Will Prickett Quoted in MarketWatch.com

The MarketWach Tech Investor column on May 20 entitled "With Milberg Weiss on the ropes, rivals moving in" noting that the recent "federal indictment of the nation's most prominent law firm dedicated to shareholder class-action suits will likely change the landscape for such securities complaints -- but not in a way non-lawyers might think. Indeed, far from fostering restraint, the government's decision to charge Milberg Weiss Bershad and Schulman with making illegal payments to clients is more likely to heat up "the race to the courthouse." To be sure, allegations that Milberg Weiss made payments to individuals who later became lead plaintiffs in shareholder suits will prompt judges to examine more closely the relationships between securities law firms and their clients, several attorneys said. But the blow to one of the two 800-pound gorillas of securities law will also set off a competitive feeding frenzy as smaller firms seek to get a piece of the business that Milberg Weiss, along with the firm of former Milberg partner William Lerach, has dominated for more than a decade. For firms specializing in class-action cases, capturing the role as the lead law firm on such suits is a lucrative coup, for it often guarantees thousands of billable hours. Fallout from the Milberg Weiss indictment will resemble what happened when Lerach left Milberg Weiss a few years ago to start his own firm, according to another veteran securities attorney. That split "diluted the marketing power of Milberg and gave an opportunity for other firms to jump into the breach," said William Prickett, who heads the securities and financial litigation practice at Seyfarth Shaw LLP.