Stoll Stoll Berne Lokting & Shlachter PC is shortening its firm name to Stoll Berne in recognition of senior partners Robert Stoll and Gary Berne.

"It's the same firm, but a simpler name," said Keith Ketterling, managing shareholder. "David Lokting and Rob Shlachter are, and will continue to be, a huge part of the heart and soul of our firm. They're not going anywhere."

Founded 30 years ago, the Portland firm specializes in complex business litigation and commercial real estate/business transactions. The firm has 10 partners and nine associates.

Tactix Real Estate Advisors kicked off the year picking up two additional major law firms in the market seeking space, continuing its dominance representing the local legal sector in lease deals.

The Radnor-based boutique brokerage is now representing an 80,000-square-foot Center City firm that it can't disclose the name of -- yet -- and Richards Layton & Finger, a Wilmington-based law firm that leases roughly 125,000 square feet at the Chase building. Tactix, which solely represents tenants, is also running around with Saul Ewing, which is in 110,000 square feet in Centre Square, which is has occupied for the past 30 years, and Fox Rothschild, which leases 90,000 square feet at 2000 Market St. Saul Ewing's lease expires in May 2010 and Fox Rothschild's at the end of next year.

In all, Tactix has wrapped up leases in its 10 years on 35 law firms. For example, in December it closed on Buchanan Ingersoll's 80,000-square-foot lease at Two Liberty Place, Hamilton Lane at One Belmont Avenue in Bala Cynwyd, and numerous deals for Fox Rothschild throughout the region and across the country. It also helped Dechert and Woodcock Washburn secure the first leases at Cira Centre in 2004, kicking off construction of the new tower.

"I think we understand law firms because a lot of us were lawyers," said Glenn Blumenfeld, who left Dechert in late 2002 to become a partner at Tactix. Judd Wambold, who formed Tactix in 1997 with Sal Ambrosio, was also an attorney at Dechert. Many of its hires have also been lawyers who left area law firms.

You can't go home again. After two federal criminal trials charging him with looting Westar Energy, David Wittig has become all too familiar with that aphorism in his six-year legal odyssey.

But if you do go home again, it seems, you should first reacquaint yourself with local legal rates, which are likely to be far less than the high prices charged on the East Coast.

That seems to be the message of he most recent legal sideshow in the Westar case, sometimes dubbed the Enron of Kansas.

First, some background: In 2002, Federal prosecutors accused Wittig and another Westar executive, Douglas Lake, of wire fraud, conspiracy, money laundering, and circumventing of internal controls in the process of "looting" Westar, an electrical utility in Topeka, Kansas.

Their first trial, in 2004, ended in a hung jury. In September 2005, the jury at their second trial convicted the men of multiple counts, but an appeals court overturned the verdicts in 2007. It also threw out many charges, saying prosecutors had failed to prove the men violated any federal regulations. Their third trial is scheduled to start on September 9.

Who has been paying Wittig's and Lake's multimillion-dollar legal bills while they have stymied their former employer all these years? Why, Westar itself. Under the company's bylaws, Wittig and Lake, as former officers, are entitled to payment of reasonable legal defense costs, at least until they are convicted of criminal wrongdoing.

Not surprisingly, Westar is getting tired of writing the checks. And so it has challenged how much it is on the hook to pay. Specifically, does "reasonable" defense costs mean reasonable for Kansas City, where Westar is based? Or reasonable for New York and Washington, D.C., where Wittig and Lake found lawyers they like?

Since 2005, Westar has fought payment of lawyers for both Wittig and Lake, suing them in separate lawsuits, claiming outrage over the high prices charged by lawyers from the East Coast — and, so far, failing miserably in each of these cases.

The Florida State University Police Department and the law firm of Brooks, LeBoeuf, Bennett, Foster & Gwartney is hosting the free "Stop DUI in 24 Hours Bike-A-Thon" from noon today to noon Sunday.

FSU PD Maj. Jim Russell invites FSU students and staff and concerned community members to grab their bikes and helmets and meet at FSU's Westcott Plaza between 10:30 a.m. and noon today to participate. According to event founder Major Jim Russell, this is the second year, the FSUPD is leading the bike-a-thon to raise awareness concerning impaired driving with a goal of reducing the number of DUI related offenses and fatalities.

A public send-off ceremony will be held at noon Saturday at Westcott Plaza; also from noon until 5 p.m. a free "safety village" will be staged on the Plaza by the fountain with entertainment and a chance to make donations of $10 per lap to individual or teams hoping to win with the most laps. Dean LeBoeuf, one of sponsoring attorneys, stressed this is not a race but a safe, escorted three-mile circuit through campus that anyone may enjoy. Cyclists may ride as much or as little as they choose during the 24-hour time period. Throughout the ride, events will be held to raise awareness concerning impaired driving, traffic safety, and drug and alcohol abuse.

The first responder and law enforcement cyclists will stop at FSU residence halls between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. to offer DUI awareness presentations. The ride will conclude with a public awards ceremony on the steps of the Westcott Building on Sunday at 1 p.m. Cyclists are asked to bring a helmet and bike with lights if they plan to ride in the dark. All riders will be provided with a free set of head and tail lights, however they must bring a set of batteries. Registration forms are available on-site or may be downloaded at the FSUPD website at www.police.fsu.edu, click on the FSUPD Stop DUI in 24 Hours logo in the right hand column. Cyclists under 18 must have a signed release from a parent or guardian or they will not be permitted to ride.

A decade-old Williamsburg estate law firm is changing its name and Web site, effective today. Williamsburg Legal Associates, founded by John Sadler and the late Joseph Abdelmour, will now be known as Williamsburg Estate Planning.

The new site is www.williamsburgestateplanning.com.

Sadler also announced that free quarterly educational planning workshops would continue, and the firm is establishing a speaker's bureau offering education on estate-planning topics.

Columbia Gas is reducing the cost of gas for its customers in March about 7 percent, dropping the average customer bill from $161.77 to $150.66. Natural gas costs in Virginia are passed on with no markup.

The utility gets a regulated profit margin on the cost of delivering gas to homes. Columbia said the price decrease was spurred by a plentiful supply of natural gas industrywide and a winter in Virginia that had been 10 percent warmer than average.

The new price applies to March, April and May.

Natural gas use is measured per hundred cubic feet, or Ccf. The average customer uses about 100 Ccf in March, then drops off to 35 Ccf in May.

The $150.66 estimate of the average bill will deviate higher or lower, depending on whether people use more or less than 100 Ccf of gas.

The peanut industry is poised for an uptick in 2008, in light of higher contracts.

The industry fell on hard times after the 2002 Farm Bill ended a federal peanut program that guaranteed high prices to some farmers.

But this year, contract prices are the highest since 2002, Dell Cotton, executive director of the Virginia Peanut Growers Association, told the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation.

Contract prices might be higher because peanut buyers are competing for acreage with wheat and soybeans, which are selling at 10-year highs.

Prices for the jumbo-sized Virginia peanut have been reported in the range of $555 a ton, compared with last year's $470, the Farm Bureau said.

The state's peanut acreage bottomed out in 2006, when only 16,000 acres were planted. In its heyday, peanuts were harvested from 164,000 acres in 1948. Last year, farmers planted 22,000 acres.

Now is too early to tell how many acres will be planted this year.

Samuel Feder, the general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission, is leaving his post of about three years to become a partner at law firm Jenner & Block. Feder, who has worked closely with Chairman Kevin Martin since coming to the FCC in 2001, will be replaced by Matthew Berry, according to release by the agency. Feder worked with Martin on radio spectrum and international policy issues.

"Sam provided exceptional legal advice on every matter we faced and also played a crucial role in policy development. I have worked with Sam since the day I became a Commissioner in 2001, and I will greatly miss his excellent judgment and wise counsel," Martin said in a release.