August 14, 2003
In this era of increased
In this era of increased pressure to cooperate with the SEC’s enforcement division, the WSJ reports today that RJR Reynolds has refused to provide certain documents underlying how the company aggregates legal and marketing expenses in its disclosure documents. The company states that it doesn’t want detailed information about its litigation costs to get into plaintiff’s lawyers hands for fear that the data could influence jurors in product-liability lawsuits – and notes that its competitors don’t break out this information. We will watch whether the SEC will sue to enforce the subpoena.
For TheCorporateCounsel.net subscribers, thanks to John Huber and Tom Kim of Latham & Watkins for providing an updated version of their helpful 216 page paper on SOX and SEC Rulemaking.