Following on this post from over the weekend regarding the developments in the ongoing criminal investigation of lawyers in two firms who used to practice together in the well-known plaintiffs class action law firm formerly known as Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach, this Wall Street Journal ($) article reports that Paul L. Tullman, a former stockbroker and lawyer who referred clients for class action cases to the firm, is cooperating with federal investigators in their criminal investigation of the way in which the firm recruited class representatives in the class action cases that the firm handled. Mr. Tullman was charged with in May 2004 with fraud and false statements on tax returns, and the WSJ reports that he copped a plea late last year. The plea agreement remains under seal.
As Professor Ribstein has pointed out, there is already a witch hunt aura to the government’s recent public disclosures regarding its investigation into Milberg Weiss’ practices. Referral fees in all types of lawsuits have been common and legal for decades, and there is not even an allegation yet — much less proof — that Milberg Weiss failed to disclose any such fees in either its tax filings or disclosures to the various federal courts in the various class action cases. Nevertheless, the government is using leaks of information to play to the general public’s resentment toward wealthy lawyers in turning up the pressure in its investigation of Milberg Weiss. Business interests may consider Milbert Weiss’ current plight sweet irony, but that does not make what the government is doing right.
As noted in this earlier post regarding Eliot Spitzer’s similar tactic toward former AIG chairman and CEO, Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, after over five years of investigating Milberg Weiss, if the government has a case against the firm, then it should get on with it.