Lerach. Is Back.
Say it slowly and it (a) sounds dramatic and (b) rhymes. Actually, though, Bill Lerach is not really "back." He has been
disbarred following his felony conviction in connection with a class action kickback scheme and is most definitely in "early retirement," as he puts it.
But if Lerach is not back, he is at least out. He was released from federal custody this week after serving his sentence (he had already been under home confinement since late 2009), and is now once again a free man.
Reuters
reports that Lerach says he will not miss his former "frenetic life of a litigator," and hopes to now teach and work with progressive economic groups to brainstorm public policy. He also was adamant that there "will be another financial fraud wave if serious changes aren't made. We keep repeating the same mistakes. There is no real legal or economic accountability of the people on Wall Street."
Lerach says he watched the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the ensuing financial crisis unfold on CNBC while serving time in an Arizona correctional facility. He believes we have a "compensation system of corporate executives and bank executives that really encourages them to take extraordinary risks," but without legal accountability to the government, shareholders or the corporation."
Lerach also lamented that America has "lost its appetite" for private civil litigation. "It's been viewed as too expensive and too inefficient a way to police corporate behavior or compensate plaintiffs. The shame is that nothing will replace it."