Panel III - Corporate Practice

In addition to more direct efforts to affect the direction of corporation law, the SEC and the Justice Department (and other government and quasi-government agencies) have sought to attack perceived problems of corporate governance by pursuing lawyers, accountants, and other professionals in addition to the executive officers of failed companies. Although this tactic may be sensible in cases in which the individual defendants have gained from the transactions in question, it has drawn heavy criticism in other cases. The recent indictment of the class action law firm Milberg Weiss is the latest example of this tactic. Although every case is different, the big question is whether criminal prosecution of corporations and their employees and advisers is ultimately an efficient way to achieve improvements in corporate governance. Moderator: Lisa Fairfax Panelists: Theresa Gabaldon – Milberg Weiss: Dying of Shame Robert Hillman – The Milberg Indictment as an Inquiry into Accountability Bruce Kobayashi – What\u27s So Bad About Paying Plaintiffs? (with Ribstein) Larry Ribstein – What\u27s So Bad About Paying Plaintiffs? (with Kobayashi) Comment: Richard Painter Frank Razzan