Byline: PAUL M. BARRETT Wall Street Journal
William Duker seemed to have it all.
His New York City law practice made him a millionaire by age 40. Known early in his career for staying at modest motels and wearing the same drab tie for days running, the dockworker's son more recently bought a luxurious vacation home in Miami and kept a yacht in Newport, R.I.
Then, last month, the 43-year-old Duker, whose hometown is Albany and who maintains a home at 6 Marion Ave. in Albany, pleaded guilty to falsely inflating legal bills to the federal government.
The plea to four felony counts caused gloating in some legal circles because Duker had fancied himself a critic of law-firm fraud. In fact, he committed his own deceit while preparing a government case several years ago that accused a prominent New York law firm of malpractice in representing a failed savings-and-loan association.
People who know Duker say he certainly didn't need the extra $1.4 million his small firm, which maintains an office in Albany but which primarily operated in New York City, illegally gained from 1990 to 1993. At the time, the firm was part of a well-compensated team hired by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to seek damages from junk-bond king Michael Milken and his investment bank, Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc.
From 1990 through 1996, Duker personally took home between $1 million and $5 million a year, court documents state.
But he wasn't satisfied. Duker was frustrated that, as he saw it, his scrappy 25-lawyer firm was doing the same quality work as the team leader, the august New York law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, while being paid much less, according to some people who know him. He also felt that some of his subordinates were being excessively cautious in billing for their time, says his criminal-defense …
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