Legal News

After Blago, McDonald?s and George Ryan, Brad Lerman Heads to Pfizer

By Dan Slater

For law firm watchers, one of the more interesting aspects of the political scandal surrounding Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was his choice of lawyer. Five years ago, when the feds began probing various allegations of corruption, Blago and his campaign tapped Winston & Strawn’s Bradley Lerman, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago. The firm billed Blago close to $2 million in 2006 and 2007, but Blago stiffed Winston to the tune of at least $500,000. (Not surprisingly, perhaps, Blago is now going with different counsel.)

And Lerman is saying sayonara to Winston & Strawn. Pfizer announced today that Lerman (Yale, Harvard Law) is going to lead the company’s litigation efforts and report to GC Amy Schulman, the former DLA litigator — and gym rat — who landed the company’s top legal job back in May.

Lerman’s other representations: He served as lead counsel for McDonald’s in the recent wave of obesity litigation, and repped Phillip Morris in smoking and health care litigation.

Prior to joining Winston & Strawn, Lerman was a Kirkland & Ellis partner and served as AUSA in the Northern District of Illinois for eight years. He also gave Winston’s star litigator, Dan Webb, a hand in the pro bono representation of former Illinois governor George Ryan, whom U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald indicted in 2003 for allegedly steering state contracts in return for cash payments, vacations, and other gifts.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on December 22, 2008 (boomark / email).