The numbers were marginally better for Hispanic lawyers. Four of them argued for a total of 1 hour, 45 minutes.

Women were better represented, accounting for just over 17 percent of the arguments before the justices.

In an era when three women, a Hispanic and an African-American sit on the court and white men constitute a bare majority of the nine justices, the court is more diverse than the lawyers who argue before it.

The arguments that took place from October to April were presented overwhelmingly by white men. Women and minority lawyers whose clients' cases were heard by the court were far more likely to represent governments or be part of public-interest law firms than in private practice, where paychecks are much larger.

The numbers generally reflect the largely white and male upper reaches of the biggest and richest private law firms, where there have been small gains by women and minorities in the past 20 years. A recent survey by the Association for Legal Career Professionals found that more than 93 percent of partners in law firms are white and nearly 80 percent are men.

The statistics from the court term, though, also reveal a lack of African-American and Hispanic lawyers in the elite Justice Department unit that represents the federal government at the Supreme Court.

The top supervisory positions in the Office of the Solicitor General all are held by men, though there are six women in the office who argued high court cases this term.

The office serves as a pipeline to the big firms that dominate the argument calendar at the court. Lawyers in the office make several arguments a term and acquire the experience and ease of standing before the justices that make them attractive to private firms.

The first woman on the court, Sandra Day O'Connor, touched on the importance of diversity at the court in a tribute to the first African-American justice, Thurgood Marshall. O'Connor said Marshall "imparted not only his legal acumen but also his life experiences, constantly pushing and prodding us to respond not only to the persuasiveness of legal argument but also to the power of moral truth."

The justices also benefit from seeing lawyers who don't all look and sound the same, said Alan Jenkins, an African-American former Justice Department lawyer who argued four cases at the Supreme Court. "It's especially true of people who appear before the Supreme Court because the court, as an institution, is intentionally set apart from the day-to-day life of the nation," said Jenkins, executive director of the not-for-profit The Opportunity Agenda in New York.

The only minority group that could be said to be overrepresented was lawyers of Asian heritage. Seven men three in private practice, Deputy Solicitor General Sri Srinivasan and two others at the Justice Department and a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union made 17 arguments to the court. There has never been an Asian-American justice.

In cases before the Supreme Court, there are at least two and sometimes more parties who are granted time to argue their positions. In the current term, the justices heard 193 separate presentations.

When Debo Adegbile stepped to the lectern in defense of a landmark voting rights law in February, he was the first and as it turned out, the only African-American to make a high court argument this term.

Adegbile until recently worked for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the famed public-interest law firm that mounted generations of civil rights challenges, including the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case that outlawed official segregation in public schools.

Before he became a justice, Marshall was the organization's top lawyer and argued several high court cases.

Adegbile represented six African-American residents of Shelby county, Ala., which is challenging a key provision of federal voting rights law. Following Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr.'s more legalistic presentation, Adegbile pointed to recent examples of intentional voting discrimination in the South to highlight the ongoing need for the measure.

"This statute is in part about our march through history to keep promises that our Constitution says for too long were unmet," he said.

Voting rights was the second of two high-profile cases about race at the court this term.

In the first, three white men made the arguments when the justices considered the fate of the University of Texas program that takes account of race in admissions.

Civil rights cases have historically given minority lawyers the greatest chance to argue before the court, but those cases have been in decline for some time at the Supreme Court.

"The more problematic question is, why is civil rights litigation one of the few pathways available to African-American litigators when clearly they have distinguished themselves?" Jenkins said.

Women in the legal profession have faced a similar problem, but lately have had more opportunities.

Lisa Blatt of the Arnold and Porter law firm in Washington has written that over the years most women arguing at the court have been public-interest lawyers, public defenders or government attorneys. "Translation: women are doing the same work but for less pay," she wrote in the Green Bag, a legal journal.

This term, Blatt made three arguments, the only woman in private practice to make more than one. There were 10 men in private practice with multiple arguments.

"This is a problem of today but not tomorrow," Blatt said, referring to the many women who are gaining experience representing the government at the court. She said some of them will enter private practice, as she did after many years in the Justice Department.

___

Follow Mark Sherman on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/shermancourt

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) said on Friday that Palin, who turns 70 this month, would be presented with an Academy Fellowship at the organization's annual TV awards ceremony on May 12.

BAFTA Chairman John Willis said the award recognized the contribution Palin had made to the industry over five decades.

"(His) amiable onscreen manner belies the seriousness of his craft," Willis said in a statement.

Palin started out writing television series and wrote and starred in some of Monty Python's best-known sketches including "Dead Parrot" and "The Lumberjack Song".

He won a BAFTA best supporting actor award for the 1988 comedy film "A Fish Called Wanda".

But from the late 1980s he turned his attention to travel documentaries, appearing in "Around the World in 80 Days", "Pole to Pole", and, most recently, "Brazil with Michael Palin".

Palin said it was a "very high honor" for anyone working in television to be awarded a BAFTA Fellowship.

"I'm well aware that any success I've had is down to team work. I've been blessed throughout my career with the inspiration and support of others," he said.

(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith; Editing by Louise Ireland)

By Ian Ransom

MELBOURNE, May 12 (Reuters) - Quade Cooper's chances of playing flyhalf for Australia against the touring British and Irish Lions look to have strengthened following a polished display for Super Rugby's Queensland Reds, while injury and discipline doubts hang over his two main rivals for the number 10 shirt.

Wallabies coach Robbie Deans will name his first 25-man squad for the Lions series next weekend and may find it hard to exclude the mercurial 25-year-old, who had a hand in all four of the Reds' tries in a 32-17 win over the Durban-based Sharks on Friday.

Last year, Cooper slammed Deans's tactics in a Twitter tirade and said he would never play for the Wallabies again unless the 'toxic' environment surrounding the team was changed.

A contrite Cooper later issued a public apology and re-committed himself to Australian rugby, and has since let his rugby do the talking with the Reds where he forms an exciting combination with incumbent Wallabies scrumhalf Will Genia.

"My thoughts are that the fundamentals of Cooper's game are in much better shape than they've ever been," former Wallabiescoach Bob Dwyer, who secured Australia their first World Cup triumph in 1991, told Reuters.

"His catch and pass and straight running and kicking, if they're in good shape, then I think we'll have to have a good choice to go past him."

Cooper's stock has risen further as fellow contenders for the playmaker position suffered setbacks in recent days.

Utility back James O'Connor sustained a sternum injury in the Melbourne Rebels' loss at the Blues on Saturday and although Sunday's scans revealed no fracture, he is likely to spend up to two weeks on the sidelines, his club said.

'LEAGUE, AFL OR BALLET'

The future of Kurtley Beale, the third member of the Wallabies' so-called 'Three Amigos', remains in limbo after another disciplinary breach under the Rebels' watch.

The 24-year-old missed more than a month of Super Rugby after being stood down for punching two of his team mates while on tour in South Africa and was suspended again last week for the Rebels' match over the weekend for another transgression.

Beale broke a no-alcohol rule imposed by team management last weekend and can expect further sanctions when the Australian Rugby Union meets with the Rebels and the players' association this week.

"This must absolutely be Beale's final chance in rugby. One more misdemeanour and he should be kicked out," former Wallabies hooker and television pundit Brendan Cannon fumed in a column on News Ltd websites on Sunday.

"I don't care if he goes to rugby league, AFL or the ballet."

Doubts over O'Connor and Beale could also open the door for 'forgotten man' Berrick Barnes, who returned from injury off the bench for the New South Wales Waratahs in their 21-15 home victory over South Africa's Stormers on Saturday.

While Barnes has at times been fourth-in-line for the flyhalf position, Deans may remember the 26-year-old's strong performance in the number 10 shirt last year when he helped Australia whitewash Wales 3-0 in a hotly contested series.

Barnes laid off the pass that set up code-hopper Israel Folau's late try against the Stormers, then converted it and kicked a penalty from halfway to secure the victory.

The bulky Folau's match-winning try may move him a step closer to a fairytale entry into the national side after playing only half a season of top-flight rugby.

Though the Wallabies do not lack classy backs, the rugby league and Australian Rules football convert's poise and explosive pace in his first year of Super Rugby has helped put the Waratahs into playoffs contention.

Another eye-catching performance against the Canberra-based ACT Brumbies on Saturday could force Deans's hand to produce a gold jersey for the 24-year-old Folau.

The Wallabies play the first of three tests against the Lions in Brisbane on June 22. (Editing by Peter Rutherford)

BARCELONA, May 9 (Reuters) - Pastor Maldonado has put his faith in Williams to provide him with a winning car and silence those who fear he could be destined to join the ranks of one-hit wonders.

A year on from his Spanish Grand Prix victory, the Venezuelan returned to the Circuit de Catalunya on Thursday with fighting talk despite his team's failure to score a point in four races so far this season.

The possibility that last year's stunning success could ultimately prove to be a Formula One flash in the pan was not something he wanted to contemplate.

Even if Sunday looked a step too far, Maldonado refused to rule out returning to the top of the podium before the end of the season.

"If we won last year, why not this year again?" he asked reporters. "We have all the tools to win again. That's my opinion. The team is very strong."

Maldonado's win last year, from pole position, was Williams's first in nearly eight years and made him the first Venezuelan to win a grand prix.

The trophy, rescued from a fire that swept the team's garage as they celebrated the victory, now has pride of place in the driver's home in Venezuela but it could be a long wait before more silverware joins it.

Williams scored 76 points in 2012, finishing eighth, and talked of challenging for at least fifth this year before the car's aerodynamic weaknesses became apparent in pre-season testing at the same Circuit de Catalunya.

So far this season the winners of nine constructors' titles and seven drivers' crowns have been mixing it with the backmarkers.

NEW KIT

Maldonado hoped that a corner had been turned, with a recent straight-line aerodynamics test indicating possible solutions.

"It's going to be difficult this time (in Spain) but we've been working hard these couple of weeks," he said.

"We've done a new aero kit for this race and hopefully it should work. And we have an extensive development programme for the car over the next couple of races as well.

"We have done a real comparison between track and wind tunnel and its clear where the problems are at the moment. We are not that far away," added the Venezuelan.

The challenge was putting it all together.

"The potential of the car is there. The base is last year's car," he said. "I think we got lost for whatever reason but we have good data, we have good drivers, a good team. There is no reason to be where we have been in the previous four races."

Maldonado's win in Spain last year was a deserved one, albeit helped by Lewis Hamilton's demotion from pole for a fuel irregularity in his McLaren, with the Venezuelan lining up on the front row alongside Fernando Alonso's Ferrari.

Beating the Spaniard in front of a home crowd took determination but the Williams hit a sweet spot in ideal conditions and at a time when racing was particularly unpredictable.

There were seven different winners of the first seven races, whereas this year Red Bull's triple world champion Sebastian Vettel has already won two of the four.

"We have a new goal this year. The car is what we have," said Maldonado.

"We are not expecting any miracle. We need to work very hard, even more than the other teams just to try to shorten the distance.

"This is a different history. We need to accept where we are, too accept the situation and try to do our best to come out of these problems." (Editing by John Mehaffey)

* Sharapova through against Lisicki (Adds results, byline)

By Iain Rogers

MADRID, May 9 (Reuters) - A laid-back Serena Williams breezed into the Madrid Open quarter-finals on Thursday when she barely broke sweat in a 6-3 6-1 destruction of Maria Kirilenko.

The world number one and top seed, defending champion at the premier clay event in the Spanish capital, needed just over an hour to dismiss the 13th-seeded Russian and set up a last-eight meeting with Spanish wildcard Anabel Medina Garrigues.

"I just felt really relaxed today," Williams told a news conference. "I felt like I was just taking my time. So hopefully I can keep calm and relaxed."

Williams, 31, chasing a fourth title of the year and the 50th of her career, was joined in the quarter-finals by second seed Maria Sharapova who knocked out unseeded German Sabine Lisicki 6-2 7-5.

The Russian world number two and French Open champion will play Kaia Kanepi for a place in the last four after the unseeded Estonian beat Slovakian wildcard Daniela Hantuchova 6-3 6-4.

Medina Garrigues, a former world number 16 now ranked 63rd, went through on Wednesday after her opponent Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan withdrew with an arm injury.

"She's definitely going to be really tough for me," Williams said of the Spaniard. "She's a grinder on clay and she's Spanish. I know a lot of fans really like her here."

After her comfortable win over Lisicki, Sharapova reflected on how much she has improved on clay in recent years.

The 26-year-old's triumph at Roland Garros in 2012 made her only the sixth woman in the open era to win all four grand slam singles titles.

"It took me many years to get to the level of where I am today (on clay), it certainly didn't happen overnight," she said.

"I worked extremely hard on getting stronger and recovering better, moving better on the court, giving myself a better position on the court, especially after being on the defensive and trying to play aggressively as I always do on quicker surfaces.

"But just give myself that chance to recover. I think I've learned a lot and over the years and I've really improved."

The other two quarter-finals feature Italian seventh seed Sara Errani against unseeded Russian Ekaterina Makarova and sixth seed Angelique Kerber of Germany against Serbian 16th seed Ana Ivanovic. (Editing by John Mehaffey)

The deputy solicitor of the Municipal Court of Atlanta, Ronda Graham, said in a statement on Thursday that "the pending criminal matters against Ms. Reese Witherspoon and Mr. Jim Toth have been resolved."

Toth, 42, entered a guilty plea to drunk driving and received a $600 fine. He must also complete 40 hours of community service.

In a video of the arrest posted on the celebrity website TMZ, Witherspoon is shown accusing the state trooper who arrested her of harassment.

"Do you know my name?" she asks. "You're about to find out who I am."

The video was viewed more than 120,000 times on YouTube by Friday afternoon, and was picked up by other media outlets.

Witherspoon, who won a best actress Oscar for her portrayal of the country singer June Carter Cash in "Walk the Line," apologized for her actions in an interview on the "Good Morning America" television show on Thursday.

She said she panicked after Toth was arrested and had told the officer "crazy things" after having too many glasses of wine in an restaurant in Atlanta, where she is filming a movie.

"I have no idea what I was talking about. And I am so sorry. I was so disrespectful to him," the mother-of-three said.

They were stopped after Toth crossed a double line on the road and then failed a blood-alcohol test.

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; and Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

TORONTO (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar ended weaker against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday after briefly touching its strongest level in more than two months, with traders looking to Friday's key domestic jobs report to set direction for the currency.

The Canadian currency took its direction from weaker prices for some commodities and a pullback in global stock markets, which slipped from recent record levels.

"We don't have much in the way of domestic drivers today. The equity markets began to lose a bit of their steam, that was the primary factor," said Mark Chandler, head of Canadian fixed income and currency strategy at RBC Capital.

"We've come a long way really, and we have a pretty important release tomorrow."

The Canadian dollar ended the North American session at C$1.0075, or 99.26 U.S. cents, nearly half a cent weaker than Wednesday's close of C$1.0033, or 99.67 U.S. cents.

The currency earlier in the session hit C$1.0014 to the U.S. dollar, its strongest level in nearly three months. The Canadian dollar had gained some 2-1/2 cents on the U.S. dollar since late April before the afternoon retrenchment.

Over the longer term, the Canadian dollar is expected to weaken against the greenback in the year ahead, according to a Reuters poll published on Wednesday. Forecasters cited concern about the economy's slow rate of growth compared with that of the United States.

Chandler said focus is now on the Canadian employment report due out on Friday, which is expected to show the economy added 15,000 jobs in April, according to a Reuters survey of analysts, after a steep decline notched in March.

But he said even a strong report may not be enough to push the currency to fresh highs, given that the Bank of Canada has long said no rate hikes are on the immediate horizon.

"We're in a bit of a limbo situation with the Bank of Canada so it is really not about monetary policy. It's just about risk-on, risk-off and whether generally North America is going to look better in Q2," Chandler said.

"We've had a good run of better data that had people believing Q2 might be a bit of a pleasant surprise compared to what they had thought. But a weaker number in the employment data may take some shine off."

Prices for Canadian government bonds were mixed. The two-year bond was unchanged to yield 0.976 percent, while the benchmark 10-year bond rose 5 Canadian cents to yield 1.806 percent.

(Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson; and Peter Galloway)

Fire crews took advantage of improved conditions as the high winds and hot, dry air of recent days were replaced by the normal Pacific air, significantly reducing fire activity.

The 44-square-mile blaze at the western end of the Santa Monica Mountains was 60 percent surrounded.

Full containment was expected Monday, according to Ventura County fire officials.

The progress led authorities to lift all remaining evacuation orders.

"We've really transitioned from a fire attack to a mop-up patrol," Nick Schuler, battalion chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told the Ventura County Star.

One firefighter was injured in the Newbury Park area while battling the blaze and was taken to a hospital, the newspaper said.

The National Weather Service said an approaching low pressure system would bring a 20 percent chance of showers Sunday afternoon, with the likelihood increasing into the night and on Monday.

Nearly 2,000 firefighters using engines, bulldozers and aircraft worked to corral the blaze.

Firefighting efforts were focused on the fire's east side, rugged canyons that are a mix of public and private lands.

The change in the weather was also expected to bring gusty winds to some parts of Southern California, but well away from the fire area.

Despite its size and speed of growth, the fire that broke out Thursday and quickly moved through neighborhoods of Camarillo Springs and Thousand Oaks has caused damage to just 15 homes, though it has threatened thousands.

The fire also swept through Point Mugu State Park, a hiking and camping area that sprawls between those communities and the ocean. Park district Superintendent Craig Sap said two old, unused ranch-style homes in the backcountry burned. Restrooms and campgrounds also were damaged. Sap estimated repairs would cost $225,000.

Grateful residents hung signs thanking firefighters for saving their homes.

The blaze is one of more than 680 wildfires in the state so far this year about 200 more than average.

East of Los Angeles in Riverside County, a new fire that broke out Saturday afternoon burned 650 acres of wilderness south of Banning. It was 75 percent contained Sunday. Banning has been flanked by a nearly 5-square-mile fire to the north which destroyed one home shortly after it broke out Wednesday. That fire was fully contained late Saturday.

In Northern California, a fire that has blackened 11 square miles of wilderness in Tehama County was a threat to a pair of commercial properties near the community of Butte Meadows, according to Cal Fire.

Thunderstorms were expected to bring erratic winds but little rain to the area about 200 miles north of San Francisco.

Nearly 1,300 firefighters were on the lines and the blaze, which started Wednesday, was 40 percent contained.

The team announced the right-hander has been scratched from his start Monday against Kansas City.

Peavy has not pitched since April 26 after being scratched from a Thursday start when his back stiffened up while warming up. He is 3-1 with a 3.38 ERA in five starts this season.

White Sox manager Robin Ventura says a trip to the disabled list is a possibility for the three-time All-Star.

Chris Sale will start Monday against the Royals on his regular four days' rest. Sale will be opposed by Royals right-hander James Shields, a rematch of the season opener that the White Sox won 1-0.