The notorious law firm Milberg Weiss has put up a website with their initial PR defense against their indictment yesterday on conspiracy charges. It’s an interesting exercise in talking past the issue at hand:

“The Justice Department’s case against Milberg Weiss is based on unprecedented legal theories, unsubstantiated allegations, and a dubious interpretation of how class action litigation is adjudicated.”

Yes, the fact that no other firm has been charged with such crimes does make the Justice Department’s theory “unprecedented” — but not wrong. Yet more cleverness follows — until proven, aren’t the allegations unsubstantiated by definition?

“It is unconscionable that the Justice Department is seeking to indict the entire Firm of 363 people on such a flawed foundation.”

What they don’t say: “Of course, the associates, paralegals, legal secretaries, and support staff really didn’t share in our massive recoveries. Did we mention our children and pets?”

The firm — which files an average of more than one class action per week — has never let the impact of its lawsuits on a targeted company get in the way of a good contingency fee.

“Milberg Weiss is a recognized leader in class action litigation with over 560 ongoing cases and $45 billion in total recoveries for consumers and investors since its inception. The Justice Department’s misguided case is a major blow to consumer rights and not in keeping with its commitment to serve the public good.”

Under those guidelines, no plaintiff’s attorney or firm could ever be charged with wrongdoing!

Milberg Weiss’ interest in the public good has manifested itself after years of shaking down technology companies after unexpected drops in their stock prices. According to the WSJ, yesterday’s indictment of the firm and two partners laid out charges of conspiracy, racketeering, mail fraud, money laundering, and filing false tax returns. Courtesy the WSJ, here is the indictment, and here is a summary from the U.S. Attorney (both pdf).

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This entry was posted on Friday, May 19th, 2006 at 2:06 pm by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under How Not To Succeed In Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.