Bill Lerach and John Edwards: BFFs?
As we mentioned in passing yesterday, infamous plaintiffs’ lawyer William Learch will be pleading to a federal conspiracy charge, related to his involvement in Milberg Weiss’s secret scheme to make payments to name plaintiffs in class-action cases. Under the deal that was so skillfully cut by Lerach’s lawyer, John Keker of Keker & Van Nest, Lerach will cough up $8 million in forfeiture and fines and serve one to two years in federal prison.
Is Bill Lerach getting off easy? Quite possibly. But a judge still has to sign off on the deal.
Not surprisingly, Lerach spread his cash around liberally among several Democratic candidates for president. But his favorite was fellow plaintiffs’ lawyer John Edwards. From Ben Smith over at Politico:
Edwards and Biden each gave away money from Lerach; no word yet on whether Hillary will give back the money he gave her 2006 Senate campaign.
Edwards, though, is particularly tied to him. Though he’s giving away the $4,600 from Lerach, Lerach is also listed as a bundler, and employees of the lawyer’s firm are his third-largest group of donors, mostly giving in the first quarter.
If we had to choose between disgraced Democratic fundraisers, we’d pick Norman Hsu over Bill Lerach any day. That Hsu is so cute — he looks like a Treasure Troll! And he didn’t intend to skip out on court the other day. He was “sick and confused,” you see, and “may have thought he was boarding a Bay Area Rapid Transit train when he instead caught an Amtrak train heading out of the state.”
The Lerach Case [Politico]
Fortunes Darken for Lawyer Melvyn Weiss [New York Sun]
Bill Lerach Agrees to Plead Guilty [WSJ Law Blog]
Is Bill Lerach Getting Off Easy? [WSJ Law Blog]
Hsu Didn’t Intend To Skip Court, Spokesman Says [CBS5.com]
Sponsored
![How To Build And Manage Your Law Firm Rate Sheet](https://abovethelaw.com/uploads/2024/05/graph-3033203_1280-300x169.jpg)
How To Build And Manage Your Law Firm Rate Sheet
![Not All Legal AI Is Created Equal](https://abovethelaw.com/uploads/2024/06/cocounsel.jpg)
Not All Legal AI Is Created Equal
![How Savvy Lawyers Build Their Law Firm Rate Sheet](https://abovethelaw.com/uploads/2024/05/e-commerce-402822_1280-300x200.jpg)
How Savvy Lawyers Build Their Law Firm Rate Sheet
![A Law Firm Checklist For Successful Transaction Management](https://abovethelaw.com/uploads/2024/06/TR-Platform-law-firm-checklist-300x124.png)
A Law Firm Checklist For Successful Transaction Management
![Trust The Process: How To Build And Manage Workflows In Law Firms](https://abovethelaw.com/uploads/2024/06/stopwatch-5646500_1280-300x200.jpg)
Trust The Process: How To Build And Manage Workflows In Law Firms
![Trust The Process: How To Build And Manage Workflows In Law Firms](https://abovethelaw.com/uploads/2024/06/stopwatch-5646500_1280-300x200.jpg)
Trust The Process: How To Build And Manage Workflows In Law Firms
![How To Build And Manage Your Law Firm Rate Sheet](https://abovethelaw.com/uploads/2024/05/graph-3033203_1280-300x169.jpg)