The Friday afternoon meeting on June 7, 2013, between Sanford “Sandy” Wadler and Norman Schwartz started out like most weekly check-ins between the two Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc. senior executives.

Wadler, the company's longtime general counsel, walked four doors down the hall in the company's Northern California headquarters to the office of Schwartz, Bio-Rad's CEO. Wadler had a seat and began talking about the latest pressing legal issues at the Fortune 1000 life sciences company.

Schwartz, Wadler would note later, seemed a bit distracted. Wadler noticed that the CEO hadn't closed his office door at the beginning of the meeting, as was his custom.