate George Peter Lamb, who is white, agreed to the punishment and resigned before the order was issued. The court's order included no other details about the comment.

The justices' ruling outlined problems with Lamb that included behavior toward female employees that the high court said could have been considered inappropriate and the judge incorrectly telling a defendant at a bond hearing the penalty he could face if convicted.

Lamb's lawyer referred questions to the former judge, who did not immediately respond to telephone messages left on his cell phone and at his home.

Lamb is a lawyer who served on Beaufort County Council until 2006, when Republican Gov. Mark Sanford appointed him a part-time magistrate.

Lamb was publicly reprimanded by the state Supreme Court, which said it was the harshest punishment it could issue since he had resigned as judge. Lamb agreed to not seek any judicial position in the state without first getting written permission from the state's high court, effectively banning him from the bench.