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William "Bill" Shannon Lerach (born March 14, 1946, Ohio River Valley,〔 Midwestern United States) is a disbarred lawyer who specialized in private securities class action lawsuits. The $7.12 billion he obtained as the lead plaintiff's attorney in the case against Enron is currently the largest sum ever recovered in a group of securities class-action lawsuits in U.S. history.〔 In 2007 he pled guilty to obstruction of justice and was sentenced to two years imprisonment. In 2009 he was disbarred from practicing law in California. ==Background== Following the bankruptcy of Enron, Lerach was the lead attorney who sued banks, law firms, accounting firms and related entities involved in the fraud. Lerach was appointed by President Clinton to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council in 1998.〔 He was also a figure in ending the Joe Camel advertising and marketing campaign by RJ Reynolds. Lerach successfully argued the case in front of the California Supreme Court, stating that R.J. Reynolds' Joe Camel campaign constituted an unfair, unlawful, and fraudulent business practice because it targeted minors and induced minors and cigarette sellers to break the law. About 75% of the class action suits filed and led by Lerach typically brought charges of insider trading, stock fraud and stock manipulation against corporate officers and directors of the largest corporations in the US. Over his legal career, Lerach was the lead counsel in recovering approximately $45 billion on behalf of defrauded shareholders. In 2007, Lerach pled guilty to one count of obstruction of justice and began a two-year prison sentence. He was disbarred in 2009. Lerach was a major Democratic donor for many years. His case and sentencing were presided over by US District Court Judge John F. Walter, nominated to the bench by President George W. Bush in 2002.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=History of the Federal Judiciary )〕 For over 30 years, Lerach was a securities lawyer. He headed up the prosecution of securities class and stockholder derivative actions which resulted in billions of dollars of recoveries for defrauded shareholders of Wall Street banks, major accounting firms, corporations and insurance companies. Lerach was the subject of considerable media attention and a frequent commentator on economic and political matters and securities and corporate law. Lerach was involved in many securities class action and corporate derivative suits in recent years, including Enron, Dynegy, Qwest, WorldCom, Citibank, Drexel Burnham, Tyco, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, Disney, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse First Boston, Global Crossing, AT&T, Hewlett-Packard, Apple Computer, ExxonMobil, R.J. Reynolds, Arthur Andersen, and AOL Time Warner. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「William Lerach」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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