Securities class action firm Milberg Weiss is in the news again (as in, the law firm that might be indicted for conspiracy — that Milberg Weiss). And this Milberg Weiss:

Fraud-Tainted Law Firm Is #1 Source of Law Biz Contributions To Barbara Boxer

Many Democrats Received Funds From Law Firm Targeted By Grand Jury

Milberg Weiss announced this week that two partners in the firm, David Bershad and Steven Schulman, would take a leave of absence. According to the Los Angeles Times, Bershad and Schulman were told in February that they would likely face charges related to illegal kickbacks to clients.

Their exit from day-to-day involvement may be an attempt to curry favor with prosecutors and avoid an indictment of the entire firm. Such a charge would likely be a death sentence for the partnership.

Bershad and Schulman were party to Milberg Weiss’ generosity to Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and other Democratic candidates. Bershad gave Boxer $2k in the 2001-2005 (latest data available) and $73k to all candidates — as far as we can tell, all Dems. Schulman also contributed $2k to Boxer out of $36k total.

These are unusually generous amounts, even by corporate criminal standards. How do they stack up against a rogues gallery from the last five years? Here’s what others gave:

Adelphia’s Rigas clan (James, John, Michael, Timothy): $43k — all but $6k to cable industry or Adelphia PACs, not specific candidates.

Ken Lay: $12k

Jeffrey Skilling: $3k — to Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY)!

Richard Scrushy: $1k to former Senator Max Cleland (D-GA)

Congrats to the Milberg Weiss team! And you have to wonder — will Howard Dean have to start fundraising at the pen?

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That first post on the Boxer – Milberg Weiss relationship showed that

(Boxer) received a total $1.5m in contributions from law firms and their affiliates in the 2004 cycle, more than from any other industry. But not just any type of law firm — Boxer is Exhibit A for the trial lawyer – Democratic party symbiosis. Of the six law firms among her 20 largest contributors in the 2004 cycle, only one — the smallest — seems to have a practice outside plaintiff work.

and in exchange, one has to believe, she blocked legislation intended to constrain them:

Ten years ago, the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 was intended to curb the worst shareholder class action excesses. Boxer acted against the interests of California technology companies and was one of only thirty senators who supported President Clinton’s veto of the bill. The veto was overridden. The next year, when Milberg Weiss partner William Lerach crafted California Proposition 211 to undermine the new federal law, she failed to oppose it (Sen. Diane Feinstein, among others, spoke out against it; it was defeated in a landslide).

Technorati Tags: Barbara Boxer, class action, contributions, Milberg Weiss, politics, shareholder

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 18th, 2006 at 5:44 pm by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under Barbara Boxer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.