With New Year's approaching, The Recorder would like to count down our top news headlines of the past year. As the headlines suggest, this past year provided no shortage of human tragedy and no dearth of controversy. Our local legal community mourned the loss of local luminaries, and watched as lawyers (and judges) behaved badly in a variety of ways. Here in descending order are our most-read stories of 2017. Here's wishing you all a happy and healthy 2018.