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Now that William Lerach is going to prison for funneling kickbacks to lead plaintiffs and Melvyn Weiss and his firm are fighting similar criminal charges, there's some room at the top of the securities plaintiffs bar. One new entry into this arena may never rival these titans, but it is a surprising player: Duane Morris.

In the last 15 months, Duane Morris has teamed up with Lerach's former firm, now known as Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins, to bring two derivative suits.

The first, filed in September 2006 in state court in Atlanta, targeted The Home Depot, Inc., and its officers and directors for alleged fiduciary breaches arising from stock option backdating.

Then, in August, Duane Morris joined in a derivative suit in the same venue against Wells Real Estate Investment Trust, Inc., and its officers and directors.

John Herman, the Duane Morris partner working on both suits, insists that his firm's foray into this practice isn't surprising.

"We don't think it's that unusual," says Herman, an intellectual property litigator. "It's not uncommon for a big firm to be on a shareholder's side against a corporation. ... I think Wachtell [Lipton, Rosen & Katz] does it all the time."

Wachtell's typical shareholder client, however, is more likely to be an activist hedge fund. And it's fairly safe to say that the firm has never teamed up with Lerach. Wachtell Lipton litigation partner Marc Wolinsky simply says: "Mr. Herman is not correct."

Duane Morris has a long history of carrying a small docket of contingency cases. What's different about these matters is the nature of the claims. But Herman doesn't see it that way. He's "not sure why it's an issue" that he's co-counsel with Lerach's former firm.

"There are about 14 plaintiffs firms in Home Depot. We can't control who is in the case," Herman says. (In another twist, Herman used to be a partner at King & Spalding, which is regular counsel for Home Depot and lead defense counsel in the derivative case.)

Herman also points out that the securities suits in which Duane Morris is involved are derivative actions, which, technically, means that the firm is aligned with the corporations.

"Our view is that we are representing corporate interests," he says.

It's not clear if Home Depot's executives agree. James Snyder Jr., vice president of litigation at Home Depot, declined to comment.

Duane Morris is known for its strong insurance practice, with such clients as Swiss Reinsurance Co. and CNA Financial Corp. Herman declined to answer directly whether the firm has discussed the derivative suit with its corporate clients. John Soroko, the chair of Duane Morris's trial practice group, did not return calls. Neither did the firm's chairman, Sheldon Bonovitz.