Opening Day at the ABA White Collar Crime Conference

Although there was a pre-day afternoon of basics and parties, the first full day followed the morning opening remarks. My choice for the morning session was Recent Trials: A Roundtable Discussion. The eight male speakers covered the cases of Michael Greg Reyes (Brocade), Joseph Nacchio (Qwest), Scooter Libby and the KPMG defendants.  One recurring theme was what I call the "the context of the case." For example, in discussing the Scooter Libby case, Theodore V. Wells, Jr. noted how the Scooter Libby case could be seen as a proxy for how people felt about President Bush and the war. It was a "he said-she said" case on a 20 second phone call - but the timing of the trial was important. In the Nacchio case it was about Qwest's way of making money.  And there were other points made from these four cases such as in the Reyes case, how the client received no personal benefit. Solomon Wisenberg from over at Letter of Apology blogs about all the cases having resulted in convictions. 

(esp) (blogging from San Francisco)