GCs, Not Just CEOs, All Over Backdating Options Fallout

This morning's Law.com's "In-House Counsel" reports, "Stock Option Scandals Take Down a Record Number of GCs."  Says the story, "These legal chiefs constitute about a quarter of the 40-plus executives who have lost their jobs in the steadily expanding options controversy. Indeed, backdating has forced out as many GCs as CEOs."  While "the casualty list will only grow," the story adds that "in some cases, the GC appears to have been little more than a fall guy."  More bad news for GCs:  "At least seven ... have been named as defendants in shareholder derivative actions." 

And the Wall Street Journal today, here, adds Home Depot to the list of companies reporting, via internal investigation, "routine" backdating, from 1981-2000.  [Alan Childress]