Font Size: 
Lerach to Plead Guilty, Serve 1 to 2 Years
Controversial plaintiffs attorney cuts deal to accept some guilt, and prison term, in long-running Milberg Weiss kickback probe
The Recorder
September 18, 2007
It took seven years, but Los Angeles federal prosecutors are finally on the verge of putting famed plaintiffs lawyer William Lerach in federal prison.
Several people briefed on the case said Monday that Lerach and the prosecutors had agreed on a binding deal in which Lerach's lawyers would ask for a sentence of 12 months and prosecutors would seek 24 months.
If U.S. District Judge John Walter does not want to sentence Lerach within that range, the deal would be scuttled.
The agreement, said people familiar with the case, would have Lerach pay a fine of $8 million, and would get his former firm -- now known as Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins -- out from under the investigation.
Lerach announced late last month that he would be retiring. He left the firm on Aug. 29.
Lerach has been the target of L.A. federal prosecutors since 2000, when a Beverly Hills ophthalmologist aiming to lessen his prison sentence for insurance fraud told the government that he had been given illegal kickbacks by Lerach while serving as a lead plaintiff in securities class actions.
Steven Cooperman's information sparked a wide-ranging probe of Lerach and his former law firm, which is now known as Milberg Weiss. (Lerach split from that firm in 2004 to start San Diego-based Lerach Couglin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins.)
Since then, the Milberg Weiss firm and two of its former name partners -- Steven Schulman and David Bershad -- have been indicted. Bershad entered a guilty plea in the kickback scheme earlier this year, and people familiar with the case have recently said Schulman is still negotiating with prosecutors.
They also said plea talks between the government and Milberg Weiss founding partner Melvyn Weiss have stalled, and that Weiss may be indicted, too.
Lerach's lawyer, John Keker of San Francisco's Keker & Van Nest, could not be reached by press time Monday, and one of his partners did not immediately return a call.
Bryan Daly, a lawyer for Milberg Weiss, also did not return a call late Monday.
Reached on his cell phone late Monday afternoon, Lerach referred questions to a firm spokesman for official comment. The spokesman, Dan Newman, told a receptionist to direct a reporter to voicemail; he did not return the message by press time.
