Thanks to everyone who submitted possible nominees for our Lawyer of the Year award. We reviewed your 160+ comments and developed a slate of ten worthy candidates.

Before we reveal them, we’ll talk about a few folks we passed over. A number of you suggested Mike Leach, the lawyer turned football coach who was recently fired by Texas Tech University. Although Leach’s achievements on the gridiron are considerable, he’s more of a football figure than a legal figure, so he didn’t make the team.

A few of the lawyers you suggested, while certainly well-known, really belong to years prior to 2009. These include former New York governor and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who resigned in disgrace after his dalliances with prostitutes came to light; former administrative law judge Roy Pearson, of the infamous $54 million (originally $67 million) pants lawsuit; and prominent IP litigator Jeremy Pitcock.

Also named: Kathy Henry, a former Legal Secretary of the Day, whose alleged oversight could have cost PepsiCo a pretty penny — over a billion dollars (until the default judgment was vacated). But since she’s a legal secretary rather than a lawyer (or even a law student), we passed her over.

So who made the cut? Check out the nominees and vote for your favorite, after the jump.

* The decade’s 25 biggest legal stories. [National Law Journal]

* A former Fried Frank litigation associate, Julie Kamps, who previously filed a employment discrimination claim, is now filing a lawsuit against the firm, alleging sexual harassment by a female partner and discrimination because she is gay. She’s suing for $50 million and partnership. If granted the latter, that could be awkward. [AmLaw Daily]

* Hedge fund Fortress Investment Group sues Dechert. And it’s Marc Dreier’s fault. [Wall Street Journal via ABA Journal]

* A benchslap for California AG Jerry Brown’s office from the Ninth Circuit. [San Francisco Chronicle]

* An interview with Mark Herrmann, formerly of Drug and Device Law, about lawyerly blogging. [Chicago Tribune]

* Being forced to remain male is cruel and unusual punishment? [Associated Press]

Vanity Fair has a detailed article on Marc Dreier. It’s TLDR fascinating. The magazine has a great quote from Dreier explaining how his life felt after he got divorced and split from his longtime business partner:

All this sent Dreier into an emotional tailspin. “I was very distraught,” he says. “I was very disappointed in my life. I felt my career and my marriage were over. I was 52 and [I felt] maybe life was passing me by…. I felt like I was a failure.” His feelings of despair were deepened by his keen, lifelong sense of entitlement, a hard-core belief that he was destined to achieve great things.

Dreier felt that way at 52. How many young lawyers feel that way at 25, after getting laid off early in their career or no offered entirely? Of course, some people rebound from that feeling with renewed motivation. Dreier used the emotion to underpin criminal activity. Our friends at Dealbreaker get into Dreier’s head this way:

It’d be enough to send anyone to a place where the next logical thing to do would be impersonate hedge fund managers and stage fake conference calls! And honestly, not to insult anyone here, but do you know how easy it is to scam these hedgie guys? Like crazy easy. It almost seems like the crime would be to not scam them, if you think about it.

If you don’t have the time to get through the whole VF article, check out the highlights on Dealbreaker.

Marc Dreier’s Crime of Destiny [Vanity Fair]
Marc Dreier Got Into The Ponzi Biz To Fulfill His Destiny For Greatness, To Fill A Void, And To Buy A Beach House [Dealbreaker]

A certain big-time lawyer turned big-time fraudster — Marc Dreier, aka “Mini-Madoff” — will probably spend the rest of his life behind bars. He must miss his days of house arrest, when he got to hole up in 34C — not just a great bra size, but also a great apartment — at One Beacon Court.

That apartment is no longer his. The New York Law Journal reports:

The luxury midtown Manhattan apartment of disgraced attorney Marc S. Dreier was sold at auction for $8.2 million, about $2 million less than the $10.43 million he paid in 2007.

The sale of the condominium at 151 E. 58th St. came just one week after Southern District Judge Jed S. Rakoff sentenced Mr. Dreier to 20 years in prison for orchestrating a multi-year Ponzi scheme that fleeced more than $400 million from clients of Dreier LLP and investors to whom he sold bogus promissory notes.

Forty-six bidders registered for the auction held at Southern District Bankruptcy Court. In just five minutes, the price of Mr. Dreier’s 3,000-square-foot apartment in the Bloomberg Building at One Beacon Court rocketed to $8.15 million from an initial bid of $3 million.

Eight million isn’t chump change. But look at everything the buyer is getting!

The long (inter)national Marc Dreier nightmare is almost at an end. He’s been sentenced to 20 years for defrauding his clients and investors. The Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports:

Prosecutors had asked for a 145-year sentence, which harked back to the 150-year sentence U.S. District Judge Denny Chin readily handed down to Bernie Madoff, whose massive Ponzi scheme drained the bank accounts of countless investors. In both cases defense attorneys sought a fraction of that. Dreier’s attorney sought no more than 12-and-a-half years.

But Dreier drew U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, who has been highly critical of the length of sentences under the federal sentencing guidelines, particularly in white collar crime cases.

Bernie Madoff gets 150 years, but Dreier only gets 20? Justice may be blind, but she’s certainly not deaf.

Breaking: Marc Dreier Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison [WSJ Law Blog]

Earlier: Is Marc Dreier Almost As Bad as Bernie Madoff?

The federal government seems to think so, based on the sentence they’re seeking. We’re kind of proud that one of our own, a lawyer, can rank up there with one of the greatest swindlers of all time.

And what does Marc Dreier think he deserves? No more than 12 1/2 years, according to his sentencing memo. More details, including excerpts from Dreier’s seemingly heartfelt letter to Judge Rakoff, over at the WSJ Law Blog.

U.S. Seeks 145-Year Sentence for Lawyer in Fraud Case [City Room]
Sentencing Looming, Dreier Asks For No More than 12 1/2 Years [WSJ Law Blog]

Find out over at our sister site, Dealbreaker, which has the latest news.

Dreier Sheets [Dealbreaker]

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of Marc Dreier

* Marc Dreier pleaded guilty yesterday. “He has disgraced the honorable profession of law,” said Judge Jed S. Rakoff. [New York Times]

* Dreier’s $400 million swindle obviously supported quite a lavish lifestyle. Check out his 2500+ sq. ft. Southampton beach house to be auctioned off next month. [David R. Maltz & Co.]

* The Legal Intelligencer has launched a series looking at the way the legal industry is changing. First part of the series gives kudos to Eckert Seamans for recognizing that first-year associates are worthless. [Legal Intelligencer]

* Judge lets Rod Blagojevich use his campaign fund for his defense costs and lets him have all the lawyers his little heart desires. [Chicago Tribune]

* The SCOTUS nomination process continues to generate massive speculation. Today, the Washington Post says there’s a strong push for a Hispanic justice. But the article has this insightful tidbit: “The White House is constructing its appointment strategy on the belief that this will not be [Obama’s] only appointment to the court and that he need not reach his goal of changing the racial, ethnic and gender balance on the court with just one pick.” [Washington Post]

* Marc Dreier will plead guilty on May 11. Defense attorney Gerald Shargel said he “wants to enter the plea to demonstrate his acceptance of responsibility and his profound remorse.” Or maybe it’s just because he ran out of money to pay Shargel. [Forbes]

* Forget the office attire debate over suit vs. blazer and skirt suit vs. pant suit. Mexico City attorneys are sporting surgical masks. (And midtown Manhattan firms, watch out. There’s been an outbreak at Ernst & Young’s Times Square office. Okay, not an outbreak. One case. But we feel a strange journalistic urge to fan the flames of panic.) [National Law Journal]

* Is it just us or do the media seem gleeful about the fact that summer associates will actually have to work hard this summer? [Forbes]

* Alleged Craigslist killer and BU med student Philip Markoff could afford a $1,400 luxury one-bedroom in Quincy, but can’t afford an attorney. [Boston Globe]

* Maybe Markoff should burglarize some cars in order to fence stolen property to pay his lawyer. That’s what this Wisconsin teen tried to do. [United Press International]

* No more getting freaky in Chicago. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan demands that Craigslist take down its erotic services section. Like other state AGs, she is doing it in response to the Craigslist killings, but the legal issue is that people are getting freaky for money, and that Craigslist is not donating the profits to charity. [Los Angeles Times]

* Sheppard Mullin’s LA office had a scary Friday. [Contra Costa Times]

* Former Attorney General John Ashcroft is opening a new firm with four offices in Boston, St. Louis, Austin, and Dallas, each to be headed by Bush appointed federal prosecutors. [The Wall Street Journal]

* The Supreme Court had a an energetic discussion yesterday about the use of race in hiring and promotion when arguing about the New Haven firefighter’s case. [The New York Times]

* A judge ruled that Blockbuster will have to go to court after allegedly sharing customer’s video purchases with their Facebook friends as part of a targeted advertising campaign. [Geek.com]

* Former broker Kosta Kovachev pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring with Marc Drieir. [Reuters]

* The New York tax lawyer who killed his wife and two daughters before committing suicide may have run a $20 million ponzi scheme. [Bloomberg.com]

Quite some time has passed since our last discussion of Marc Dreier, the once highflying, now disgraced Manhattan litigator. We’d like to belatedly draw your attention to three items. First, an article from the New York Post:

Disgraced attorney Marc Dreier could be on the hook for $1.5 million to the white-shoe lawyers who took over his finances after he was busted in a $700 million impersonation scheme.

The eye-popping bill even includes a 27-percent discount off the fees and expenses normally charged by Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, court-appointed receiver Mark Pomerantz said.

Sorting through the finances of a big-time fraudster: nice work if you can get it. No wonder Paul Weiss made it to the Final Four.

Second, if you haven’t seen it already, this New York magazine article about Marc Dreier is a must-read. It contains a detailed account of Dreier’s alleged fraud, as well as a history of his colorful career prior to his arrest. The article was written by a leading chronicler of Biglaw scandal, Robert Kolker — whom you may recall as the author of a lengthy piece about Charney v. Sullivan & Cromwell. (If you don’t have time to read the whole profile, here are some highlights.)

Third, from a tipster:

A group of us visited 499 Park last month and picked through the ashes of Dreier LLP [at a property auction]. We took this picture of a notice posted on a fridge. We thought you might get a kick out of it.

Check out the photo, after the jump.

* The receiver appointed to locate Dreier’s assets recovered more than $100 million, including $39 million in art, a 121-foot yacht, three properties in the Hamptons, and a sand dollar. [Bloomberg.com]

* A month before he was accused of helping R. Allen Stanford run an $8 billion ponzi scheme, he sent him a text: “I am praying for you.” Now his fellow church members are praying for him. [Bloomberg.com]

* An Illinois attorney was charged with stealing more than $100,000 from his firm from a scheme that lasted from 2001-2006. Prosecutors say they should be able to pay back the firm with loose change found in between couch cushions in Dreiers yacht and three houses. [The Chicago Tribune]

* Three families have filed suit against the District Attorney after he threatened to charge them with child sex abuse for “sexting” (sending semi-nude photos to people on their cell phone). [The New York Times]

* Was it the recession that killed WolfBlock? This reporter says it was “a past they couldn’t escape.” Sounds sinister, but it was just bad management. [The Philadelphia Inquirer]

* Some small investors with bad luck repeatedly sue companies with allegedly poor management in an attempt to hold corporate officers accountable for their losses. Is that good or bad? [The Wall Street Journal]

* A U.S. District Judge in Virginia, Rebecca Beach Smith, will soon decide whether preserved Titanic artifacts must remain available to the public. [The San Francisco Chronicle]

* Adam Liptak gives us a lively look into the Supreme Court discussion about the highly critical Hillary documentary. [The New York Times]

* Obama’s lawyers were in lock-step with Bush policies Tuesday, arguing in favor of the decision to refuse one of Europe’s leading Muslim intellectuals entry in to the U.S. [Reuters]

* Pakistan’s supreme court chief justice returned to court Tuesday amid dancing supporters. [The Associated Press]

* Attorneys cringe as Blagojevich continues to put himself in the spotlight despite his pending federal corruption indictment. [The Associated Press]

* Dreier LLP may be able to reduce a $29 million claim from Wachovia. They need all the help they can get. [Greenwich Time]

* Barney Frank defends calling Scalia a “homophobe.” [The Boston Globe]

* The vultures are circling around Dreier LLP’s Park Avenue office—an auctioneer’s website reads “everything must be sold,” but Dreier’s indictment last week says he must forfeit the firm’s assets—the prosecutors and bankruptcy trustee will have to fight it out. [The National Law Journal]

* “U.K. regulatory lawyers advising clients on the financial crisis and scandals bill as much $1,440 an hour.” “It’s our time in the sun,” says regulatory lawyer Darren Fox—alright Fox, wipe that smug look off your face—just because former M&A lawyers in the states can’t even get volunteer jobs—doesn’t make it OK to gloat. [Bloomberg.com]

* The Connecticut Attorney General got aggressive about AIG bonuses over the weekend. The outrage continues with new information that AIG payed out $218 million in bonuses, more than the $165 originally reported.[The Los Angeles Times]

* Enron executive Scott Yeager will be the first to bring his case before the U.S. Supreme Court. [The Houston Chronicle]

* SCOTUS will review “Hillary: The Movie,” and decide whether the scathing documentary should have been regulated as a campaign ad. [The Associated Press]

* A specialist on law firm finances says New York firms need to follow each others lead and re-shape associate pay—replacing “lockstep” with merit pay. [The Lawyer.com]

* An interesting case for the judge’s probable ruling to uphold Proposition 8 from a progressive gay marriage supporter. [The Washington Post]

“I invested with Bernie Madoff. I knew Bernie Madoff. Bernie Madoff robbed me blind. Marc Dreier, you’re no Bernie Madoff.”

But Dreier is getting a little closer to attaining the Master’s stature, if government allegations are accurate. From the WSJ Law Blog:

New York lawyer Marc Dreier allegedly defrauded investors out of approximately $700 million, a far higher figure than previously had surfaced in the criminal case, according to an amended indictment unveiled Tuesday.

The attorney was indicted in January on conspiracy and fraud charges for allegedlly selling fictitious promissory notes to hedge funds.

Previously, prosecutors had claimed Dreier sold almost $400 million in fictitious notes. Now, according to the latest indictment, the attorney stands accused of peddl[ing] almost $700 million in notes to 13 different hedge funds and three individuals, whose names were not identified in the filing.

Good for Dreier. Why should guys like Madoff and Robert Allen Stanford have all the fun? A haul of $750 million begins to approach respectability among Wall Street fraudsters.

With New Indictment, Government Cranks up the Heat on Marc Dreier [WSJ Law Blog]

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of Marc Dreier

* SCOTUS will look at the separation of church and state when they decide whether “a cross to honor fallen soldiers can stand in a national preserve in California.” [The Los Angeles Times]

* Lawyers say Madoff must have had help with his Ponzi scheme. [Bloomberg]

* Attorney General Eric Holder visited Guantanamo yesterday to see what is needed to close the prison. [The Associated Press]

* Meanwhile, a Pentagon official who inspected Guantanamo at Obama’s request is under fire from human rights activists for filing a report (which declares Gitmo humane) that is little more than good public relations for the administration. [The New York Times]

* What do you do when your boss gets indicted for securities fraud? You get another job. A team of seven bankruptcy lawyers left Dreier LLP for Epstein Becker Green. [EBG]

* A federal judge encouraged the Obama administration to decide whether to keep pursuing a case against 11 Vietnam War Veterans accused of trying to overthrow Laos’s communist government. [The Associated Press]

* Judge says: UBS must respond to the U.S. lawsuit seeking disclosure of 52,000 names of people who allegedly used Swiss accounts for tax evasion. [Bloomberg]

[Ed. note: This is a cross-post from one of our sister sites, Dealbreaker, which we thought you might appreciate because of its focus on an ATL celebrity: the recently indicted, high-profile litigator, Marc Dreier.]

Clearly, major fraud defendants have the best racket going- unless you just can’t live without the Deli down the street. First Madoff, now this:

A federal judge says a prominent New York lawyer accused of defrauding investors of more than $400 million can be freed under house arrest.

Judge Jed Rakoff on Thursday lifted financial requirements that had forced Marc Dreier to remain jailed.

Last month, a magistrate judge had required that Dreier produce $10 million in cash or property to secure a $20 million bail.

And we are worried about the optics of Wells Fargo going to Vegas?

Read the original post, and comment, over at DealBreaker.

[Ed. note: This is a cross-post from one of our sister sites, Dealbreaker, which we thought you might appreciate because of its focus on an ATL celebrity: the recently indicted, high-profile litigator, Marc Dreier.]

Muffie Benson-Perella (muffie AT muffmarkets.com) was an Associate in the Investment Banking Division of a “Bulge Bracket” bank. She holds a B.A. in French and Art from Vassar College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. She concentrated in Contemporary French Poetry at prep school where she was awarded the exclusive premiership of the school’s “French Club.” Today, Ms. Benson-Perella is the Founder and Managing Director of “Muffie on Markets” (http://www.muffmarkets.com), a deep dive into capital markets, finance and investment strategy. She is also the Founder and Managing Director of Muff Cap, LLC., an invitation only, private investment vehicle for non-existent, prestigious and accredited investors only, employing an actively managed, long-short strategy.

There are few things as shameful as the deteriorating state of art and culture in this country. It will come as no surprise to my loyal readers, then, that the subtle, magnificent craft of portraiture appears utterly lost in a thick fog of mediocrity and a pretentious depthlessness. Of course, I can only refer to the latest visual representation of Marc S. Drier (for I cannot bring myself to call it a “picture” or “drawing” much less “art.”)

It is the essence of such representations that their creation at least attempt to rise to the level of their subject. In this case, admittedly, that is a tall order. The almost uniformly elegantly dressed senior partner of Park Avenue law firm Dreier LLP, Dreier presents a rich, complex texture, shot through with conflicts, dark veins of opposing forces, their churning opposition pressing the envelopes of the psyche, yearning for nothing but escape, escape, escape. Contrast the subtle signs of whirlwinds below the impeccable exterior with the rarely seen, but palpable, open, unshorn rouge and we can forgive him his undergraduate transgressions at Yale, for he certainly redeemed himself at Harvard Law thereafter, and this institutional combination, fatal in any weaker, less featured personality, permits Dreier to wear scruff like a bright ascot, an opportunity he occasionally indulges to juxtapose polished Fifth Avenue class with the suggestion that “That whole Yale thing” might not be that far from the surface, even after all these years.

There is a brazen yet subtle boldness in Dreier, the kind of audacity that mounts his brilliant deceptions in full view of the world, in the fishbowl of a glass-walled conference room, taunting the prospect of discovery as office staff who might at any time recognize him, call him the wrong name, plunge him into drowning, downward spiraling agony, walk by and casually glance through ethereal walls of glass that offer scant protection. The pulsing rhythm of office traversal, and throbbing mechanics of discovery. And who can deny the social genius of targeting Canadian Teachers and U. S. Real Estate firms as the foils of a fraud designed to sap the savviest of hedge funds? The very fabric of his machinations: wry social commentary.

Read the rest of the post, and comment, over at DealBreaker.

Quips a tipster: “Dreier gets $20 million bond — but he didn’t steal enough to pay. This guy is no Madoff.”

Dreier Gets $20 Million Bond [Bloomberg]
Dreier to Remain in Jail [Am Law Daily]
Judge Says No to Bail Request; Dreier to Stay Behind Bars [WSJ Law Blog]

Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of Marc Dreier

Finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for: time to announce Above the Law’s top two stories for 2008, on the gossip front. We’ve also been recapping the top stories on the business side of the fence, but stories about the business of law are available from many other outlets. Juicy law firm gossip is harder to come by.

Our two leading gossip stories were broken here at ATL. They were subsequently picked up by mainstream media outlets, but we covered them first.

Read about the two stories, after the jump.