The Times Runs the Option
July 30, 2006 | Filed Under Governance, In the News
The New York Times takes a different tack in the stock options pricing imbroglio today and goes after noted Silicon Valley lawyer Larry Sonsini.
It’s hard for a lawyer to take seriously an article that begins like this:
Larry W. Sonsini, Silicon Valley’s most feared and sought-after lawyer, dresses in fine Italian suits even as the rest of the Valley — other high-priced attorneys included — ply their trades in chinos and blue Oxford shirts. He is soft-spoken and restrained, sometimes eerily quiet, in contrast to the brash and kinetic entrepreneurs and financiers who otherwise dominate the landscape.
John Grisham and Scott Turow, watch your back.
At the end of the day, it’s an interesting recounting of Mr. Sonsini’s formidable career, but makes the leap of logic to assume that because some of his clients are facing scrutiny, he must share (somehow) responsibility. Indeed, the writer notes:
… so deep is his understanding of the issues that management is facing that it is often difficult to tell where his legal advice ends and his business counsel begins.
That’s a sign of responsibility? To me that’s a sign of a lawyer I’d like to work with.
GC to CEO: A Trend?
July 29, 2006 | Filed Under In the News
Pfizer announced yesterday that GC Jeffrey Kindler was named CEO, replacing the embattled Hank McKinnell, who will remain chairman.
Mr. Kindler had been on quite a trajectory at Pfizer, having joined the company in 2002 after stints at McDonald’s and GE, as well as being a partner at Williams & Connolly.
Many of the regulatory and policy issues facing Pfizer (and most big pharma companies) play into Mr. Kindler’s strengths and experience.
While this appointment may not signal a trend, the default move many companies make by moving up a CFO or marketing EVP to the CEO slot could now involve a strong GC getting a second (or first?) look. Having additional management experience outside the legal function (as Mr. Kindler did) certainly helps.
Google Health Before Law?
July 11, 2006 | Filed Under Law 2.0, In the News
Reports surfaced over the weekend that Google was close to launching a health portal. Discussions are underway with WebMD and Intuit, involving a user “scrapbook” that would possibly allow the payment of bills or the viewing of personal medical records.
I have previously breathlessly speculated about Google and “the Law.” A health portal certainly shows a Google interest in an information-rich vertical market and a willingness to address thorny regulatory and privacy issues. But would a law portal provide an attractive business model?
A start would be integrating Google Maps with a business phone directory and allowing lawyers and clients to use the just-born Google Checkout payment service. It’s not the mother lode of a law portal opportunity where I would go if I were Google, but it’s a start.
But last time I checked I’m not Google…
In other news, Google gives the Midwest some reason to cheer with reports that it will locate a 1,000 employee research center in Ann Arbor.
Two cheers for Google, and the obviously loyal Wolverine, co-founder Larry Page.
Spyware Lawyers: License to Kill?
July 10, 2006 | Filed Under Technology, In the News
Does your bar card have the numbers “007” on it?
MSNBC reports from BusinessWeek the details of the seamy underbelly of spyware company Direct Revenue. According to various press reports (and charges from NY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer), Direct Revenue develops products (which it innocently refers to as “adware”) that stealthily install programs on your computer that serve up pop-up ads. A lot of pop-up ads. In 2004, Direct Revenue may have had more than 20 million computers under its spell, generating revenue of $39 million. Here’s the company’s response to Spitzer’s claims.
Around this time, the company was allegedly feeling the heat from users and regulators. What to do under these circumstances? Call the lawyers! Change the boilerplate!
… Direct Revenue management in early 2004 procured from its lawyers a modified user agreement that would supposedly be shown to PC owners. Within the densely written seven-page document was a declaration that Direct Revenue “could remove, disable, or render inoperative other adware programs resident on your computer, which, in turn, may…have other adverse impacts on your computer.”
Abram [Direct Revenue CEO] presented the new agreement to his troops with an impudence befitting the Dark Arts crew. “It’s a lawyer-approved license to kill,” the CEO said in a February, 2004, e-mail.
Sounds like a client to die for.
If you’ve never had such “software” installed on one of your computers, consider yourself lucky. It is beyond obnoxious. We had one particularly onerous spyware install a few years ago come from a link in an AOL instant message a certain younger member of the family clicked on. It took a phone call (to a number I located from a domain registration) and an “I am a lawyer and I know state regulators” comment to get the uninstall program emailed to me. How many consumers can do this, let alone understand the multiple-page EULA?
And for the parents of teen users of MySpace, there’s another spyware title out there called Zango that may be infecting your home computer as we speak…
Search
| ||||
 | ||||
| ||||
| ||||
