LOS ANGELES — One of the nation’s leading class action law firms, Milberg Weiss, and two of its name partners, David Bershad and Steven Schulman, pleaded not guilty here yesterday to a federal indictment charging the firm and the two attorneys with conspiring to make secret and illegal payments to plaintiffs.

Messrs. Bershad and Schulman each said, “Not guilty,” when asked for their responses to the charges during a morning appearance before a federal magistrate, Carolyn Turchin. The plea for the firm, Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP, was entered by a Los Angeles defense attorney, Bryan Daly.

In a scene torn from a Scott Turow novel, the Milberg Weiss attorneys shared the busy Monday arraignment courtroom with defendants known by aliases such as Destructo and Mainline.

Messrs. Bershad and Schulman have been free since their indictment, but most of the 20 or so defendants in other cases were clad in orange or turquoise jail smocks and looked on anxiously from behind a glass partition. The clanging of shackles as the men shuffled in and out added an air of gravity to the proceedings.

If convicted on all charges, Messrs. Bershad and Schulman face possible sentences of up to 60 years in prison, though under federal guidelines any sentences are likely to be substantially shorter.

Milberg Weiss faces possible seizure of up to $216.1 million, the amount of legal fees the firm was awarded in cases in which the government contends the lawyers committed fraud.

During the 15-minute session before Magistrate Turchin, Messrs. Bershad and Schulman said little, giving one-word answers to questions about whether they understood their rights and had received copies of the indictment.

A California entertainment lawyer who served as named plaintiff in numerous securities suits brought by Milberg Weiss, Seymour Lazar, 79, is also charged in the case, along with his personal attorney, Paul Selzer, 65.

Mr. Bershad, 66, and Mr. Schulman, 55, both went on leave from the New York-based firm after they were indicted in May.

The indictment describes a 25-year-long conspiracy in which Mr. Lazar and other plaintiffs received millions of dollars in secret kickbacks for serving in Milberg Weiss cases. Prosecutors contend Milberg Weiss disguised the payments as legal fees to referring attorneys.

The firm’s two best-known partners, Melvyn Weiss and William Lerach, are alluded to repeatedly in the indictment but not charged. Mr. Lerach left Milberg Weiss in a partial break-up of the firm in 2004. A prosecutor, Douglas Axel, said yesterday that another indictment, which might name additional defendants, is “a significant possibility.”

The broad reach of the Milberg Weiss firm, which once boasted of filing half the securities fraud cases in America, has already affected the criminal case’s path through the judicial system. Five federal judges have recused themselves, most citing ties to Milberg Weiss or investments in the companies it sued.At a hearing yesterday afternoon, the latest judge assigned to the case, John Walter, recounted the case’s long journey and said, “I don’t intend to recuse myself.”

However, Judge Walter went on to disclose a series of connections that put him closer to the action in the case than any of the judges who have already stepped aside.Judge Walter said that before joining the bench he represented an unnamed witness in the investigation of an art-related insurance fraud scheme that led to the Milberg Weiss probe.A Beverly Hills, Calif., ophthalmologist and named plaintiff in dozens of Milberg Weiss cases, Steven Cooperman, pleaded guilty in the staged art theft and has been cooperating with prosecutors.

Judge Walter said he remembered a phone conversation in the 1990s in which he gave his client’s information about the location of a painting to an investigator, whose name he could not recall.

The senior prosecutor in the courtroom, Richard Robinson, promptly rose and said he had taken the call.

“I can finally figure out who it was,” Judge Walter said.

The judge also said he represented a defense contractor, Northrop Aircraft Inc., that was the target of a derivative securities lawsuit by the Milberg Weiss firm in 1988.

“Mr. Lerach was around a lot,” Judge Walter said. The judge said he saw no connection between the Northrop case and the criminal charges, but Mr. Robinson suggested that case may also have been part of the alleged fraud by Milberg Weiss.

“There are facts and circumstances relating to that case that may become part of this case,” Mr. Robinson said.

Judge Walter hinted that he would welcome a motion seeking his disqualification. “Believe me, I won’t be offended,” he said.

No trial date was set yesterday, but defense lawyers asked for a year or more to prepare.

Milberg Weiss issued a statement yesterday predicting the firm’s vindication and calling the charges “unprecedented and unfair.”

The firm’s partners have retained high-powered criminal lawyers to represent them in a case that seems all but certain to go to trial. Mr. Bershad’s defense team includes a Washington attorney, Robert Luskin, who recently convinced a special prosecutor not to bring charges against President Bush’s top political adviser, Karl Rove, in an investigation into the leak of a CIA officer’s identity.

The defense lawyer indicated yesterday that the charges were retribution for Mr. Bershad’s career suing large corporations. “The powerful are striking back,” Mr. Luskin said.

Prosecutors have denied that political influence played any role in the case.