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A New York state judge has joined a notorious plaintiff class action law firm that was indicted on federal racketeering charges and seen several of its former name partners sent to jail after their felony convictions. The judge, Herman Cahn, joined Milberg LLP only months after issuing a ruling that was favorable to the indicted law firm and its jailed standard bearer Mel Weiss.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Class-action lawsuit king Melvyn Weiss pleaded guilty on Wednesday to U.S. racketeering charges in connection with a scheme to pay kickbacks to plaintiffs, apologizing to his former law firm and saying he deeply regretted his conduct. The Bronx-born Weiss, who pioneered high-stakes shareholder litigation in U.S. courts, pleaded guilty to a single count of racketeering conspiracy as part of an agreement with federal prosecutors. As part of the plea deal the 72-year-old attorney, who landed some $1 billion in settlements for investors hurt by the Drexel Burnham Lambert junk bond scandal in the 1980s, faces between...

Weiss pleads guilty; Clinton silentMar 21, 2008 3:00 AM (2 days ago) by Quin Hillyer, The Examiner WASHINGTON- Pioneering securities class-action lawyer Melvyn Weiss agreed yesterday to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy in the Justice Department’s prosecution of the New York firm that carried his name for many years. Weiss thus became the fourth named partner in the firm to plead guilty in the past year to participating in an $11.7 million kickback scheme government prosecutors said began in 1979 and resulted in more than $200 million in tainted legal fees in an estimated 150 cases filed by...

Democratic rivals mum on firm’s dirty cashMar 20, 2008 3:00 AM (17 hrs ago) by Quin Hillyer, The Examiner WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has received more campaign money from disgraced lawyers at the controversial Milberg Weiss law firm than any other member of Congress, but she won’t say whether she’ll keep the contributions. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, Clinton’s chief rival for their party’s nomination, received much less money from the same lawyers but is likewise mum. Clinton received $21,971 and Obama $5,300 from four senior partners of the firm or their spouses. Presumptive Republican nominee John...

William S. Lerach, who won billions of dollars for defrauded investors in class-action cases, was sentenced yesterday to two years in prison, ending up on the wrong end of the justice system after a legendary legal career. The prominent California plaintiff lawyer recovered more than $7 billion for Enron shareholders before pleading guilty to a conspiracy charge last October. He will serve his time in a facility to be determined by prison officials. The sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge John F. Walter in Los Angeles yesterday was far higher than the six months in prison and six months' home...

The barons of the tort bar must have thought 2007 would be a very good year: Some of their biggest cases (Katrina, Enron) were set to pay out, and a Democratic Congress meant no more worries about legal reform. Talk about reversal of fortune: As the year ends, we are witnessing nothing short of the dismantling of what are alleged to be major tort criminal enterprises. Bill Lerach, the king of class actions, stands disgraced as an admitted felon. His former partners at Milberg Weiss face trial for being part of the same kickback scheme as Lerach. Federal prosecutors continue...

WASHINGTON -- John Edwards launched his slight public career -- one Senate term, two presidential candidacies -- with the money and reputation he made as a trial lawyer. Today he is the candidate of a small fraction of the electorate but a sizable portion of America's trial lawyers. Edwards says Washington is "corrupt." Well. Within Edwards' lucrative trial bar constituency, there has been a flurry of criminal indictments. Their target has been what Fortune magazine calls the law firm of Hubris Hypocrisy and Greed. (See Peter Elkind's jaw-dropping report in the issue of Nov. 13, 2006.) The real name of...

Lawyer Pleads Guilty in Kickback Case By GREG RISLING LOS ANGELES (AP) — William Lerach, a former partner at a prestigious New York law firm, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy for his role in a scheme to bribe people to become plaintiffs in lucrative class-action lawsuits. Asked by U.S. District Judge John Walter how he would plead to the charge, Lerach answered, "Guilty, your honor." Lerach, 61, pleaded to one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements. The plea deal also calls for him to forfeit $7.75 million to the government and accept a sentence of one...

Over the years, as it became Exhibit A for critics of shareholders’ class-action lawsuits, the law firm of Milberg Weiss often enjoyed the support of Democrats who called the suits an invaluable weapon in the universal conflict between big business and the little guy. The Democrats, in turn, enjoyed the support of Milberg Weiss and its partners, who together contributed more than $7 million to the party’s candidates since the 1980s. Last year, the firm was indicted on federal charges of fraud and bribery. But the political partnership has not been entirely severed. Since the indictment, 26 Democrats around the...

FOR YEARS, few things terrified a Silicon Valley executive more than trial lawyer Bill Lerach. "Being Lerached" meant a courtroom showdown with the wily, ferocious lawyer, who usually extracted fat settlements from companies accused of stock manipulations. He moved mountains, collecting $7 billion for Enron shareholders. His law firm had a lineup of clients that included the UC Board of Regents and public pension funds in New York and Ohio. When a high-flying stock fell to earth, he was the go-to guy that investors used to get even. Companies caved, knowing insurance would cover much of it. Except his methods...

The fall of San Diego trial lawyer William S. Lerach may end his reign as Wall Street's king of pain, but the class-action lawsuit industry he helped create has become an established reality for corporate America. William S. Lerach: "I ... crossed a line and pushed too far.” Lerach, 61, admitted in a plea agreement that prosecutors filed yesterday that he participated in a scheme that secretly paid kickbacks to recruit plaintiffs for more than 150 class-action lawsuits brought against U.S. companies. As part of the deal, Lerach agreed to forfeit $7.75 million in unlawful gains, pay a $250,000 fine...

William S. Lerach, one of the nation's best known and wealthiest plaintiff lawyers, is preparing to plead guilty as early as today to a single criminal conspiracy charge that could send him to prison for up to two years, according to sources familiar with the case. Lerach, 61, resigned from his California law firm last month after intense speculation about his personal exposure in a lengthy federal criminal investigation. At the time, he said he wanted "to focus single-mindedly on putting the matter behind me once and for all." During his heyday, Lerach won settlements worth billions of dollars from...

Barney Frank is a busy guy, so we suppose it's no great surprise that he used a ghost writer for his recent Supreme Court amicus brief in a big securities tort case. Imagine our surprise, however, to learn that the ghost is none other than tort kingpin Bill Lerach's favorite lobbying outfit.

A former senior partner of a pioneering law firm that won billions for clients in securities fraud cases pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy. The plea agreement by Milberg Weiss ex-partner David Bershad in what the government has described as a kickback scheme ratchets up the pressure on William S. Lerach and co-founder Melvyn I. Weiss. The New York-based firm made its name launching shareholder suits against major corporations and recovered more than $45 billion for investors in such cases. Lerach left Milberg in 2004 to open a San Diego-based practice that quickly became one of the top securities class-action firms,...

For decades, few things have inspired as much fear and loathing in the executive suites of corporate America as the law firm of Milberg Weiss and the two outsized personalities who ruled the place, Mel Weiss and Bill Lerach. Through creativity and ruthlessness, they transformed the humble securities class-action lawsuit into a deadly weapon.Always, Milberg Weiss cast itself as the champion of the little guy. In media interviews Lerach has spoken evocatively about fighting for the honest, struggling blue-collar worker who, through no fault of his own, had lost his hard-earned savings to corporate perfidy. The firm boasts of having...

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A top class-action law firm and two of its partners pleaded not guilty to charges of secretly paying more than $11 million in kickbacks to get people to take part in shareholder lawsuits. At the second of two hearings Monday, Prosecutor Douglas Axel said there is a "significant possibility" of a future superseding indictment being filed, which may add additional claims and parties. Also pleading not guilty Monday in federal court were Seymour M. Lazar, who is accused of acting as a paid plaintiff in some of the firm's cases, and Paul T. Selzer, who is...

Investors whom indicted class-action law firm Milberg Weiss paid to sue some of America's biggest companies were willing patsies who snapped up stocks the firm targeted as ripe for a fall, according to an attorney who worked with the firm. Milberg, in hot water with federal authorities for allegedly paying an investor $2.4 million to act as a plaintiff in dozens of lawsuits, actively coordinated its efforts to invest in companies that were likely to have a major stock-price decline. When these companies reported an operational or financial decline, this allowed Milberg to have a willing plaintiff for an initial...

For years, the securities class-action law firm of Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman sparked fear and uncertainty in executive suites and corporate boardrooms across the country. These days, however, the firm finds itself on the hot seat as it faces the possibility of an indictment in connection with a six-year federal investigation into whether the firm made illegal payments to clients. An indictment, while it would not prevent the firm from practicing law, would have dire consequences for its business. Negotiations to avert an indictment of the firm have stepped up in recent weeks. But by this week, hopes for...

...If a recent federal indictment that refers to Milberg Weiss is anything to go by, the trial bar has its Enron.... Sham "screenings" to round up asbestos plaintiffs, forum shopping for friendly juries, "coupon" settlements that enrich only lawyers and frivolous lawsuits have all become staples of today's tort system. Yet they have received almost no media, much less legal, scrutiny. ...The focus of the charges is retired Palm Springs lawyer Seymour Lazar, who seems to have had a second career as a plaintiff in Milberg Weiss lawsuits. From 1976 to 2004, Mr. Lazar and family members... served as named...

A California man has been charged with taking illegal kickbacks to act as a plaintiff in dozens of corporate class-action lawsuits filed by Milberg Weiss, a move that brings a three-year federal probe to the door of one of the leading U.S. securities law firms. The indictment handed down by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles on Thursday comes as prosecutors try to make a case that Milberg Weiss improperly paid plaintiffs to file lawsuits against publicly traded companies. A spokeswoman for the law firm said on Friday that Milberg Weiss had been subpoenaed in connection with the investigation...