Lawyer gets threats, wins praise over despised Madoff

By Grant McCool

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lawyer Ira Lee Sorkin receives death threats for defending one of America's most vilified people, accused swindler Bernard Madoff.

But he also wins praise from colleagues in the white-collar litigation world for keeping Madoff out of jail, so far.

Known as "Ike," the gregarious, bespectacled 65-year-old with a shock of short white hair has other clients in cases stemming from the financial markets' meltdown. But Madoff is the biggest purported fraud in Wall Street history.

"It is a challenge. The email, voicemail, anti-Semitism, the death threats, it's an interesting time," Sorkin said on Wednesday, the day a court hearing was postponed over potential conflicts of interest for him.

"The nasty emails have been coming in since I took on the case," said Sorkin, who has practiced law for 41 years. He has been a securities enforcement regulator, for the federal agency criticized for not going after Madoff sooner; a prosecutor, for the office that now has; and a defense counsel.

Despite the "challenges," he said he would continue to represent Madoff, whom he has known since the 1980s.

Sorkin's name appeared on a Madoff firm mailing list filed in court, but he says he has never invested with Madoff, whose purported worldwide scheme goes back decades.

Madoff, a once-respected trader, investment adviser and former chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange, preyed on the Jewish elite of New York, Florida and parts of Europe and Latin America, investors and lawyers said.