Two former Milberg partners have sued the law firm’s founder, Melvyn I. Weiss, and the three other firm leaders recently convicted of participating in a scheme that paid kickbacks to class action plaintiffs, claiming the four men’s illegal conduct constituted a breach of their fiduciary duty to their partners.
The suits, which came just one day after federal prosecutors agreed to drop criminal charges against Milberg itself in exchange for the payment of $75 million in fines, could be the beginning of a tide of litigation against Weiss, William S. Lerach, David J. Bershad and Steven G. Schulman, the former Milberg name partners who have pleaded guilty over the past several months to orchestrating the kickback scheme.
