Ali-Frazier, Notorious B.I.G.-Tupac, Yankees-Redsox . . . Bernstein Litowitz-Milberg Weiss. 

As the lead to this WSJ article put it yesterday, "War has broken out among plaintiffs' lawyers competing to take the lead in litigation against KPMG LLP by buyers of the accounting firm's allegedly abusive tax shelters."  The combatants are, not surprisingly, the powerhouse plaintiffs' law firms Bernstein Litowitz and Milberg Weiss, firms which constantly butt heads in their efforts to take the lead in the largest securities class actions.

On June 22, 2005, Bernstein Litowitz filed this Emergency Motion for Designation of Interim Class Counsel in the KPMG litigation.  As stated in the WSJ article, Bernstein Litowitz claims that Milberg Weiss, which has not filed a class action against KPMG, "may be 'colluding' with KPMG to hastily put together a new suit with a 'pre-packaged settlement ... presumably on terms less favorable to the class' than the Bernstein firm would hold out for."

Bernstein Litowitz contends that KPMG is attempting to engage in a "reverse auction," i.e., where a defendant "selects among attorneys for competing classes and negotiates an agreement with the attorneys who are willing to accept the lowest class recovery...."  To prevent this from occurring, Bernstein Litowitz asks the Court for the unusual remedy of a order that it can serve as "interim class counsel" (thereby controlling any settlement discussions) as well as an injunction (1) preventing KPMG from engaging in further negotiations with "absent counsel" and (2) preventing Milberg Weiss from filing any class action in the KPMG case.