For a criminal defense lawyer, there's no better feeling than winning exoneration for a deserving client.

Just ask Willkie Farr & Gallagher partner Michael Schachter.

On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit handed him a huge victory over the Justice Department. The panel tossed the entire case against his client on Fifth Amendment grounds in the first criminal appeal stemming from manipulation of the benchmark London Interbank Offered Rate, or LIBOR.