William Lerach: 'Robin Hood' lawyer who terrorised corporate America

William Lerach, the lawyer who portrayed himself as a gladiator against boardroom chicanery, became a symbol of corruption and greed himself when he was jailed in 2008.

"John Grisham would have struggled to have invented a character as brilliant and unethical as Bill Lerach," says The Wall Street Journal. The lawyer who terrorised corporate America for three decades portraying himself as a gladiator against boardroom chicanery became a national symbol of corruption and greed himself in 2008 when he was jailed for "one of the longest-running legal scams in history".

And he may soon be back in the fray, says the FT. Having spent most of the financial crisis in prison, railing against the institutions he once pursued, he is due for official release this month. A pioneer of the "class action" corporate lawsuit, Lerach and his partner, Mel Weiss, were the heroes of many small investors whose savings and pensions they helped recover. Their targets read like a Who's Who of corporate America, including Goldman Sachs, Enron, and Lerach's particular speciality Silicon Valley. At the peak of their notoriety in the mid-1990s, their firm, Milberg Weiss, commanded 25% of all securities class actions in the US. Profits in 1993 exceeded £100m. By 2004 when the partnership underwent an acrimonious split their "lawsuit factory" had extracted in excess of $45bn from American firms.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up
MoneyWeek

MoneyWeek is written by a team of experienced and award-winning journalists, plus expert columnists. As well as daily digital news and features, MoneyWeek also publishes a weekly magazine, covering investing and personal finance. From share tips, pensions, gold to practical investment tips - we provide a round-up to help you make money and keep it.