Legal News

New York Plaintiffs? Lawyer Pleads to Felony

By Nathan Koppel

Another plaintiffs’ lawyer of note has landed in hot water. Joining the ranks of Bill Lerach, Mel Weiss, and Richard Scruggs, New York attorney Menachem Lifshitz has pleaded guilty to a crime ─a felony charge of falsifying his 2005 income tax return, the New York Law Journal reported today.

Lifshitz had been a name partner of Bernstein, Liebhard & Lifshitz, a powerful plaintiffs firm in the world of securities class actions. The firm has securities suits pending against Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., Marsh & McLennan (Lifshitz was co-lead counsel in the case), and Fannie Mae.

According to this cached version of Lifshitz’s bio page, he has negotiated more than $200 million in securities settlements.

Lifshitz will not serve jail time, but he pay will pay $4.8 million in back taxes and interest and resign from the bar. His criminal defense lawyer is none other than Benjamin Brafman, who represented Mel Weiss in the Milberg case.

In a statement, Bernstein Liebhard said Lifshitz had resigned from the firm and that his tax issue did not “relate to the firm, its clients or any of the firm’s cases.”

The New York Post also has an item today on the plea, noting that Lifshitz has donated big money to Democratic campaigns, including to Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on November 21, 2008 (boomark / email).