It was a big day today for the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority, which is trying to shed its reputation as a toothless regulator. First: The FSA lost its insider-trading case against partners from Dorsey & Whitney and McDermott Will & Emery after an 11-member jury acquitted them of all charges, according to the U.K. publication Legal Week. As we’ve reported before, the FSA charged the McDermott partner, Michael McFall, with passing on tips about Novartis’ 2006 takeover of the pharmaceutical company Neutec.
The jury acquitted McFall and Peter King, Neutec’s former financial director, today, Legal Week reports. The court had temporarily discharged the ex-Dorsey partner, Andrew Rimmington, last week after Rimmington’s brother died in an assault, Legal Week says. After losing the McFall/King cases today, the FSA announced they will not try Rimmington again, Legal Week says.
