Most attorneys have at least casually followed the Milberg Weiss scandal that has been playing out for the last couple of years. The felony settlement by one of the class-action leaders included some troubling details that many people suspected, but hoped were not true. The partners at Milberg, Bill Lerach and Melvyn Weiss, admitted to felonies and settled for $75 million.
The firm admitted that over the decades, seven former partners paid secret kickbacks to plaintiffs in 165 suits. They also admitted to paying stockbrokers to refer clients to them, as well as paying at least one expert witness who was responsible for calculating damages based on a contingency fee.
By now, this is an old story and has been covered in great detail. If you want more background, you can go here , here, and here . So, all I will add is that Altep is very selective about the firms with whom we partner. In fact, we do not accept cases from plaintiff class-action firms. Instead, we cultivate long-term partnerships with the corporate law department, and the law firms that serve them, rather than the "one-and-done" model. We are confident that this approach promotes higher standards for integrity, trust and professionalism.
James Crane is an attorney, consultant and author with extensive experience in e-discovery management. In his practice, James has defended corporate clients in a variety of complex matters including multi-jurisdictional class actions and internal corporate and government regulatory investigations.
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