Former U.S. senator and University of Colorado president Hank Brown is joining the Denver law firm of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck as senior counsel.

Brown will work in strategy and development for the firm in banking, water, natural resources and public affairs.

"Joining Brownstein represents my career coming full circle," Brown said. "Norm Brownstein, Steve Farber and I have been friends since our days at the University of Colorado more than 40 years ago.

"While our paths have crossed throughout the years, we have had limited opportunities to work together. I look forward to being a part of the firm that they have built into one of the West's most influential and respected law firms."

Brown served from 2005 until this year as president of CU.

He spent six years as a Republican in the U.S. Senate and five consecutive terms in the U.S. House representing Colorado's 4th Congressional District during the 1980s and '90s.

Brown also was president of the University of Northern Colorado and president of the Daniels Fund.

"Brown possesses an unbeatable combination of vast experience and exceptional ability," said Brownstein, founding partner and chairman of the firm. "We are proud to add such a notable member of the Denver community to the firm."

A co-founder of the Deters, Benzinger & LaVelle law firm, Charlie Deters, is retiring and withdrawing from the firm, according to a Wednesday announcement.

Deters' name will no longer be associated with the Crestview Hills-based law firm, according to a news release from Deters and his family. Three sons who formerly were members of the firm have left over the past decade to start their own practices - Eric Deters in 1998, and Jed and Jeremy Deters in 2007.

A graduate of Covington Latin School, Villa Madonna Academy (now Thomas More College) and the University of Cincinnati College of Law, Deters, 78, has practiced law for 53 years. He joined Dressman, Dunn and Deters in 1955 as a partner, then joined with Gerald Benzinger and the late Jack LaVelle to form Deters Benzinger.

Deters remains chairman of the Deters Co., which owns several fast-food and convenience store franchises, and is the controlling owner of the Farmers National Bank, which has four offices in Northern Kentucky, and the Independent Bank of Ocala, in Florida. Deters also operates two thoroughbred horse farms, in Walton, where he resides, and in Ocala, Fla.

Deters Benzinger is the largest Northern Kentucky-based law firm, and the 15th largest in the Tri-State, with 34 attorneys, according to Courier research. The firm also has a downtown Cincinnati office in the Carew Tower.

A Virginia Supreme Court justice is President Bush's pick to fill one of several vacancies on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, widely considered the most conservative federal appellate bench in the nation.

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

If confirmed by the Senate, Agee would fill the seat of J. Michael Luttig, who resigned in 2006.

"Justice Agee is an experienced attorney, dedicated public servant and respected judge," White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore said.

Bush wants the Senate to consider Agee's nomination swiftly because heavy caseloads and the duration of vacancies have created a "judicial emergency" at the 4th Circuit, she said.

Five of the 15 seats on the court are vacant. Agee was one of several people that Sens. John Warner, R-Va., and Jim Webb, D-Va., recommended to Bush after conducting a search of their own.

Confirmation of Bush's judicial nominees has caused friction between the Senate and the White House for years.

"Bush has a history of not consulting home-state senators or seeking consensus nominees, so Agee's nomination is a healthy sign," said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond. "Bush should consult more often and select consensus nominees."

Tobias said it's unclear, however, whether there will be time for Bush's nominee to be confirmed. Judicial nominees must go through security checks, American Bar Association evaluations and Senate hearings and votes.

Typically, "appointments slow down in an election year and stop after the (political) conventions," Tobias said. "If the Virginia senators push, Agee could be confirmed, though he would have to move ahead of a number in the queue."

Bush has accused the Senate of dragging its feet on his judicial nominees.

The White House says there are 11 circuit court nominees awaiting Senate confirmation. The current Congress has confirmed only six circuit court judges while the Senate has confirmed an average of 17 circuit court judges in the final two years of the past three administrations, according to the White House.

Agee, 55, a native of Roanoke, Va., was an associate and partner in several private law firms before becoming a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, a position he held from 1982 to 1994. From 2001 to 2003, he was a judge on the Virginia Court of Appeals and since 2003 has been a justice on the Virginia Supreme Court.

Agee, who is married with one child, is a graduate of the University of Virginia and New York University schools of law.

Carol A. Hyde, a founding partner of Iseman, Cunningham, Riester & Hyde, LLP, a law firm with offices in Poughkeepsie and Albany, was elected the firm’s first managing partner at the partners’ annual planning retreat held in January.

The firm was formerly managed by a three-person executive committee.
Hyde practices in the areas of health care and business transactions.

A native of Michigan, Hyde earned her general studies degree from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and graduated magna cum laude from Albany Law School of Union University, where she was co-valedictorian of her class.

The Defense Department's longest-serving general counsel, who has been criticized for his role in crafting Bush administration policies for detaining and trying suspected terrorists, is resigning to return to private life next month, the Pentagon said Monday.

William J. Haynes II was confirmed as general counsel by the Senate in May 2001. He had discussed leaving the administration some months ago and has decided to accept an offer to work in the private sector, Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia O. Smith said.

"I am sorry to see Jim leave the Pentagon," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in a statement. "I have valued his legal advice and enjoyed working with him."

Daniel J. Dell'Orto, the Defense Department's principal deputy general counsel since June 2000, will serve as acting general counsel, the Pentagon said.

In 2006, President Bush nominated Haynes for a seat on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, Va. The nomination was withdrawn in January 2007 when it appeared that the Senate's new Democratic majority would not confirm Haynes.

A group of retired military officers opposing Bush's position on the treatment of detainees had urged lawmakers to block Haynes' appointment to the court. They contended that his role in establishing detention and interrogation policies led to abuses at the detention facility at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and called into question the military's commitment to the rule of law.

Within months of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Haynes led a tour of military attorneys to Guantanamo as he worked on plans for military tribunals for prisoners captured in the war in Afghanistan. At the time a Pentagon spokeswoman referred to "charting completely new territory" in deciding how to deal with detainees.

Haynes' replacement, Dell'Orto, has defended the military tribunal system in appearances before Congress, saying the rules governing the tribunals "afford all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized people."

In response to allegations that the Bush administration had authorized torture against some prisoners, the White House released in 2004 a series of documents. In a Pentagon memo, dated Nov. 27, 2002, Haynes recommended that then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld approve the use of 14 interrogation techniques on detainees at Guantanamo, such as yelling at a prisoner during questioning and using "stress positions," like standing, for up to four hours.

In a handwritten note, Rumsfeld responded: "However, I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to 4 hours." He later rescinded his approval and ordered a review of issues relating to interrogations of terrorism suspects.

Air Force Col. Morris Davis, the former chief military prosecutor at Guantanamo, who now heads the Air Force judiciary, welcomed Haynes' departure.

"I hope it will open the door for some positive change in the military commissions, but there are a couple of others still standing in the way," said Davis, who resigned as lead prosecutor of the Guantanamo detainees in October over alleged political interference in the U.S. military tribunals. "At least the odds are very good that whoever takes his place will have a more collegial and less contemptuous relationship with the uniformed judge advocates."

Davis last week said he would be a defense witness for Salim Ahmed Hamdan, the driver of terror leader Osama bin Laden. Davis called it "an opportunity to tell the truth."

At Hamdan's April pretrial hearing at Guantanamo, his defense team plans to argue that alleged political interference cited by Davis violates the Military Commissions Act, Hamdan's military lawyer, Navy Lt. Brian Mizer, has said.

Norman Bobins, the former longtime leader of LaSalle Bank, has moved onto his next gig as the head of a new namesake consulting firm.

Norman Bobins Consultants LLC will work in alliance with DLA Piper to help expand the law firm's presence in the financial-services industry and serve as a resource to the firm's clients.

Bobins previously served as chairman and chief executive of LaSalle, which had been Chicago's No. 2 bank in deposit market share, and head of North American businesses for ABN Amro, LaSalle's Dutch owner.

He retired in December after a 40-year banking career and remains chairman emeritus of LaSalle, which on Oct. 1 was acquired by Bank of America Corp. in a deal that created Chicago's biggest bank.

The DiLeone Law Group, P.C., a Raleigh-based law firm concentrating in business, corporate and estate planning matters for U.S. and international clients, has announced that Ralph DiLeone, the firm’s managing partner, has been sworn in and officially admitted as a member of the United States Supreme Court. DiLeone was sworn in and received by the Supreme Court on Nov. 13, 2007 in Washington, D.C.

DiLeone has been practicing law since 1984. Prior to establishing The DiLeone Law Group, P.C., he served as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary for Swifty Serve Corporation, Senior Vice President and General Counsel for Hardee’s Food Systems, Inc., was an attorney for Manning, Fulton & Skinner PA in Raleigh, NC, and Mcdonald, Hopkins, Burke, and Haber Co. LPA, and Calfee, Halter and Guswold, LLP in Cleveland, Ohio. Active in civic and charitable organizations, he is serving on the membership council for Capital City Club, the advisory council to the Assistance League of Raleigh and the advisory boards for several companies. DiLeone obtained his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Case Western Reserve University in 1977 and received his Juris Doctor cum laude from the University Of Toledo College Of Law in 1984. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, he resides in Raleigh with his wife, Bonnie, and their son, Daniel.

“My admission to the Supreme Court was an amazing moment in my life and legal career,” said DiLeone. “It is an achievement that all lawyers aspire to, and I am very proud of reaching this milestone. Being in the presence of seven of the nine Justices was incredibly humbling.”