* You've got mail! And you better hold on to it. [CNN]

* Both sides shooting to get SCOTUS to hear D.C. gun case. [New York Times]

* Milberg Weiss asking for home court advantage in trial. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Can anybody do anything based on the Mitchell Report? [Sports Illustrated]

* O.J. freshly squeezed by a second co-defendant. [AP via Athens Banner-Herald]

* Law professors get appointed to do everything. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

* Nevada holds off on an execution, waiting on SCOTUS. [Reno Gazette-Journal]

* Weiss pleads not guilty. [Jurist]

* iPoison. [PC World]

* Didn't they just execute somebody with an electric chair? And this is what gets them in trouble with the Constitution? [Jurist]

* Mel Weiss to be indicted. [New York Times]

* Oh, Al Sharpton, you're incorrigible. [CNN]

* Judge withdraws jury instruction in Spector case; has he set up an easy appeal if there's a conviction? [CNN]

After we mentioned the departure of indicted partner Steven Schulman from the indicted law firm Milberg Weiss, some of you had funny things to say. See, e.g., this comment.

As it turns out, there were reasons unrelated to federal criminal charges for Steve Schulman to leave Milberg. From Legal Pad:

Schulman’s deal with the firm required that upon his departure, he receive a sum based on Milberg’s income during his last year at the firm. With 2005 a considerably better (as in, indictment-free) year for the firm than 2006, the partner had a real incentive to leave. Indeed, we’re told that by departing before the end of 2006, he’s in line to get about $5 million more than if he had waited.

It's all about the benjamins, baby. You can take the lawyer out of the plaintiffs' firm; but you can't take the plaintiffs' firm out of the lawyer.

And that $5 million could come in handy if Schulman does strike a plea deal — something that, according to lawyers familiar with the case, has not happened yet, but very well could. We hear that Schulman is open to the idea, and his switch of attorneys earlier this year — from the NY brawler Ed Hayes to former federal Judge Herb Stern — would seem to lend itself to negotiations. The hitch is that if he were to flip, Schulman would probably have to offer up a superior or two, namely Melvyn Weiss or William Lerach.

Very interesting. We know many lawyers who have worked with Judge Stern, and some say that at times he can be difficult, controlling, and arrogant (although you'd be too if you were an ex-Article III judge). But it's certainly true that he's not as much of a street-fighter as Ed Hayes, one of the deans of the Mafia defense bar (along with Bruce Cutler and Gerald Shargel).

The prospect of Schulman flipping on Mel Weiss or Bill Lerach is dizzying. The glee among Fortune 500 general counsels and Biglaw securities lawyers -- and the Schadenfreude among less successful plaintiffs' lawyers -- would be boundless. Happy Kwanzaa!

5 Million Reasons to Quit Milberg [Legal Pad / Cal Law]
Partner at Law Firm Resigns to Focus on Criminal Charges Against Him [New York Times]
Steven G. Schulman bio [Milberg Weiss]

Earlier: Musical Chairs: 12.13.06

One of our favorite legal reporters, Anna Schneider-Mayerson of the New York Observer -- a paper that is, by the way, now under new ownership -- chimes in on the slow death of securities class-action behemoth Milberg Weiss (headed by Melvyn Weiss, pictured).

Most of her piece summarizes recent developments that have been reported previously elsewhere. But the article does contain some nice color, including details about the indicted firm's summer party on board an enormous yacht.

Some of our favorite anecdotes, after the jump.