There have to be other lawyers in Washington besides Robert B. Barnett, but lately it would seem that Barnett is getting all the work.

On paper, the nomination by President Bush of Michael E. O’Neill to be a federal judge would seem to have a good chance of being confirmed by the U.S. Senate. But O’Neill’s prospects of serving on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia cannot have been helped by a story in Friday’s New York Times.

Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, a lawyer who made millions suing corporations, was sentenced to five years in prison today for his part in a scheme to bribe a state judge with $40,000.

A little more than a year ago, they were masters of the universe, pulling down eight-figure salaries as hedge fund managers at the vanguard of the booming mortgage market.

Federal judge Alex Kozinski was once described in the magazine Legal Affairs as “zany and bawdy, a high-pitched giggler and an anything-goes storyteller.”

To say that Henry T. Nicholas III is a man of contradictions doesn’t begin to convey the scope of it.

She was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court by the late Ronald Reagan, a president who decried “judicial activism.”

The government got what it wanted Thursday with the conviction of Anthony Pellicano. A jury found the so-called “private eye to the stars” guilty on charges including wiretapping and racketeering.

A Harry Potter fan who sought to publish an encyclopedic guide to the series about the boy wizard broke down and cried on the witness stand yesterday as he faced his idol J.K. Rowling.

Looks like Louisiana Sen. David Vitter and several other prominent men will be spared having to testify about their sex lives after all.

The disclosure this week of a March, 2003 memo from Justice Department lawyer John C. Yoo, asserting that laws banning torture were trumped by the president’s authority as commander-in-chief in a time of war, appears to offer a direct line to subsequent abuses at Abu Ghraib prison.

Yesterday, all their problems were so far away.

There’s more trouble for former New York governor Eliot Spitzer. The New York Times reports that Spitzer was “deeply involved” in the effort to discredit State Senate majority leader Joseph Bruno last year. Previously, Spitzer had said he was not personally involved.

Like father, like son.

David Zachary Scruggs, the son of plaintiff’s attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, has followed his father’s lead and pleaded guilty to federal charges.

A five-year legal fight over the use of the Beach Boys’ name has been settled amicably, paving the way for a possible reunion by the surviving members of the California surf-sound group.

I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, has been disbarred from practicing law in the District of Columbia.

About to enter into its third week, the Anthony Pellicano trial isn’t living up to its advance reviews.

Some might call it good timing for Anne V. Farrell, who is leaving the Washington Mutual board of directors because she has reached the mandatory retirement age of 72. Washington Mutual, the embattled Seattle lender, is facing lawsuits, more big lending losses, and is the subject of takeover speculation.

Eliot Spitzer is out of a job as of tomorrow.

But even though the soon-to-be-former New York governor has suffered an astonishing fall because of his alleged involvement with prostitutes, he hasn’t yet been charged with a crime.

A federal appeals court Tuesday suspended a lower court order that commanded a former USA Today reporter to speak up or pay up.