"What'd the government think would happen?"

So said Melvyn Weiss, Milberg Weiss' lead partner, in this article last week in The Recorder in response to the first round of what could be many lawyer departures following the firm's recent indictment.

The latest on the Milberg Weiss Watch:

• Boca Raton partner Maya Saxena is leaving to start her own firm.  Saxena was one of two Milberg partners permanently resident in Boca, the other being fellow blogger Christopher Jones of the PSLRA Nugget.
• According to this article in The Recorder, three Milberg partners--including at least one member of the firm’s executive committee and two members of the firm’s management committee--have confirmed their departures. 

And partners at competing class action plaintiff firms say they're being bombarded with phone calls and resumes of Milberg lawyers seeking jobs at firms without criminal exposure — and without the baggage that criminal charges create for plaintiff lawyers seeking large, institutional clients.

On Thursday, Joe Whatley Jr., head of the Alabama plaintiff firm Whatley Drake, got his New York bar card. And on Friday, he confirmed that in coming months he'll be opening a New York office with current Milberg Weiss partner Deborah Clark-Weintraub and the entirety of Milberg's health-care practice group — which is led by Whatley's wife, Edith Kallas.

"This is something that's not bitter with Milberg," Whatley said. "She's representing medical societies and people like that, and she wanted to make sure she could deal with them and continue to represent them."

In addition to Kallas, the health-care group — which comes with a handbag of high-profile cases, such as litigation against brokerage firm Marsh & McLennan — will bring another Milberg partner, Joseph Guglielmo, six current Milberg associates and one Milberg staff lawyer to Whatley Drake.