This Isn’t a Drill: Working Through Real-Life Legal and Business Challenges

Jeffrey Hugh Newman moderated “Think Tank Crisis Management” at ALFA International’s Business Litigation Practice Group Seminar.  The discussion revolved around the following scenario:

You are the General Counsel for a publicly traded company in the process of developing a new product that will have a dramatic impact in the industry. Although the company’s disclosures about the product have created a “buzz” on the street, the product development process is behind schedule and an outside research group is questioning whether the product will ever be ready for market, two facts which the CEO and CFO have kept from the public. To make matters worse, they became romantically involved with each other and decided to engage in a clandestine plan to inflate the company’s reported earnings in an attempt to maintain its stock price. When the romance went south, the CFO leaked the story to the press. The company’s stock is now dropping precipitously, the FBI and Justice Department are snooping around, and 26 state attorney generals are pounding on the company’s door. It is Tuesday afternoon and a reporter from The Wall Street Journal is on the phone seeking your comment on the story that will run in two days. What will you do?