Under the Collar

Lawyers in white collar cases typically fill the role of either prosecutor or defense attorney. Occasionally, they also play the part of the criminal defendant, which is what happened last week in federal court in Virginia in a highly unusual case.

Attorney Timothy Litzenburg, age 38, of Charlottesville, admitted to attempting to extort hundreds of millions of dollars from a U.S. chemicals manufacturer. Prosecutors charged Mr. Litzenburg with threatening financial and reputational harm to the company unless it paid him $200 million. Mr. Litzenburg had previously helped to ...