Corporate Compliance

SEC Is Giving Whistle-Blower Protection One Last Lick

The Wall Street financial meltdown left the markets in turmoil. It also led to the most expansive legislative overhaul of financial supervision since the 1930s New Deal: the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Part of the law, passed by Congress last July, juices the ability of the…

Mar 1, 2011 10:20 AM CST

Ex-Attorney Gets 21 Months for Stealing $343K from Law Firm

A disbarred Georgia lawyer was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison yesterday for stealing a little over $343,000 from the law firm at which the then-attorney then worked. Steven Zagoria, 59, was found guilty, according to prosecutors, of forging a partner’s endorsement on checks to the firm for attorney’s…

Nov 23, 2010 5:41 PM CST

Job News Not All Bad: Positions Open in Key Areas, US Loosens Hiring Process

The news isn’t all bad for legal job seekers, especially those with experience in a few key areas. In an article posted at the Law Marketing Portal, legal career consultant Kate Neville says the legal job market is picking up in employment law, health care, technology transactional work, and compliance.…

Aug 10, 2010 10:30 AM CDT

US Seeks to Impose Record $16.4M Auto Safety Fine on Toyota

Adding to the legal woes of the embattled Toyota Motor Corp. is facing over reported sudden-acceleration problems in its vehicles, the U.S. Department of Transportation today announced that it is seeking to impose a record-breaking auto safety fine of $16.375 million on the company. Federal law requires possible safety defects…

Apr 5, 2010 11:09 PM CDT

Feds Launch Toyota Criminal Probe as SEC Scrutinizes Investor Disclosures

In the latest blows to Toyota Motor Corp.’s once-sterling reputation, federal authorities have announced a criminal probe of automotive safety issues and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into the company’s disclosures to investors concerning unintended acceleration problems. Announcing these developments yesterday, Toyota gave few details and it’s…

Feb 24, 2010 1:52 AM CST

Cooley Godward Chair Points Finger at Wilson Sonsini as Brocade Backdating Trial Opens

Gregory Reyes received backdated stock options while serving as the CEO of Brocade Communications Systems Inc. But he can’t be convicted of a crime for doing so because he didn’t know what he was doing was wrong, argued chairman Stephen Neal of Cooley Godward Kronish yesterday at the opening of…

Feb 23, 2010 7:00 PM CST

GC Credited with Breaking Bribery Ring at Company

Jay Dalton, a now-retired general counsel of an international oil and gas pipeline company, is getting credit for not only helping find employees who were bribing foreign government officials, but stopping them from continuing the scheme. Corporate Counsel examined Dalton’s involvement after the late January sentencing of two former executives…

Feb 12, 2010 5:11 PM CST

Reagan Era Influenced Supreme Court Vote in Citizens United Campaign-Finance Case

A landmark campaign-finance decision by the U.S. Supreme Court last month striking corporate spending limits as an unconstitutional restriction of companies’ free speech reflects the influence of the Reagan era, writes David Savage in a Los Angeles Times analysis of the decision. All five of the justices who voted to…

Feb 10, 2010 12:56 AM CST

Bank of America Settles With SEC, Faces New Suit from NY AG

The Bank of America today settled two Securities and Exchange Commission regulatory complaints over its handling of Merrill Lynch & Co. losses and bonuses by agreeing to pay a $150 million fine and improve the bank’s corporate governance rules. The agreement must still be approved by the federal judge overseeing…

Feb 4, 2010 7:08 PM CST

Senate Panel’s Money-Laundering Report Seeks More Lawyer Regulation

A report released today by a Senate panel blames unregulated American lawyers, among others, for the nation’s money-laundering problems, and calls for an attorney exemption from money-laundering restrictions under the Patriot Act to be repealed. Information from the 325-page report by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will also be discussed…

Feb 4, 2010 1:52 AM CST

Top 10 Wage-and-Hour Settlements Tally 44% More in 2009

In a trend that is expected to continue in 2010, settlements in major wage-and-hour lawsuits against corporate defendants rose 44 percent last year. The top 10 cases in 2009 racked up a total of $364 million, compared to $253 million in 2008, a law firm known for its employment defense…

Jan 12, 2010 11:12 PM CST

Attempted Murder Case Against Former White House Lawyer Followed Fizzling of His Legal Career

The stunning news that a former White House lawyer and Xerox Corp. general counsel had been charged with attempting to murder his wife this week in an alleged out-of-control rage at their upscale Connecticut home left many wondering how such a successful attorney could apparently fall so far from grace.…

Jan 8, 2010 10:27 PM CST

Surviving Law School Buddy Gets 39-Month Term in $9M Insider-Trading Scheme

Stanko Grmovsek began his stock-trading career while he was still in law school, prosecutors say, turning a $30,000 student loan into $300,000. Then, in what he called “the worst decision in my life” in a court statement, he and a former roommate at Osgoode Hall School of Law began operating…

Jan 7, 2010 6:01 PM CST

ABA Prez Applauds Progress Toward Passing Privilege Protection Law

Applauding the introduction of a bill in the House of Representatives yesterday that would restrict federal agencies from pressuring organizations and their employees to waive legal protections when they are under investigation, the president of the American Bar Association has called for swift enactment of the the Attorney-Client Privilege Protection…

Dec 17, 2009 11:50 PM CST

You Can’t Sue Us for Malpractice, K&L Gates Tells Non-Client’s Trustee in Filing

Responding to a Pennsylvania malpractice suit contending that a major law firm should have detected an alleged fraud by executives during its internal investigation of a now-bankrupt beverage maker, K&L Gates has fired back in preliminary objections to the Allegheny County action. It contends, among other arguments, that there is…

Dec 17, 2009 1:19 AM CST