Milken Hired by His Lawyer : Former Financier to Research Legal Issues, Do Community Work

Former Beverly Hills financier Michael Milken has begun work as a $1,300-a-week legal researcher to help fulfill the terms of his release from federal prison to a halfway house.

Fresh from prison, Milken settled into his work routine Tuesday at the Victor & Sandler law firm on the Westside. The former junk bond promoter, who once earned $550 million in a single year for running the high-yield bond department for Drexel Burnham Lambert, will be doing research on legal issues for civil cases that the firm is trying.

“There is a requirement with the halfway house that he has to work,” said Richard Sandler, Milken’s longtime friend, lawyer and new employer. “It’s unfortunately a necessary use (of his talents) but not always the best use.”

The Associated Press quoted Sandler as saying that Milken will mainly be doing wrap-up work on the 180 civil lawsuits that he and other defendants settled. Sandler said it would take a paralegal unfamiliar with the litigation 10 times as long to perform the same job.

As he begins his job at the law firm, Milken said he has also begun meetings with community leaders to plan his three-year, court-mandated community services program.

Milken on Sunday left a minimum security federal prison at Pleasanton, Calif., for an aging halfway house in Hollywood, where he must stay until March 2. He served 22 months after pleading guilty to securities law violations--a sentence reduced from 10 years.

He spent his first night there Sunday in the company of three roommates and reported to his new full-time job on Monday. Milken, who has been barred from working in the securities industry by the Securities and Exchange Commission, must turn over 25% of his pay to the halfway house.

In prison, Milken was reported to have earned $5.25 a week for orderly and tutoring jobs as well as for construction and kitchen work. Among other things, Milken created special educational games for the inmates to play with their visiting children, and he set up a remedial spelling and reading group.

As he left the halfway house Tuesday just after his nightly curfew was lifted at 6 a.m., Milken looked more like a guy on his way to work than the symbol of Wall Street greed that he became in the popular lore.

The 46-year-old Milken was dressed in the same slacks and sweater he wore when he checked in the night before, and was without the curly toupee he sported during his days as Drexel’s junk bond wizard. Milken stopped to chat with a fellow resident before stepping into the brown Jeep Grand Wagoneer waiting to pick him up.

Milken said he had seen his family Monday and was meeting with community leaders to discuss the service project the court has ordered him to undertake for the next three years.

“I’m going to go to work, I’m going to go to lunch, I’m going to go to dinner and then I’m going to come back here,” Milken said.

Upon his return Tuesday afternoon, Milken told a reporter that he had spend part of the day meeting with the Help Group, a Sherman Oaks school for learning disabled children that he had been involved with before he went to prison. “I’m meeting with a number of community groups that I worked with when I lived here. . . . I’m using this time to bring myself up to date.”

Sandler said Milken is “feeling OK” but is still quite restricted in his movements and activities, which must be cleared with the halfway house.

“He’s happy to have a little better freedom of movement,” Sandler said. “I’m sure he’s looking forward to March 2.”