This looks pretty major, pattern-and-practice-wise:
John B. Torkelsen, a former expert witness for Milberg Weiss, has agreed to plead guilty to perjury, admitting he lied to a federal court judge in a securities class action case about how he was getting paid.
Prosecutors in the Milberg Weiss case have been eyeing Torkelsen for years.
I wonder whether this will put a crimp in the image rehabilitation op-ed stylings of Bill “My Only Sin Was To Love the People Too Much” Lerach. The implications could ripple out to other class-action firms as well: “In an announcement about the plea agreement on Thursday, prosecutors claim that Torkelsen was retained by several firms” and that the other firms engaged in misbehavior akin to that of Torkelsen’s handlers at Milberg. (Amanda Bronstad, “Former Milberg Weiss Expert Witness Agrees to Plead Guilty to Perjury”, National Law Journal, Feb. 29). Our earlier coverage of Torkelsen is here.
One Comment
As a lawyer I find this both cause for joy and dispair. Joy in that a legal cancer is finally being removed. Dispair over complicity by and the silence from the ABA – the main bar association for lawyers has been a major supporter of scum like this firm and the resulting low regard the public holds of the legal profession. I am constantly frustrated that I must pay dues to an organization which never polls its members before taking outrageous positions on matters of legal importance. Why hasn’t the ABA debated the wisdom of collaboration by the trial bar and various State attorney generals? Talk about getting whipsawed – it’s almost like dealing with organized crime since the accused has a gun pointed at their heads before the trial is even underway and then faces a full frontal assault by all the power a state can muster. I look forward to the day I can resign from this tawdry and hypocritical orgainzation – that has a hamerlock on my license to make a living.