The comments you’ve sent since I started writing this column confirm a common misperception among many senior corporate executives: that we act as their personal attorneys.
Our outside counsel brethren face the same challenge, and a recent Los Angeles Daily Journal story serves as a good illustration. According to the article, a federal judge in Santa Ana criticized California-based law firm Irell & Manella for “ethical failures” because it didn’t explain to the chief financial officer of one of its corporate clients that a sensitive conversation it had with him would be reported to outside auditors.
