Lawrence W. Schonbrun

When I read the New York Times op-ed, "Why I'm Leaving Goldman Sachs," I was immediately struck by what the author said about client interests being sidelined in order to increase Goldman's profits. It got me thinking about what I do every day as a plaintiff's class action...

The Wall Street Malaise has Seeped Into Our Halls of Justice

In the past we have commented about the dysfunctional class action system and how class members, the victims of alleged corporate misconduct, end up paying for their own victimization. We pointed to a U.S. District Court judge's

Our local newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, published an editorial headlined, "Supreme Court Ruling Is Bad News For Consumers," which reflects the vast majority of the media's corporations-bad, class-actions-good, reporting. For consumers, and for the cause of justice, the Supreme Court's ruling on class action arbitration is good...

Sue Yourself For the Privilege of Paying Lawyers' Fees to Class Action Attorneys

Nothing explains the class action lawyers' con game better than the infamous Bank of Boston case. The lawyers alleged that the Bank violated class members' rights by charging customers with home loans excessive fees for holding an...

Recently, I noticed that someone (a plaintiff's class action lawyer perhaps?) wrote a Wikipedia page about so-called "professional objectors" in class action lawsuits, and it includes the following definition:

A professional objector is a lawyer who repeatedly files objections to various aspects of class action settlements in order...

The Class Action: Weapon of Mass Destruction

Warren Buffett presciently observed that financial derivatives were economic "weapons of mass destruction." Judge for yourself whether class action litigation has achieved "weapon of mass destruction" status.

A mortgage company mails a loan solicitation to 16 million people. A plaintiffs' lawyer files a...

Answer: An Insatiable Appetite for Fees.

We comment regularly about the misdeeds of plaintiff's class action lawyers and the dysfunctional class action system in which they operate. But we want to make it clear that by no means do we whitewash the misdeeds of corporate America. Indeed, could anything be...

Just last week, a federal court in California, using terms like gouging and profiteering, made national headlines by issuing a stinging indictment of the business practices of Wells Fargo Bank. The court found that Wells Fargo's method of paying off checks for the highest dollar purchases first (so-called...

President Obama's plan to reign in excessive compensation paid to the nation's bankers has focused attention on how this country's financial elite have unfairly enriched themselves at the expense of their shareholders. The bankers received huge bonuses even though their companies' stock had fallen dramatically. But it isn't only our...

One Penny For You, 84 Cents For Your Lawyer

The Securities Class Action: A System That Drains Billions of Dollars of Shareholder Value Based on Perverse Notions of Justice and Morality

We have tried to explain why securities class actions are fundamentally flawed; how these lawsuits punish...

Question: How Many Lawyers Does it Take to Screw in a Light Bulb?
Answer: How Many Can You Afford?

The Obama administration recently announced that BP has agreed to set aside $20 billion to pay economic damage claims to people harmed by the Gulf oil spill. Former chief...

Thank you. Thank you. Hello my fellow American citizens.

Some of you may have heard the speech I gave recently on the need for tort reform, and, in particular, about some of the underlying problems with our dysfunctional class action system. I believe that, next to reforming Wall Street and...

President Obama gave a speech in June 2009 about reform of the health care industry, in which he mentioned legal abuse as another area in which change was needed. In a speech that has received surprisingly little media attention, the President singled out class actions as an area of particular...

We all know the story of Dr. Frankenstein, whose well intentioned discovery of reviving the dead regrettably creates a monster who wreaks havoc on his creator and on society as whole. Like Frankenstein's monster, the class action system was created with the best of intentions - to protect consumers by...

The Toyota lawsuit spectacle continues with hundreds of ambulance-chasing plaintiff's lawyers traveling to San Diego to get the court system to award them a pot of gold. They have filed at least 89* class action lawsuits seeking to represent the same group - Toyota owners whose vehicle's resale value may...

The Wall Street Journal recently reviewed a new book published this month about attorney-felon and former "King of Torts" class action lawyer Bill Lerach. The article deals with the unscrupulous ways in which he sued corporations claiming to be on the side of "the little guy" -- while...