Former Milberg Weiss name partner William Lerach pleaded guilty yesterday (30 October) to charges that he participated in a conspiracy to pay kickbacks to named plaintiffs in securities class actions, writes the
New York Law Journal.
Lerach - one of the US' best-known plaintiff lawyers - had agreed to the plea last month. Under the agreement, he will forfeit $7.75m (£3.78m) to the US Government and pay a $250,000 (£121,820) fine. He will also serve a prison sentence of between one and two years.
Two other former name partners of New York-based Milberg Weiss, David Bershad and Steven Schulman, also have pleaded guilty in the case brought by Los Angeles federal prosecutors, as have three of plaintiffs who allegedly received around $11m (£5.36m) in kickbacks.
Milberg Weiss co-founder Melvyn Weiss and the firm itself continue to face charges, to which they have pleaded not guilty.
Lerach split from Milberg Weiss in 2004, forming his own plaintiff's firm in California. As part of his plea agreement, prosecutors agreed not to bring charges against that firm, San Diego's Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins.
The New York Law Journal is a US sister title of Legal Week.
Talkback: What does Lerach's guilty plea mean for the plaintiff Bar? Click here to have your say.
Oh the irony of it. If you haven't had the pleasure of reading a Lerach-drafted claim you should try and get hold of one. They are a combination of cod law, heart-tugging sentimentatlity and ham acting. Rarely do they ever come up with anything other than circumstantial evidence and wild allegations. Which is enough in the US system. where the loser in litigation never gets stuck with costs to force people to settle for fear of the huge fees they would rack up in proving what nonsense the allegations were which they could then never recover. All the while Lerach was doing exactly the things he was accusing others of doing! I imagine most general counsels at firms that have had to settle with the class action bar will find it hard to resist feeling a good dollop of schadenfreude...
TJC is wrong on all counts. Lerach's securities fraud lawsuits are not the "same" thing he is alleged to have done. Nor does Lerach's guilty plea in any way cast doubt on his legal cases or settlements. Enron, Worldcom, AOL, and all the rest deserved what they got when shareholders sued them. Liars, one and all.
Finally, securities fraud lawsuits are subject to heightened pleading standards, requiring detailed facts to survive in court. The poster simply has no idea what he's talking about, period. At all.
I’m Glad William Lerach is going to spend some time in the slammer! Fighting fraud with fraud . . . typical plaintiff/democrat. Deception, on any scale, should not be permitted especially by a lawyer. The preamble to the model rules of professional conduct states:
“A lawyer, as a member of the legal profession, is a representative of clients, an officer of the legal system and a public citizen having special responsibility for the quality of justice.”
TWO WRONGS DON’T MAKE A RIGHT!
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