Galleon case nets lawyer

White-shoe law firm Ropes and Gray got scuffed again yesterday as a second attorney was snagged in the Galleon Group insider trading scandal.

Brien Santarlas, 33, who worked in the intellectual property division until September 2008, pleaded guilty in a Manhattan federal court to selling information about hush-hush mergers his firm was working on.

Galleon’s boss, Raj Rajaratnam, has been charged with related insider trading.

Santarlas is the sixth person to plead guilty in the insider trading case. Last month, the feds busted Santarlas’ co-worker, Arthur Cutillo. He and several others were accused of running an insider trading ring using drug-dealer techniques like disposable cellphones. The alleged ringleader, trader Zvi Goffer, was nicknamed “Octopussy” — as in the James Bond movie — because he had his arms in so many sources of information.

Santarlas is said to have worked with Cutillo to sell information about deals to Goffer’s network. In 2007, Santarlas leaked information about Bain’s plans to buy tech company 3Com and TPG Capital’s acquisition of of pharmaceutical company Axcan.