Law Department Management Blog
A study by John Villa, a partner at Williams & Connolly, finds that during the four years from 1998 to 2001 there were about 12 SEC actions against general counsel; during the next four years (through Sept. 2005), there were about 20. As to criminal prosecutions, the numbers for the same years rose from approximately 5 to approximately 8. Corp. Counsel, Jan. 2006 at 16.
The summary I read did not state which of these proceedings ended with a conviction or a civil penalty. Still, given the knowledge of general counsel, their supposed professional ethics, and the gravity of these charges, to have a half dozen of them on average during each of these six years confesses a disappointing collapse of professionalism.