The predecessor to the San Diego firm was founded by Bill Lerach, the convicted felon whose practice of paying plaintiffs kickbacks in securities cases led to the provision above.

FORBES: Class-Action Lawyers Fight For Piece Of JPMorgan Case

Robbins Geller, of course, has roots in the firm founded by class-action titan Bill Lerach who ultimately went to jail for bending the rules and paying plaintiffs kickbacks for participating in his suits.

FORBES: Judge May Sanction Robbins Geller Over Padded Expenses

Congress passed the Public Securities Litigation Reform Act to halt the abusive practice of paying kickbacks to plaintiffs in securities cases, which sent former top plaintiff lawyers Bill Lerach and Mel Weiss to jail.

FORBES: State Lawyers Find New Berths At Outside Firms They Used To Oversee

The documentary, he says, tells the story of three lawyers who broke the rules: Dickie Scruggs of tobacco and asbestos fame, and Bill Lerach and Mel Weiss, who went to jail for bribing plaintiffs in securities cases.

FORBES: Filmmaker Takes On Lawyers - With Chamber's Help

Bill Lerach, whose law firm has launched a suit against Shell's directors and executives and PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG, its auditors, slammed the fine, which he said should have been paid by the executives responsible, and not by the company.

ECONOMIST: A damning verdict | The

Bill Lerach is sorry, genuinely sorry.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Relatively few countries even allow class actions (Brazil and Canada do, although few cases are filed) and the track record of jailed mass-tort and class action lawyers like Dickie Scruggs, Bill Lerach and Mel Weiss speaks to the deep corruption that is always lurking around this form of litigation.

FORBES: The U.S. Legal System: Good At Some Things, Wretched At Others