In-House Counsel: Who's the Client

Being an in-house attorney for a corporation is getting to be legally and professionally more complex. 

Hollinger's General Counsel Mark Kipnis wound up losing his law license and just dodging the prison bullet because he seemed to see his "client" as his bosses.  Those such as Conrad Black wound up in jail. Kipnis was judged culpable for allowing the fraud to happen.

At the other end of the spectrum is former GE attorney Adriana Koeck.  She is currently being sued in federal court by her former employer for alleging distributing privileged company tax documents to two government agencies and a journalist.  According to Sue Reisinger of CORPORATE COUNSEL, Koeck had filed a whistle-blower complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor.  In addition, she also transmitted information to the fraud section of the U.S. Department of Justice.

If these kinds of alleged situations emerge on an in-house attorney's watch, the lawyer seems to be between a rock and a hard place.  Look the other way or cooperate and you could wind up in the slammer.  Whistle-blow, and like Enron's Sherron Watkins, you could wind up unemployable.  In recent statements, Watkins, who has found it difficult to secure even an academic job, said that had she had to do it over again she would just leave and keep her mouth shut.

The Knoeck trail will be amazing to watch.