WASHINGTON - A magazine published by the American Bar Association on Wednesday named former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales its Lawyer of the Year for 2007 - mostly for creating so much controversial news.

The ABA Journal also picked Attorney General Michael Mukasey - Gonzales' successor - to be its lawyer of the year for 2008 because he has to deal with the problems left when Gonzales, a longtime friend and adviser to President George W. Bush, resigned under fire three months ago.

Qualifications for the title were not immeditely clear. But the ABA Journal's picks, which will published in its January issue, appear to award lawyers who spent a lot of time in the media spotlight.

"The top legal story of 2007 was unquestionably the unraveling of support for the Bush administration's expansive view of presidential power during wartime, and with it, the slow-motion destruction of Alberto Gonzales' reign as U.S. attorney general," the top U.S. law-enforcement official, according to a statement issued Wednesday by the ABA Journal.

"Add to that the controversy over whether the administration fired eight U.S. attorneys for political reasons, and no single lawyer made more news in 2007 than Gonzales," the magazine said.

ABA Journal spokeswoman Barbara Power confirmed the selections but did not have an immediate comment.