Bill Lerach, heavy hitting securities class action lawyer formerly of Milberg Weiss, and now convicted felon, just wrote a fascinating article for Conde Nast. While it contains the typical attacks leveled by criminal defendants regarding the prosecutors' motives and the government's supposedly overwhelming power, the more interesting part of his piece is the full-throated defense of payments to class action payments. Lerach even invokes Brown v. Board of Education, arguing that no one would think it criminal if the class action plaintiffs in that case received a fee for their troubles.
Do the benefits of paying class-action plaintiffs a fee outweigh the costs? My strong sense is they do not, and paying plaintiffs is most unfair to honest class action lawyers who are unwilling or unable to do so.
In a way, the debate reminds me of the current dispute about whether college athletes should be paid.
There, too, I think paying college athletes disadvantages schools who are uncomfortable with or financially ill-suited for such an endeavor.
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