Who is William S. Lerach?

The Washington Post is running an article entitled, "Guilty Plea to End Crusading Lawyer's Lucrative Run." The article begins, "In a three-decade career, California lawyer William S. Lerach won tens of billions of dollars for his clients by suing executives embroiled in corporate scandal. Casting himself as the voice of victimized shareholders, he chalked up unprecedented awards in the Enron accounting mess and the Exxon oil spill." It reports, "Now Lerach, 61, is headed to prison, brought down not by adversaries in executive suites or on Capitol Hill but by his own hubris." Lerach paid plaintiffs to testify in court.

Read the Article!!

Discussion Starters for Younger Children

• Have your students ever disagreed with somebody? With whom did they disagree? What did they disagree about? Do your students think that it is OK to disagree with somebody? Why/why not? Can two people disagree and still be friends? Encourage students to explain!!
• Consider asking students to write down three things they should remember about how to behave respectfully whenever they disagree with somebody else.
• Ask your students to imagine that two students in the class have a disagreement and they explain their disagreement to the teacher. Would it be alright for one of these two students to pay another to take their side? Would it be alright for one of these two students to promise to do something for the third student if the third student takes his/her side? Why/why not?
  
• Ask your students how the third student should respond if one of the first two students offers him something for taking his side in a disagreement. Students might develop skits to demonstrate how the third student should respond.
  
• If one child is trying to sell another a baseball card or a video game would it be alright for the seller to tell the buyer that the card or game is worth $100 if it really only worth $75? Why/why not? Shouldn't the buyer have to know how much something should cost before he/she pays for it? Explain!!
• Ask your students to write a list of three things a buyer must think about before purchasing something. The class might do this collaboratively.
  
• Can your students think of anybody who other people would like to be like? Who can they think of? Why would somebody want to be like somebody else? Can your students think of anything about themselves that other people might want to copy? Why might others want to copy this?
  
• Consider asking students to make a list of three things about themselves that they like very much.
  

Discussion Starters for Older Students

• Vocabulary terms to discuss: Hubris; Spawned; Securities; and, Prowess.
  
• Do your students think that some people believe they can get away with breaking the law? Encourage them to support their belief with evidence. Why do your students think that some people think they can get away with breaking the law? What does this indicate about human nature?
  
• These questions might prompt an interesting class discussion.
  
• Ask your students to imagine a conversation between Mr. Lerach and a teen-age grandchild yesterday in which Mr. Lereach explained that he was going to jail. What might Mr. Lereach have said? How might his grandchild have responded?
  
• Students could actually develop mock conversations, either in writing or possibly podcast.
  
• Do your students think that courts should give greater weight to complaints made by individuals and/or entities that have made large investments in a corporation than they would give to individuals who have only made small investments in the corporation, when a class action suit is brought against a corporation for wrongful practice? Why/why not?
  
• Students could respond to these questions in persuasive essays. Consider asking them to incorporate a core democratic value into their thesis.