The Washington Post reports on the most expensive lawyer in America, the only one to charge $1,000.00 an hour. It is former U.S. Attorney General Ben Civiletti, a partner in the Venable law firm.

Civiletti, who specializes in litigation, antitrust law and white-collar defense, topped the National Law Journal's 16th annual survey of hourly rates at more than 100 of the country's top law firms.

The Post points out that while Civiletti may charge more than any other lawyer, it doesn't mean he earns more than other lawyers:

Civiletti's rate doesn't come close to making him one of the nation's highest-paid lawyers. Trial attorneys can win multibillion-dollar verdicts and earn fees that break down into more than $1,000 an hour, said Coffee. And a firm working on a merger may charge its client a percentage of a deal instead of billing by the hour. The lawyers who successfully sued tobacco companies in 1998, for example, raked in billions of dollars in fees.

National Law Journal has selected Patrick Fitzgerald, the prosecutor in the Valerie Plame leaks case, as Lawyer of the Year.

Runner-up is Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, for his challenge to the Guantanamo Review tribunals.

Both are excellent choices in my opinion. The articles are outside the subscription wall and available to all.

I'm sure Kathleen Sullivan is not amused that her failure to pass the California Bar Exam after this illustrious career is making national news:

A native of New York City, Ms. Sullivan has an undergraduate degree from Cornell University and a law degree from Harvard University. She taught at both Stanford and Harvard before becoming dean of Stanford's law school in 1999. The author of a leading constitutional-law casebook, Ms. Sullivan has argued several cases before the Supreme Court. Earlier this spring, the nation's highest court ruled in favor of one of her clients, a California winegrowers' group, striking down state laws that restricted direct sales from vineyards to consumers.

A new report finds that wiretaps conducted by law enforcement are subject to security breaches from readily available devices:

The technology used for decades by law enforcement agents to wiretap telephones has a security flaw that allows the person being wiretapped to stop the recorder remotely, according to research by computer security experts who studied the system. It is also possible to falsify the numbers dialed, they said.

Someone being wiretapped can easily employ these "devastating countermeasures" with off-the-shelf equipment, said the lead researcher, Matt Blaze, an associate professor of computer and information science at the University of Pennsylvania.

The new finding have some serious legal implications:

Can a gay defendant invoke the marital privilege to prevent his partner-spouse from testifying against him in a criminal proceeding? Stephen Signorelli, a defendant in New York is raising the issue.

A gay man charged with helping his lover loot a wealthy school district has asked a judge to rule that state law protecting spouses from having to testify against each other also applies to same-sex partners.

"Mr. Tassone and I have been loving partners for 33 years," Signorelli said in an affidavit, adding that the two had participated in "a solemn religious ceremony" conducted while they were on a Caribbean cruise "to memorialize our relationship and love for one another." The two registered as domestic partners in New York City, where they live, in 2002. "It's our position that the statute should be read gender-neutral," Signorelli's attorney, Kenneth Weinstein, told Newsday. "If a heterosexual couple can assert marital privilege, then a homosexual couple should be able to do the same."

From the facts provided, this does not seem to be a good test case. When both spouses are involved in the criminal scheme, the "crime fraud" exception to the marital privilege kicks in. Maybe there's more to the story.

If you're looking for a lighter read today, check out these "just-disovered" documents found in a Durham, N.C. courthouse clerk's office.

Covered with soot and coal dust from the heating fires of a bygone era, a batch of 19th- and early 20th-century legal records has emerged from a courthouse cubbyhole to weave a human drama involving long-dead drunkards, adulterers, businessmen, stable keepers and ordinary people in crisis.

There are tales of bawdy houses, financially encumbered horses, business disputes and broken marriages, not to mention -- in the words of one document --"tippling, whoring, fighting and cursing."

Via Eric at Is That Legal.

For criminal defense lawyers....Post-conviction and sentencing expert Alan Ellis has released his latest newsletter filled with post-Booker sentencing tips. If you're a federal practitioner, this is for you. You can download it free here (pdf).

San Francisco criminal defense lawyer Tony Serra was sentenced Friday to ten months in jail for failing to pay income taxes. Tony is one of the all-time greats. He is legendary in the criminal defense community for his trial skills and his passion for the underdog.

Tony never cared about money. He lived like a spartan. More than 100 defenders submitted letters on his behalf to the judge and several spoke at his sentencing. My favorite description in the article: "He was a warrior with a touch of sainthood."

If you are a criminal defense lawyer, aspiring to be one, or just want to read about one of the greats, this article is for you. Here are some snippets:

This will be of more interest to lawyers...Post Conviction expert Alan Ellis has a new article on the Bureau of Prisons' early release drug programs. You can download it here (pdf) from Sentencing Law and Policy.

Entitled "Getting Out Early: BOP Drug Program," the article now available for download below describes the Federal Bureau of Prisons' Comprehensive Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP). As explained in the article, RDAP is "the only mechanism by which federal inmates can now potentially receive a reduction in their sentences beyond earning good conduct time credit."

After the Michael Jackson acquittal, Tom Mesereau rises to the top of the "go to" list for celebrities in trouble.

Who else is on the list? Three of my very good friends, and I highly recommend them all: Roy Black of Miami, Joe Tacopina of New York and Mickey Sherman of Connecticut.

U.S. criminal defense lawyers aren't the only ones demoralized by the low fees paid by the Government to defend the indigent:

Criminal barristers are demoralised over their earnings and could paralyse the criminal justice system by boycotting work on crown court trials listed to last up to two weeks, the government is warned today.

Of more than 1,000 respondents to a survey by the Criminal Bar Association - nearly half the membership - 97% want the association to explore the possibility of direct action, and four in five say they would be prepared to take action themselves.

Robert Dunn, a criminal defense lawyer in Manhattan, has died, three days short of his 50th birthday. I knew Robert from television, we were often paired as defense lawyers on shows like Rivera Live and Internight during the Clinton years. Fox News anchor John Gibson, who used to guest host Rivera Live before moving to Fox, writes a moving tribute to him, and includes something I never knew: for the last 7 years, Robert had been living with a transplanted heart. The other day, after fainting in court, Robert was taken to the hospital where it just gave out.

Robert's most recent high profile case was that of Abdullah Higazy, the Egyptian student who made a false confession about a radio found in his hotel room at the Millenium, next to the WTC, right after 9/11. 60 Minutes featured the case, describing the techniques used by the FBI to get the false confession, and how it all was exposed when a commercial airline pilot came forward to claim the radio. In fact, Higazy had been set up. The Judge in the case said he felt misled by the Government. Robert filed a $20 million lawsuit against the FBI polygraph examiner afterwards.

Robert Dunn was a dedicated and spirited champion of liberty and the rights of the accused.

R.I.P.