Keith Ecker

December 08, 2006 | Inside Counsel

The Home Depot concluded a four-month long investigation into its stock option practices on Dec. 6. The internal probe revealed that the home improvement company backdated its stock options from 1981 to 2000. "[F]or many of these annual and quarterly grants from 1981 through December 2000, there is insufficient documentation...

By Keith Ecker

1 minute read

December 01, 2006 | Inside Counsel

Hurricane Katrina's torrential wrath may be a memory, but after a recent ruling, it seems insurers are still in the midst of the storm. A federal judge in New Orleans dealt a blow to insurance companies, ruling that they should pay for Katrina's massive water damage. If upheld, the decision...

By Keith Ecker

1 minute read

November 30, 2006 | Corporate Counsel

The blog provides coverage and analysis of criminal charges, trials and white-collar crime trends.

By Keith Ecker

2 minute read

November 30, 2006 | Corporate Counsel

20 Stories That Shook the In-house Bar in 2006

By Keith Ecker

4 minute read

November 30, 2006 | Inside Counsel

20 Stories That Shook the In-house Bar in 2006

By Keith Ecker

4 minute read

November 30, 2006 | Corporate Counsel

EU's regulation of hazardous substances creates huge burdens for U.S. exporters.

By Keith Ecker

6 minute read

November 30, 2006 | Corporate Counsel

The Community Patent Review Project promises online peer review of applications.

By Keith Ecker

14 minute read

November 13, 2006 | Inside Counsel

The hiring environment has been good to legal departments over the past two years and is about to get even better. According to the 2006 Altman Weil Law Department Metrics Benchmarking Survey, lawyer staffing in corporate law departments rose by 19 percent in 2005. The key measure--lawyers per billion dollars...

By Keith Ecker

2 minute read

November 10, 2006 | Inside Counsel

Media mogul and ex-convict Martha Stewart will settle a class action lawsuit that alleged she lied about a stock sale of ImClone Inc. shares. As revealed in a Nov. 8 SEC filing, Stewart will pay $5 million out of her own pocket while her company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc.,...

By Keith Ecker

2 minute read

November 03, 2006 | Inside Counsel

Although Merck & Co.'s Vioxx litigation has cast a dark cloud over the pharmaceutical giant, there has been a silver lining for at least one Merck employee --a pay bump worth nearly $100,000. On Oct. 24, the Merck's compensation and benefits committee approved a $90,600 annual increase in pay and...

By Keith Ecker

1 minute read