Three Health Care Lawyers Said To Be Leaving Milberg Weiss
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An Alabama law firm is reportedly poised to poach the health care-related practice of a New York-based class-action firm recently indicted on conspiracy charges, Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP.
Three Milberg Weiss partners, Joseph Guglielmo, Edith Kallas, and Deborah Clark-Weintraub, have agreed to leave the firm and join a new New York office being set up by an Alabama firm, Whatley Drake LLC, according to a San Francisco legal newspaper, the Recorder.
The departures are among the first of what Milberg Weiss rivals expect will be an exodus of attorneys in the wake of the May 18 indictment of the firm and two of its name partners, David Bershad and Steven Schulman, on federal charges they disguised illegal kickbacks to plaintiffs in securities cases. The firm and the two lawyers have denied the allegations.
Some lawyers have also warned that Milberg Weiss could lose control of class-action cases it is pursuing, but the firm is calling attention to a Missouri federal judge’s statement last week suggesting that no action of that sort be taken until the criminal charges are resolved.
“There’s a presumption of innocence that rings soundly here,” Judge Richard Webber said during discussion. “Until the court is put on notice that other action needs to be taken, that’s the end of it for purposes of this hearing.”
