F. Lee Bailey

American attorney said to be the greatest defense lawyer of all time, a flesh-and-blood Perry Mason. Greatly celebrated, he numbered among his clients such people as Patty Hearst, the Boston Strangler and Dr. Sam Sheppard.

Bailey was a Harvard drop-out who joined the Marines to be a jet pilot. Later, at Boston University, he earned one of the highest academic averages in law school history to commence his flamboyant practice. In 1979, Bailey authored a mystery novel entitled "Secrets."

He served on O.J. Simpson's notorious defense "dream team" in 1996. His courtroom theatrics seemed more the condescending and pompous charade of one caught up in his own celebrity than an exhibition of intelligence and dignity.

He was ordered jailed in March 1996 for six months on contempt charges because he refused to turn over $3 million cash and $18 million in stock that he got from a former client, a drug trafficker, to authorities. Bailey claimed that the money and stock was paid to him as fees. The government said that the money was theirs as confiscated illegal funds. He spent 44 days in jail and was released on 19 April 1996 at Tallahassee, Florida when he agreed to surrender $16 million in stock and his yacht. As of June 1999, Bailey faced new contempt charges for refusing to turn over $2 million in disputed legal fees.

The State Supreme Court of Florida barred him from practice on 21 November 2001 for the manner in which he handled the disputed 1994 drug smuggling case, giving him 30 days to conclude his affairs in Florida.

As of 11 April 2003, Bailey was no longer able to practice law in either of the two states in which he was licensed. On that day, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court agreed with the ruling by the Florida Supreme Court to disbar him for having misused nearly $6 million worth of stock belonging to a former client. Since he no longer had a state bar admission, he could no longer practice in federal courts.