William Lerach, the high-profile lead partner at Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins, announced on Tuesday (28 August) that he is stepping down from the firm he started in 2004, writes The Recorder.
The retirement of Lerach, one of America's best-known - yet also most controversial lawyers - comes during a period of mounting pressure on the plaintiff bar as US prosecutors pursue claims of kickbacks at his former firm, Milberg Weiss.
Reached on his cell phone Tuesday, Lerach said he was planning to take some time off.
"I feel like, you know, I've worked a lifetime worth of work, so I'm ready to travel and do whatever I'm going to do," he told The Recorder, a US sister title of Legal Week.
That could include going to such unconventional destinations as the US Attorney's Office.
People familiar with the seven-year federal criminal probe of Milberg Weiss - which has already resulted in a guilty plea by former partner David Bershad - said Lerach and Los Angeles federal prosecutors are nearing a plea deal relating to legally questionable payments Milberg Weiss made to its lead plaintiffs and a former expert witness.
A spokesman for Lerach Coughlin said that as of Friday (31 August), its name will change to Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins.