Lawyers Always Win, or: That's Why It's Called a Plea Bargain

Lawyers: Do they win even when they lose a case?

Mr. Rajaratnam is estimated to have paid as much as $40 million for his defense, according to people familiar with the matter and some lawyers not affiliated with the case, about two-thirds of the amount prosecutors said Galleon made from the insider trading addressed in the charges.

I bet I could have gotten him convicted on all 14 counts for $5 million, and I’m not even a lawyer. More from the article:

By comparison, Conrad Black, the newspaper magnate, has spent about $30 million battling fraud charges at trial, in appeals that have overturned some of his convictions, and in related civil suits, according to one of his lawyers, Marc D. Powers, of Baker & Hostetler LLP. “It’s an expensive thing to get in the cross hairs of the government,” said Mr. Powers.

How does the Rajaratnam verdict affect demand for the services of his lawyer, John Dowd? Also: how is that demand affected by Dowd’s swearing at the media?