Former lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced today to four years in prison.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has agreed to plead guilty to two felony charges, ending a long, scrappy battle to stay in office.

Stuart R. Ross, the man who brought the Smurfs to America, would seem to be starring in his own made-for-TV production, but it’s hardly a cartoon.

“If you make that much money there’s bound to be a mess.” The line from John Steinbeck’s novel, East of Eden, is one of many in his books presaging the never-ending battles among his heirs.

A setback for the Bush administration came from a Bush appointee and former Kenneth Starr associate today.

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.”