|
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The indictment of a leading class-action law firm and two of its partners on charges of paying millions of dollars in kickbacks to clients will affect its large portfolio of ongoing lawsuits and its future prospects, experts said Friday.
With more than 500 active shareholder suits pending against public companies, and more than $637 million in settlements last year, New York-based Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman is one of the toughest players in the bare-knuckles world of shareholder litigation.
Over the years, Milberg Weiss has gone against a virtual roster of household-name companies, including Standard Oil, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Krispy Kreme. In the 10-year period ending in 2005, the firm was either lead counsel or co-lead counsel in almost half the nation's securities class-action settlements, said Lisa Rickard, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for Legal Reform. Those cases netted $1.7 billion in legal fees and costs, she added.
|
|