Now that you have had several weeks to reflect upon the year that was 2008, it is time to select the Big Law Word of the Year for 2008.

“Bailout” was the Word of the Year for 2008, according to Merriam-Webster and the American Dialect Society. Runners-up included words related to the presidential election such as “Obamamania” and “maverick.” Merriam-Webster based its selection on the word that received the “highest intensity of lookups on Merriam-Webster Online in the shortest period of time.”