Attorney pleads not guilty

Pioneering U.S. shareholder lawyer Melvyn Weiss pleaded not guilty Monday to federal charges linking him to an illegal kickback conspiracy, but another defendant in the case plans to change his plea and admit guilt on some charges, his lawyer said.

U.S. District Judge John Walter in Los Angeles also postponed the trial until August from an original start of January.

The charges against Weiss, his law firm Milberg Weiss, former client Seymour Lazar and attorney Paul Selzer stem from a long-running investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles of allegations that the New York firm, which helped pioneer shareholder class-action litigation, paid a “stable” of plaintiffs.

All pleaded not guilty Monday morning, although later in the day Lazar’s lawyer, Louis Feuchtbaum, said his client would plead guilty to some charges.

Weiss, 72, is accused of steering payments to people who agreed to be plaintiffs in high-stakes class-action suits, raking in $250 million in fees for his firm over 25 years. He is charged with four counts of conspiracy, racketeering, obstruction of justice and making false statements. He vows he is innocent.

“I look forward to clearing my name and returning to a practice to which I have devoted my professional life,” Weiss said in a statement released Friday.

Weiss faces as many as 40 years in prison if convicted on all charges.