Welcome back to Inside Track!

Late on Friday special counsel Robert Mueller delivered his report on the interference of the 2016 general elections to Attorney General William Barr. In a letter to Congress, which was made public on Sunday, the AG said he does not plan on making any further indictments based on the report. Barr also said the report exonerates President Donald Trump.

The meat of Mueller's report is not very well known. Robert Litt, former general counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and of counsel at Morrison Foerster, said there are a number of considerations that Barr has to keep in mind when thinking about releasing the report.

“The fact that the report appears to contain some grand jury information and federal law says that matters occurring before the grand jury are confidential and can't be revealed. That is going to have to be taken care of,” Litt said.

The letter Barr sent to congressional leaders did not make mention of classified information in the report, however, Litt said that is a possibility.

“There is equally the possibility that there are parts of the report over which the president wants to claim executive privilege,” Litt said.

Do you think the public will ever see the Mueller report? Let me know by emailing me at [email protected].

What's Happening

 

Can Tech Companies Prevent The Next Tragedy?

Microsoft chief legal officer Brad Smith said in a blog post, which Law.com reporter Caroline Spiezio reported on, that tech companies need to do more than just talk to prevent the spread of violent rhetoric.

In the post, he said Microsoft services were used to share the video of the mosque shootings in New Zealand. He said the industry should collaborate to create a “major event” protocol.

“This would enable all of us to share information more quickly and directly, helping each platform and service to move more proactively, while simultaneously ensuring that we avoid restricting communications that are in the public interest, such as reporting from news organizations,” Smith said in the blog post.

Annemarie Bridy, professor of law and affiliate scholar at Stanford University Center for Internet and Society, however, told Caroline that tech companies limiting what can be said on their platforms is a slippery slope on free speech.

“Maybe we would need to rely less heavily on content moderation and takedowns if platforms began to look a little more architecturally at the mechanisms they're providing for spreading speech and the kind of speech they're incentivizing people to provide and consume,” Bridy said.

The Aftermath Of The Hack

 

One year ago, the city of Atlanta was hit with a cyberattack, which kept online court records inaccessible and city payments systems offline for almost a week. Law.com reporter Kristen Rasmussen interviewed the city's outside counsel, Roy Hadley, about how his prior in-house experience helped him through the situation. Below are excerpts from their conversation.

╋ The role of the legal department. The response to the attack, Hadley said, the law department was all hands on deck to help all of the city departments. For example, the lawyers that deal with procurement process had to help get contracts signed. While the courts were down, the attorneys who normally work with the courts were helping the legal department figure out what needed to be done to make sure the courts were functioning properly.

╋ Differences in corporate America versus local government. Hadley said the consequences are clearly different. He said during a corporate data breach the consequences may be that the stock price temporarily dips. “Anytime you talk about a data breach or an attack, it's complex. But in this case, it's even more complex because now what you're talking about is water delivery, public safety, fire, police, 911. You're talking about trash pickup, building permits, court systems, a lot of different things that have to happen every day in order for the city to run. You can't say, 'OK, they knocked us offline, and we can't sell our widgets.'”

╋ Looking back. Hadley said while people tend to focus on what went wrong, he likes to look at how it went right. He said “not only did the lawyers help put that together on the front end, they were instrumental in making sure that it was followed and that everyone was doing what they were supposed to do during the crisis.” He said there had already been a response plan in place and the legal department did a great job in executing the response plan.

What I've Been Reading

 

Sometimes this question pops up: What should an in-house leader do in retirement? Well, according to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, former Tyson Foods GC, Jim Blair, is taking time in his retirement to help the construction of an additional wing on a library in Arkansas. According to the report, Blair donated $2 million to help build an expansion on the library. This isn't the first time Blair has donated big to the library. According to the story, in 2003, he donated $3 million for the library to be built.

Last week, Karen Miniex, the former general counsel of the Houston Housing Authority, won $1.87 million in a whistleblower suit against the organization. According to the Houston Chronicle, the housing authority plans on appealing the verdict. “While we respect the jurors for their service, we respectfully disagree with their verdict,” the housing authority said in a statement to the paper.” At this time, the Houston Housing Authority Board of Commissioners has advised our legal counsel to file an appeal, should the judge uphold the jury's verdict.”

Over the past month, I've been increasingly writing about the importance for diversity in law firms. However, in my research, I came across this Q&A from Black Enterprise with Toyota North America's group executive vice president, chief legal officer and general counsel Sandra Phillips Rogers. In the interview she said working at both law firms and corporations have their advantages, but working in a corporation allowed her to have more of a hand in the business which is why she wanted the job at Toyota. She also said she oversees the company's diversity and inclusion efforts.

Don't Miss

 

Wednesday, April 10 – The Global Leaders In Law will be hosting a Changing Corporate Culture event at Scotts in London. The organization will also host a Be the Change event on Thursday, April 25 at Dangleterre in Copenhagen. GLL is an invitation-only membership group offering general counsel a global platform for in-person collaboration to exchange ideas and receive advice and guidance from peers. For more information, contact Meena Heath at [email protected].

Monday-Wednesday, April 15-17 – The Association of Corporate Counsel Foundation will be hosting a Good Lawyers to Great Lawyers event in Orlando, Florida at The Ritz Carlton. Speakers will include Dorothy Capers, executive vice president and GC of National Express; Wendy Webb Williams, chief legal officer of SaraLee; and Jason Brown, general counsel of GE Appliances.

Thursday-Saturday, April 25-27 – The High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara Law will be hosting the Fourth Annual In-house Counsel Institute. The program is for in-house counsel to learn to better serve the needs of their internal clients. Speakers will include Dorian Daley, general counsel at Oracle; Jeremiah Chan, director and assistant general counsel of patents at Facebook; and Aradhana Raj, director and senior counsel of global policy at PayPal. For more information email [email protected].

 

On The Move

 

✦ Fannie Mae ✦ Stergios “Terry” Theologides was hired as the general counsel of the mortgage loan company. Theologides replaces Brian Brooks who left the company last year to join crypto company Coinbase as the company's chief legal officer. Theologides will begin at Fannie Mae on March 28.

✦ Flynn Restaurants ✦ Jacqueline Lee has left her role as a litigator at Jones Day and is the new general counsel at the chain, which owns a number of Applebee's, Taco Bell and Panera Bread restaurants. She replaces Jane Froyd, who left the company to become the top lawyer of Americas at Treasury Wine Estates.

✦ Chatham Asset Management ✦ Daniel Goldfried, a former partner at McGuireWoods and senior counsel at the SEC, has been named the top lawyer for the owner of The National Enquirer tabloid. Goldfried will be the only in-house lawyer at Chatham.