Larry Sonsini was about to have a bad day. It was the morning of Sept. 28, and Sonsini was preparing to testify before Congress about his role in the Hewlett-Packard Co. boardroom spying scandal. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce was focused on the company’s use of pretexting, in which investigators lied about their identity to get phone records for HP directors and journalists. This would not be fun, but it could be worse. Sonsini could be Ann Baskins. As the company’s top legal officer, Baskins would be seated next to Hewlett-Packard’s recently deposed chairwoman, Patricia Dunn, and Baskins would bear the brunt of the questions about the legality of the underhanded techniques the company used to discover the source of boardroom leaks to the press.
Early that morning, however, Baskins’ lawyers suddenly announced that she had resigned from HP and would refuse to testify. Now Sonsini, the company’s longtime lead outside counsel, was left to serve as the legal spokesman for HP. He, not Baskins, would be the one pictured next to Dunn, tensely holding up his right hand, indelibly linked to this sordid corporate affair. Sonsini’s day had just gone from bad to horrible.
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