Top French lawyer Olivier Metzner found dead

One of France's best-known criminal lawyers, Olivier Metzner, has been found dead, BBC reports.

His body was found floating off his private island in Brittany.

A note was found at his home and an investigation has been opened, with police treating the case as suicide.

He made his name in a series of high-profile cases, defending the rogue trader Jerome Kerviel, former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, and Vivendi chief Jean-Marie Messier.

Mr Metzner was one of a handful of star lawyers in France, who between them have dominated the great court cases of the last two decades, says the BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris.

Rarely seen out of court without a large cigar, Mr Metzner was renowned for his intricate understanding of the most complex cases, and multinational corporations regularly sought his services, our Paris correspondent says.

If not quite a household name in France, he was an emblematic figure on the world of criminal justice, he says.