Lawyer Blog

Kent Roberts, former chief counsel at McAfee, on Tuesday became the first Silicon Valley lawyer charged in the stock options backdating debacle. Roberts faces six counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and filing false SEC documents in connection with options grants given to himself and ex-McAfee CEO George Samenuk in 2000 and 2002. The 11-page charging document tracks what Justice Department officials have repeatedly said they’re looking for in deciding to charge in options cases: evidence of intentional fraud.

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The boom is on in Dubai, the Persian Gulf emirate of 1.2 million, and the help-wanted sign is out for corporate counsel. Seventeen percent of 500 companies now have offices there, and Dubai government-owned entities are rapidly growing their legal departments. DP World’s GC, George Dalton, says he’s fortunate to be in the right place at the right time: “Dubai itself is in growth mode — real estate, hotels, airlines, the maritime industy, you name it, it’s an exciting place to be.”

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GC Donald Wiseman says that Swift & Co. has been working for years on ways to identify illegal aliens during its hiring process, such as participating in a government-recommended screening program. However, the meat processor’s efforts failed to dissuade Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials from carrying out a massive raid in December and shutting down all but one of the company’s seven facilities. “ICE’s position seems to be that no matter what you’ve done, it’s not good enough,” says Wiseman.

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More than a decade ago, in-house attorneys were seemingly safe in their corporate cocoons, and as such, the prospect of compliance with SOX, billion-dollar class action settlements, $100 million SEC fines, threats of investigations by the Department of Justice, the SEC, the IRS, the House Ways and Means Committee, and other regulators, seemed remote. Attorney Susan F. Friedman explains the myriad new challenges that in-house counsel faced in 2006 and must be prepared to deal with in 2007.

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Principals of a Florida-based investment firm have agreed to pay $8.6 million to settle an SEC civil suit accusing them of misusing nearly $127 million from investors. The two men, who ran Pension Fund of America and PFA Assurance Group, agreed to forfeit $4.2 million in cash and $4.4 million in assets according to a settlement filed Feb. 5. PFA sold retirement trust plans, but the offering materials allegedly failed to disclose that up to 90 percent of invested funds went to company charges.

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Only about half of the roughly 1,000 Oneida Indians live in central New York, but the Oneida Nation employs nearly 5,000, has a $123 million payroll and is the largest employer in Oneida and Madison counties. Instead of seeing related legal business go to outside firms, Nation Enterprises, run by Oneida native and Harvard Law graduate Ray Halbritter, is looking to go in-house. GC Peter Carmen’s staff of lawyers, paralegals and even archaeologists indicates the legal work is both challenging and intriguing.

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Michael Holston has been Hewlett-Packard’s unofficial legal face for months, sitting behind Chief Executive Mark Hurd during congressional hearings and standing with him when Hurd apologized for the company’s spying activities. Holston went official Thursday, as Hurd named the Morgan, Lewis & Bockius partner as GC. Holston fills an opening left by Ann Baskins, who resigned due to the pretexting scandal that’s spawned lawsuits, charges against an in-house attorney and a former chairman, and a PR nightmare.

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A Georgia jury Tuesday dunned PricewaterhouseCoopers $10 million for negligent misrepresentation but rejected civil allegations of fraud and racketeering against the accounting firm. The suit was brought by entrepreneurs Stiles A. Kellett Jr. and Samuel B. Kellett, who had claimed that they sustained $126 million in stock losses after they merged their nursing home firm, Convalescent Services Inc., with The Mariner Health Group. on the advice of PwC.

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Six journalists have been fired from the for placing a sign over a freeway overpass during morning rush hour that read “Cancel Your Newspaper Today” and “Protect Free Speech.” “They are trying to injure and disparage the company,” attorney Barry Cappello said. “People who want to engage in conduct that harms the newspaper … will not remain.” An unfair labor practice charge was filed Tuesday with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of the six employees.

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Stephen Pettigrew built Nvidia Corp.’s legal department from a one-man-show — himself — into a full-fledged public-company team. But when he got too old, executives demoted and fired him. That’s what Pettigrew, who was 64 when he left Nvidia, alleges in an age discrimination suit filed against the graphics-chip company. Pettigrew also accuses the company of retaliating because he voiced his concern that one of the company’s top executives may have committed sexual harassment and gender discrimination.

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