Melvyn I. Weiss (August 1, 1935 – February 2, 2018) was an American attorney who co-founded plaintiff

class action A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...

law firm

Milberg Weiss Milberg LLP (formerly known as Milberg Weiss LLP and Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP) is a US plaintiffs' law firm, established in 1965 and based in New York City. It has mounted many class action cases on behalf of investors, and has been rec ...

Early life and education

Born in

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, Weiss grew up in

Hollis Hills, Queens Queens Village is a mostly residential middle class neighborhood in the eastern part of the New York City borough of Queens. It is bound by Hollis to the west, Cambria Heights to the south, Bellerose to the east, and Oakland Gardens to the north. ...

and attended

Jamaica High School Jamaica High School was a four-year public high school in Jamaica, Queens, New York. It was operated by the New York City Department of Education. Jamaica High School was founded as the Union Free School in 1854, and located within a three-stor ...

. After graduating from

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

in 1956, he graduated three years later with a law degree from

New York University School of Law New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in New ...

. He served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

. Roberts, Sam
"Melvyn Weiss, Lawyer Who Fought Corporate Fraud, Dies at 82"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', February 5, 2018. Accessed February 5, 2018. "He was raised in the Hollis Hills section of Queens and graduated from Jamaica High School. He helped his father keep the books for small businesses while earning a bachelor's degree from City College of New York in 1956. He graduated from New York University Law School in 1959 and served in the Army."

Bribery charges and incarceration

At one point Weiss and his law firm dominated the market in

securities A security is a tradable financial asset. The term commonly refers to any form of financial instrument, but its legal definition varies by jurisdiction. In some countries and languages people commonly use the term "security" to refer to any for ...

class-action suit A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class action ...

s, in which investors who suffer losses typically claim that executives had misled them about a company's financial condition. On March 20, 2008, Weiss announced through his attorney that he would plead guilty to making illegal client kickbacks in exchange for an 18- to 33-month prison sentence and fines and restitution of $10 million. Prior to his sentencing for what he admitted was "wrongful conduct," and for which he was "profoundly sorry," supporters had flooded the Federal court with over 275 letters detailing Weiss' philanthropic history, including his pro bono work resulting in $6.25 billion in settlements he helped win for Holocaust victims. Both the Federal judge hearing the case and U.S. Attorney called the support for Weiss "unprecedented." Weiss was sentenced to 30 months of incarceration on Monday June 2, 2008. He served half of his sentence at the minimum security

Federal Correctional Institution The Federal Bureau of Prisons classifies prisons into seven categories: * United States penitentiaries * Federal correctional institutions * Private correctional institutions * Federal prison camps * Administrative facilities * Federal correctio ...

Morgantown, West Virginia Morgantown is a city in and the county seat of Monongalia County, West Virginia, Monongalia County, West Virginia, United States, situated along the Monongahela River. The largest city in North-Central West Virginia, Morgantown is best known as th ...

, with the remainder served under home confinement.

Death

Weiss died on February 2, 2018, at his home in

Boca Raton, Florida Boca Raton ( ; es, Boca Ratón, link=no, ) is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It was first incorporated on August 2, 1924, as "Bocaratone," and then incorporated as "Boca Raton" in 1925. The population was 97,422 in the ...

. He had been suffering from

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most comm ...

(ALS).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weiss, Melvyn I. 1935 births 2018 deaths Disbarred American lawyers New York (state) lawyers City College of New York alumni New York University School of Law alumni People from the Bronx People from Boca Raton, Florida Military personnel from New York City Jewish American attorneys Neurological disease deaths in Florida Deaths from motor neuron disease 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American Jews

Early life and education

Bribery charges and incarceration

Death

See also

References