Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that the ease with which the government prosecuted Frank Quattrone has increased pressure on major financial service firms to set aside reserves to cover liabilities resulting from future investor lawsuits. “[T]hey’re recognizing that the litigation environment is looking more hostile,” said John Coffee, a law professor at Columbia Law School. For example, he said last week’s guilty verdict against former investment banker Frank Quattrone on criminal obstruction-of-justice charges based on a single e-mail “suggests that investment bankers aren’t believed [or are viewed] highly skeptically by juries.”
Fallout from the Quattrone Verdict
