The state Finance Department has refused to pay the legal fees of a Montgomery law firm that was hired by a legislative oversight committee to stop the state from proceeding with an unbid $13 million computer contract.

State Comptroller Thomas White has written to House Clerk Greg Pappas saying the committee didn't have the authority to hire the firm of Thomas, Means, Gillis & Seay. White said the state can't pay the $26,740 bill submitted by the law firm

The Legislature's Contract Review Committee hired the firm to represent the panel in a lawsuit seeking to stop the unbid contract signed by Gov. Bob Riley with Paragon Source LLC. The lawsuit was dismissed by a Jefferson County judge.

Bernhard Schmid, the head of UBS AG’s legal department, left Switzerland’s biggest bank by assets to become a partner at a Zurich law firm founded by a former banker.

Schmid joined Kuoni Attorneys at Law on Feb. 1 to help the company increase its work advising banks, founding partner Wolfram Kuoni said by telephone yesterday. Schmid, who is Swiss, was one of three lawyers to share former General Counsel Peter Kurer’s workload when Kurer became chairman of the bank in 2008.

UBS paid a $780 million fine and disclosed the names of 255 account holders in February 2009 to avoid criminal prosecution in the U.S. on a charge that it helped thousands of wealthy Americans evade taxes. The bank hired Markus Diethelm from Swiss Reinsurance Co. to replace Kurer as general counsel in 2008.

Schmid is “wonderful for a firm like mine to tap into the banking market. He has an outstanding track-record,” Kuoni said in a telephone interview yesterday, adding that he wants to expand the practice’s work advising banks “one tier below” UBS and Credit Suisse Group AG, Switzerland’s biggest bank by market value.

A federal judge who rejected the government's first bid to settle civil charges against Bank of America Corp. showed little enthusiasm Monday for a new proposed settlement.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff sharply questioned the merits of the latest proposal, which calls for the company to pay $150 million to resolve allegations that it lied to shareholders at the height of the financial crisis about its pending acquisition of brokerage Merrill Lynch.

Last fall, Rakoff threw out an initial, $33-million settlement between the company and the Securities and Exchange Commission, calling it a "contrivance designed to provide the SEC with the facade of enforcement."

At a hearing Monday on whether he should approve the new proposed deal, Rakoff asked whether the SEC had been forceful enough in the case. He noted the latest proposal, like the first one, would not punish individual Bank of America executives.

The judge referred repeatedly to a lawsuit filed last week in state court by New York Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo that deals with much of the same conduct.

Cuomo's case goes further than the SEC's in seeking to punish Bank of America's former chief executive, Ken Lewis, along with another executive as well as the bank itself. Although Rakoff poked fun at the angry rhetoric in Cuomo's complaint, the judge said it put forth "a great many allegations that seem far more suggestive of potential fraud than anything presented by the SEC."

"Weren't you operating from the same evidence?" Rakoff asked the SEC's lawyer.

The SEC initially accused Bank of America of lying to shareholders about its plan to pay billions of dollars in bonuses to Merrill Lynch employees after its acquisition of the brokerage was completed. More recently, the SEC also alleged that the Charlotte, N.C., banking giant did not disclose the size of Merrill's losses before a shareholder vote on the acquisition.

Cuomo last week said that his new case was working in concert with the SEC, which announced its settlement minutes before Cuomo announced his lawsuit. But rifts between Cuomo and the SEC were clear Monday, particularly regarding Cuomo's allegation that Bank of America fired a lawyer because he questioned the withholding of information from shareholders.

Samsung Electronics will pay Rambus Inc. $700 million over five years, and invest another $200 million in the chip design company as part of a settlement ending their legal disputes, the two companies said Tuesday.

Samsung will make an upfront payment of $200 million, and a quarterly payment of about $25 million for the next five years as part of the agreement, the companies said. Samsung also will invest $200 million in Rambus stock.

Under the agreement, Samsung also will license Rambus' patent portfolio "covering all Samsung semiconductor products, including a perpetual fully-paid license to certain DRAM products," the companies said in a release.

A South Dakota woman who prosecutors say had a blood-alcohol level almost nine times the legal driving limit has pleaded guilty to two drunken driving charges. Authorities said 45-year-old Marguerite Engle was arrested Dec. 1 when she was found passed out behind the wheel of a stolen delivery van along Interstate 90, with a blood alcohol level at 0.708. The legal limit in South Dakota is 0.08. Officials have said Engle's blood alcohol level likely is a record for the state.

She was arrested again in late December, with a blood alcohol level more than 3 1/2 times the legal limit.

Engle faces up to two years in jail when she is sentenced on Feb. 23. In exchange for her guilty pleas, prosecutors have agreed not to pursue other charges, including receiving stolen property and drug possession.

A former Federal Trade Commission chairwoman will become the chief legal officer at Procter & Gamble Co.

The consumer products maker says Deborah Platt Majoras, who joined P&G two years ago, will succeed Steven Jemison on Feb. 1.

P&G says the 58-year-old Jemison will retire Sept. 30 after 29 years at the company.

The 46-year-old Majoras has been with the Cincinnati company for two years and moves up from senior vice president and general counsel.

During Majoras' 2004-2008 tenure at the FTC, the agency approved P&G's $57 billion 2005 acquisition of Gillette provided the companies sold some overlapping products.

P&G's chief legal officer handles litigation including patent and trade issues, regulatory compliance, and labor law.