The case in U.S. District Court in Detroit stems from an accounting scandal at Delphi that led to the company restating financial results going back several years in June 2005, the law firms said. Deloitte was Delphi's outside auditor.

The plaintiffs, who were seeking to represent investors who bought Delphi securities from March 7, 2000 to March 3, 2005, sued Delphi, some company officials, Deloitte and certain other entities, the law firms said.

Most of the defendants, including Delphi, have already agreed to settle the case, said Stuart Grant, lawyer for one of the law firms representing plaintiffs in the case.

The value of the settlement with Delphi is about $204 million, with plaintiffs expecting to be paid in the company's common stock and warrants once it emerges from bankruptcy, Grant said.

Delphi, formerly a unit of General Motors Corp, filed for bankruptcy in October 2005 and plans to emerge from Chapter 11 in the first quarter of 2008.

Besides Grant's law firm Grant & Eisenhofer, other firms representing the plaintiffs are Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann; Schiffrin Barroway Topaz & Kessler; and Nix, Patterson & Roach.

The settlement agreements need to be approved by U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen, the law firms said.

A Washington, D.C., tax corruption case that has resulted in tens of millions of dollars being stolen from D.C. government coffers now allegedly involves an IRS manager who is said to have been involved in the fraud scheme.

Robert Steven and his wife, Patricia Steven, were arrested in Maryland Thursday and charged with receiving stolen property and aiding and abetting in the fraud.

According to an affidavit prepared by FBI Agent Matthew Walsh, Robert Steven had an apparent affinity for Jaguars, saying, "Records obtained from a local automobile dealership indicate that between 2003 and the present, Robert O. Steven purchased four Jaguar automobiles for a total of $257,866, the most recent being a 2007 Jaguar convertible for $96,770.95."

The affidavit also notes that Steven worked as a division director for the Modernization Information Technology Systems at the IRS and had an annual salary of $143,471.

The case came to light when a bank employee tipped off the FBI to an alleged scheme run by Harriette Walters, a manager at the D.C. Real Property Tax Administration Adjustments unit and Diane Gustus at the D.C. Office of Tax Revenue.

The pair allegedly approved and issued fraudulent property tax refund checks that averaged $388,000 per check. Investigators say the funds were used to buy luxury goods, including jewelry, homes and clothing.

According to affidavits filed in the case, Walter's annual salary as a District of Columbia employee was $81,000, but from September 2000 to the present, she is said to have spent more than $1.4 million at Neiman Marcus.

Court records and an affidavit filed in the case allege that 11 checks totaling almost $2.8 million were issued and deposited into a bank account held and used by Robert and Patricia Steven. The documents claim that a check authorized by Walters on June 30, 2006, for the sum of $490,000 was deposited into the Steven's bank account July 10, 2006.

"Agents and prosecutors in Washington, D.C., and Maryland are working diligently to trace every dollar that was stolen from the D.C. Tax Office. My advice to anyone who profited from this scheme is to call the FBI today, and don't wait for us to contact you," said Rod Rosenstein, U.S. attorney for Maryland.

The case has been prosecuted by the U.S. Attorneys for Maryland and District of Columbia working with agents from the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation. Court documents filed in November revealed that in addition to allegedly spending more than $1.4 million at Neimen Marcus, Walters also purchased several properties, including a $420,000 house in Washington and two homes in New Jersey.

The New Jersey homes include a $389,000 home in Washington and a $855,000 property in Bridgeport purchased by Walters.

One of Texas' most well-known legal recruiting firms has been acquired by a Florida company. Prescott Legal -- the 26-year-old Houston legal staffing firm that has placed more than 500 attorneys in Houston, Austin and Dallas in the last five years -- was acquired by Jacksonville, Fla.-based Special Counsel Inc., the legal staffing division of MPS Group, for an undisclosed sum.

"Lauren and I are very pleased to be able to position Prescott with a national leader in legal staffing services," said Larry Prescott, who founded Prescott alongside his wife, Lauren. "Lauren and I are excited about Prescott's working with Special Counsel both here in Texas and across the country."

According to a Special Counsel release, Prescott has received the highest ratings in two national employer surveys in American Lawyer magazine -- the only Texas firm to do so.

"As a life-long resident of Texas, I know that together, Special Counsel and Prescott will be able to offer our client unparalleled search and temporary placement services," said David Maldonado, senior vice president of Special Counsel.

A law firm took the blame Monday for two Open Meetings Act violations during a Campton Hills Electoral Board hearing that dashed one man's bid for office.

Attorney Bill Braithwaite of Arnstein & Lehr LLC said board members should not have been advised to deliberate in private at the Dec. 10 hearing. An attorney for the firm, Donna McDonald, also failed to make sure the closed-doors deliberations were recorded, he said.

"It was not a good night," Braithwaite said. "We are fully responsible."

In an effort to set the record straight, the board plans to reconvene at 6 tonight at Campton Community Center, 5N082 Old LaFox Road, for the sole purpose of deliberating in public.

Last week's hearing centered on objections to election filings of village president candidate Robert Young and village clerk contender Carolyn Higgins. It resulted in Young being kicked off the Feb. 5 ballot.

At the hearing, the board deliberated privately in a back room, upon the advice of McDonald, then returned to public session to vote.

It wasn't until resident Robert Skidmore Jr. filed a complaint Dec. 11 with the Illinois attorney general that officials acknowledged state statute prohibits electoral boards from meeting in private. Municipalities also are required to keep verbatim records of closed-doors discussions.

Skidmore also alleged that Village President Patsy Smith, who agreed to not participate in the hearing because she is running for office, went into the closed session. But Smith and other officials said that didn't happen.

Founded in 1893, Arnstein & Lehr LLC has offices in Chicago and Hoffman Estates. The firm specializes in five areas of law, including local government, according to its Web site.

Texas law firm Hughes & Luce LLP will merge with international law firm Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis LLP.

Partners at both firms today voted to merge the two firms, creating a law firm of more than 1,500 lawyers in 23 offices located throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. Dallas-based Hughes and Luce has 150 lawyers across its offices in Austin, Dallas and Fort Worth.

The merger will be effective Jan. 1, 2008.

"Partners of both firms believe that K&L Gates will serve Texas businesses as a legal bridge to the globalized economy of the 21st century, just as it has in other parts of the United States, Europe and Asia," says Peter Kalis, K&L Gates' chairman and global managing partner and Edward Coultas, Hughes & Luce's managing partner.

The combined full-service firm will be called Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis LLP and will have offices in Anchorage, Austin, Beijing, Berlin, Boston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Harrisburg, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, New York, Orange County, Palo Alto, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Spokane/Coeur d'Alene, Taipei and Washington, D.C.