Looks Like Goldman Will Settle

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/05/looks-like-goldman-will-settle

Bloomberg News has a report on the legal maneuvering in the Securities and Exchange Commission's civil case against Goldman Sachs:

Goldman Sachs was negotiating to hire the Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP law firm to help defend it in the case.

Negotiations Terminated

The discussions, which started this month, were terminated last week and Goldman Sachs doesn't plan to hire another law firm instead, a person briefed on the matter said, speaking anonymously because the talks were private.

Bloomberg leaves it at that. But my reading is that it strongly suggests the case will settle before trial. It's not that Goldman doesn't have excellent in-house lawyers capable of trying the case. It does. But if you are an in-house Goldman lawyer and you think the case is going to trial, it's a much safer move to be able to say to the firm's top management, "Look, we hired the best outside litigation team money can buy, and they still lost," than to risk having your own courtroom skills second-guessed and then going to an outside firm just to handle the appeal.

by Ira Stoll  |  May 19, 2010 at 8:51 am Related Topics:  Goldman Sachs, Press, SEC receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list