From the Los Angeles Times:
ATLANTA — Over the years, Richard F. “Dickie” Scruggs earned a reputation as one of the nation’s wiliest and most powerful plaintiff’s attorneys. Along the way he was hailed as a champion of the little guy. He was also derided as a scoundrel who would stoop as low as necessary to get his way — and fatten his bank account.
On Friday, his critics rested their case in the court of public opinion. The storied Mississippi lawyer — the man who engineered the monumental tobacco settlement of the 1990s, then took on Big Insurance after Hurricane Katrina — pleaded guilty to a federal charge that he conspired to bribe a judge.