Legal Pad

Cooley Gets Shot Down on Texas Gig

After a good Texas-style rassle over whether charging $750 an hour was too much, Cooley Godward Kronish decided that it didn’t really want to represent that state’s teacher retirement fund after all.

Greetings, ATL Readers. May we suggest you stay awhile? Read as one of the leaders of the Heller group that went to Covington gives his side of the story. Find out where Heller’s Steve Tonsfeldt is holed up. And enjoy the legal scholarship of the honorable Groucho Marx.

Here’s the report from our friends* at the Austin American-Statesman, who have been covering the shenanigans that started when Texas pols started knocking Cooley’s high rates and potential conflicts with firm clients. Then came the Texas AG, who said he wouldn’t approve a contract with the firm. Former SEC commish and Cooley hotshot Roel Campos was the $750-an-hour man on the account.

Cooley finally threw up its hands and said “it does not serve the best interests of TRS to prolong the discussion over how to deal with prospective conflicts that might arise if the retirement system sought to invest in one of the law firm’s clients, many of whom are venture capital and money management firms, private equity funds and other entities,” the Statesman reported.

The lesson is here is of course: Don’t mess with Texas, especially when you’re charging ’em $750 an hour.

— Zusha Elinson

*We do not technically have friends at the Austin American-Statesman. But they sound like a swell bunch.

Texan Lawmaker Messes With Cooley

And you thought only Orrick got into trouble with politicians.

Our friends at the Austin American-Statesmen report that at least one Texas pol isn’t happy that Palo Alto’s Cooley Godward Kronish was hired to do work for a state pension fund.

State Sen. Robert Duncan said that the Teacher Retirement System of Texas' new outside law firm, Cooley, “is rife with potential conflicts of interest.” The paper reports that “At the committee hearing, Duncan said partner [Roel] Campos' firm, Cooley Godward, ‘has one of the nation's largest practices in venture capital and private equity,’ which could cause conflicts as the retirement system continues its push to move about 30 percent of its assets in harder-to-value alternative investments.”

(Apparently Duncan has read Cooley’s marketing materials).

Duncan then asked Campos: "If [the retirement system] invests in a private equity firm that is a client of your firm, is that not a conflict of interest?" 

And Campos responded: "It could be,"  but added that law firms, including Cooley Godward, are experienced in setting up "Chinese walls" to prevent the sharing of information between lawyers whose clients have competing interests.

Conflicts at big firms? Who ever heard of such a thing?! The outrage must be stopped!

—  Zusha Elinson