By JOSEPH KAHN
NEW YORK -- Morgan Stanley Dean Witter's general
counsel stepped down from her job and a senior
in-house lawyer resigned in connection with a $10,000
payment to a police informant, as the Wall Street giant
sought to end what two top executives said in a statement
was "a difficult time for our firm."
Christine A. Edwards, the general counsel, stepped aside and
accepted a part-time role as an advisory director, Morgan
Stanley said, calling the decision voluntary and against the
wishes of the firm's management committee.
Monroe R. Sonnenborn, a managing director in the legal
department who had been suspended with pay last month,
resigned under pressure. Carol Bernstein, a third in-house
lawyer who reported to Sonnenborn and had also been
suspended with pay last month, will resume her duties.
The personnel changes were announced together with the
results of an internal investigation into the circumstances
surrounding Morgan Stanley's decision to pay $10,000 to
Charles Joseph Luethke, an informant involved in the arrest
last year of former employee Christian L. Curry.
The investigation, conducted by Paul, Weiss, Rifkind,
Wharton & Garrison, a Manhattan law firm, found that there
was "no satisfactory explanation" for why Morgan Stanley
failed to keep the Manhattan district attorney's office
informed about developments in the Curry case. That failure
prompted the district attorney's office to launch a criminal
investigation of Morgan Stanley's conduct, which is ongoing.
"It's very hard on our organization to see the firm's name
look bad in the public domain day after day," said Philip J.
Purcell, Morgan Stanley's chairman and chief executive
officer "That's why the pressure was on to get this out
publicly, get the facts out, and hope it's the end of the
matter.
The 47-year-old general counsel, who earned $7.5 million in
total compensation last year, had been a close colleague of
Purcell. They served together at Dean Witter before that
retail brokerage firm merger with Morgan Stanley two years
ago.
Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/financial/morganstanley-scandal.html
The words race ot discromination were not mentioned in the article. This is a example of corporate power to limit damages.
Henry C.K. Liu
Doug Henwood wrote:
> jf noonan wrote:
>
> >Can you tell us more about the Curry case? -- I've only heard one
> >brief blurb about in on NPR the other day.
>
> Here's a NYT story from the other day - a classically Timesian bit of "on
> the one hand, on the other." But this story has it all - race, class, and
> sex, all in one.
>
> Doug
>
> ----
>