Solicitor General Paul Clement plans to leave his post June 2 — a few weeks before the nation's highest court adjourns for its summer break.

Clement has been the government's chief court advocate for Bush administration policies surrounding the war on terror, including detaining enemy combatants. The government also won several landmark cases that Clement argued, such as banning late-term abortions and letting Congress prohibit the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

A Justice Department official said Clement did not have any immediate plans other than spending the summer with his children.

A high-profile law firm with an office in Charlotte has merged with a leading financial services law firm, partners announced Monday.

Atlanta-based Kilpatrick Stockton, which has 500 attorneys in nine offices worldwide, combined with the smaller Washington, D.C., firm Muldoon Murphy & Aguggia.

The merger became effective last week, and the new firm will be known as Kilpatrick Stockton.

The combination brings together some of the nation's leading attorneys representing financial institutions and businesses in various industries, partners said.

The White House announced Thursday that Bush had nominated Glen E. Conrad to the Richmond, Va.-based appeals court, which has handled some of the country's biggest terrorism cases.

Conrad has been a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia since 2003.

If confirmed by the Senate, Conrad would fill the seat of H. Emory Widener Jr., who died last year.

Conrad, 58, a native of Radford, Va., is a 1974 graduate of the College of William and Mary and the Marshall Wythe School of Law. From 1976 to 2003, Conrad was a federal magistrate judge in the Western District of Virginia's Abingdon, Charlottesville and Roanoke divisions.

An Albany, N.Y., attorney investigated by the state for allegedly exaggerating his time sheets has stepped down from his post at Girvin & Ferlazzo P.C.

James McCarthy resigned from his "of counsel" position at the Albany law firm on the afternoon of May 2, according to a spokesman with Sawchuk Brown Associates, which is representing the law firm.

Generally, attorneys "of counsel" are part-time workers who are not partners or associates. McCarthy had been with the firm since 1992 and never earned a salary, according to the Sawchuk Brown spokesman.

Earlier on May 2, McCarthy resigned from his job with the state Department of Correctional Services after the state inspector general published a report saying that McCarthy exaggerated his time sheets and was often either at Girvin & Ferlazzo or at Wolferts Roost Country Club in Albany when he was allegedly on the clock.

McCarthy was in charge of preparing and processing paperwork for extraditions and renditions of fugitives or accused criminals. It was a part-time job, meaning he was supposed to work 18.75 hours per week, earning $60,867 a year.

In the resignation letter to the state, McCarthy said he stepped down "so as not to be a distraction" to the state corrections department.

"There are no shortage of opportunities for him. His talent as a lawyer allows him to walk away from those jobs with some confidence," said Karl Sleight, an attorney with Harris Beach PLLC and McCarthy's lawyer.

State investigators studied 12 weeks of McCarthy's work over the course of 2007. During those weeks, McCarthy was paid $6,000 for hours that he never logged, according to the inspector general's report.

On his time sheets, he claimed more than twice the hours that he actually worked, adding 120 hours of work onto the 98 hours he actually logged, the report said.

Torkelsen, who is in federal custody awaiting sentencing on an unrelated case, pleaded guilty to one count of perjury in connection with a 1999 declaration to a San Jose federal court, according to U.S. prosecutors in Philadelphia. He faces up to five years in prison on the charge, and is set to be sentenced on Aug. 5. An attorney for Torkelsen was not immediately available for comment.

Prosecutors said the law firms told courts and class members that Torkelsen was being paid as an independent expert but secretly paid him a share of the proceeds of the cases.

The offices of big-name law firms typically reflect a conservative corporate culture, right down to the traditional mahogany trim in partner suites.

But at the new offices of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge in Hartford, there won't be a bit of hardwood from endangered rain forests in sight.

The firm hopes it will become the first law firm in Connecticut to earn LEED certification for its effort to outfit its new quarters in the 20 Church St. tower in downtown Hartford with the latest green technology.

The firm is spending $4 million to renovate and furnish 28,000 square feet, most of it on the 20th floor of the 23-story structure informally known as the Stilts Building.