Reports: Lerach, Weiss to Walk

Mel Weiss and William Lerach, the nation's two best-known securities class-action lawyers, will probably escape criminal prosecution in a federal investigation into alleged payments to lawsuit plaintiffs, according to news reports.

But the law firm the two men started, Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman, could still face criminal indictment in the five-year-old investigation, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

A report in The New York Times, meanwhile, said federal prosecutors are concentrating their probe on two lesser-known partners, David Bershad and Steven Schulman. The Times, however, said "it appears increasingly unlikely'' the law firm itself will be indicted. ...