In a big victory for the cycling star and his peloton of lawyers from Keker & Van Nest, Patton Boggs, and Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton, the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles announced late Friday that it has closed a two-year criminal probe into the seven-time Tour de France winner and members of his former U.S. Postal Service team without bringing charges against the targets.

League tables for 2011 showed that M&A and transactional work continued to stay hot in the energy, mining, power, and utility sectors. The trend has continued into 2012 as lawyers from Covington, Cravath, Debevoise, Dykema, Gibson Dunn, Hogan Lovells, Miller Canfield, Simpson Thacher, Vinson & Elkins, and two Magic Circle firms are advising on the latest round of big deals in the natural resources industry.

After seeing revenues and profits slip in 2010, the firm enjoyed moderate growth in 2011, with all financial metrics ahead of where they were in 2009, according to The American Lawyer's reporting.

Siddiqui led the Hogan Lovells team advising ExxonMobil in the sale of nearly all of its Japanese refining and marketing business to TonenGeneral Sekiyu for $3.9 billion, which also reduces the oil and gas giant's own stake in TonenGeneral.

Two Oneida Indian Nation employees can continue to press their case against a Rochester-area county attorney over allegedly improper payments he received via Nixon Peabody for state-funded work he and the firm did involving an upstate land dispute, a New York state judge has ruled.

News rounding, including more juicy tidbits on that Edwards Wildman partnership lawsuit.

Top lawyers from the Justice Department's criminal division head to Davis Polk and Seward & Kissel; four firms bulk up in London; and K&L Gates ventures to Milan. The Churn is constant. Please send all announcements to thechurn@alm.com.

The 1,100-lawyer St. Louis–based firm--which absorbed Denver-based Holme Roberts & Owen on January 1--saw steady growth across all financial categories in 2011 and nearly achieved a double-digit bump in profits per equity partner for the second straight year, according to The American Lawyer's reporting.

Senior arbitrator José María Alonso Puig, who served as managing partner of Spanish giant Garrigues from 2000 until 2009, will join Baker's Madrid office on March 1.

In recording its greatest employment gains since July 2011, the industry nearly makes up for all of its December job losses.