Editor's note: Kenneth Doran and his fellow Lifetime Achievement honorees will be celebrated at The American Lawyer Industry Awards virtual event on January 14. Register to attend the event.

By March 2009, the $700 billion Wall Street bailout bill was five months in the rearview mirror, but the U.S. stock market was still plunging. No one knew where the bottom was, with  observers comparing the damage to the Great Depression.