Legal News

The Blogosphere on Bill (and Steve and David and Mel)

By Dan Slater

For all those who were out yesterday, Bill Lerach, the first former Milberg Weiss partner to be sentenced for his role in paying kickbacks to plaintiffs in class-actions, has received two years in federal prison, the maximum sentence under his plea agreement. Today, the blogosphere is abuzz. Two questions keep showing up:

First, does Lerach’s sentence mean that the legal system is tougher on wayward shareholder lawyers than it is on wrong-doing corporate executives? And second, what does the conclusion to the Lerach saga mean for the other two cooperators in the case, Steven Schulman and David Bershad, and for Mel Weiss, who’s vowed to go to trial to clear his nam?

Here’s the Law Blog round-up:

• Is Bernie Ebbers Envious?: The WSJ Editorial board calls Lerach “a lucky man,” while also admonishing him for shirking full responsibility in an op-ed he published in the WaPo last November. (A piece that, notes the editorial board, it declined to publish.) In the op-ed, Lerach claimed the law is tougher on lawyers than on Wall Street executives. Writes the editorial board: “We doubt WorldCom’s Bernie Ebbers, serving not two but 25 years, agrees.”
• Spin it anyway you want: Douglas Berman, the author of The Sentencing Law and Policy blog, calls the outcome “unsurprising” and says it can be spun in so many ways. “This was the max Lerach could get under the plea agreement, so this is arguably a win for federal prosecutors,” writes Berman. “But . . . Lerach had put together such a favorable plea agreement, federal prosecutors at sentencing were forced to recommend a below-guideline sentence.”
• Upping the Ante for Mel Weiss: Among Lerach’s former partners, Schulman and Bershad have each provided information to prosecutors. So, says Peter Henning of the White Collar Crime Prof Blog, the greatest anxiety is being felt by Mel Weiss who, according to Henning, could face as much as ten years in prison. “The trial penalty that could be assessed if Weiss is convicted on all counts will be substantial,” writes Henning, “and he would likely receive a far longer sentence than his erstwhile partner Lerach, who will probably be out of prison not all that long after Weiss’ trial is concluded, if it takes place.”

A Law Blog Swan Song: The original LB, Peter Lattman, penned his last legal-beat article today on Bill Lerach. In a wide-ranging talk with Lattman at Lerach’s home in La Jolla, Calif., Lerach looks back at his career and the case, and ahead to prison and his life after it. See excerpts from the interview here.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 12, 2008 (boomark / email).