Above the Law reports that Pepper Hamilton is potentially in some hot water for failing to produce documents pursuant to a court order.

“The discovery kerfuffle comes as a result of Doe v. Baylor University, a Title IX lawsuit in which students allege the University did not do enough about their allegations of sexual assault, and created an environment which allowed sexual attacks to flourish,” explains senior editor Kathryn Rubino.

The firm is opposing an order to produce some documents responsive to discovery requests. The judge cited the firm’s “untimely objections” to complying with discovery and pointed to multiple discovery issues over the last two years of the litigation when he said sanctions are on the table.

Read the Above the Law article.

Seeking bankruptcy and scrambling to complete a $1.3 billion state-mandated wildfire prevention plan, Pacific Gas & Electric will now have to prove that its newly hired directors are fit to transform the mega-utility blamed for starting the 2018 Camp Fire in Northern California, reports Courthouse News Service.

While the new members have “impressive resumes,” said Commission president Michael Picker, it’s not clear they have the safety experience or time to manage the overhaul of a publicly traded utility facing an estimated $30 billion in wildfire liabilities.

Courthouse News Service reporter Nick Cahill writes that many state lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom have been skeptical of the additions, citing the new members’ ties to Wall Street.

Read the Courthouse News article.

By Andres Avila
Saxe Doernberger & Vita, P.C.

Image by Pictures of Money

Tennessee’s Supreme Court recently held that an insurer may not withhold repair labor costs as depreciation when the policy definition of actual cash value is found to be ambiguous. Tennessee joins other states like California and Vermont that prohibit the depreciation of repair labor costs in property policies.

In Lammert v. Auto-Owners (Mut.) Ins. Co., No. M201702546SCR23CV, 2019 WL 1592687, the Lammerts and other insureds sought property damage coverage from Auto Owners Insurance for hail damage to a home and other structures they owned in Tennessee.

Auto-Owners Insurance agreed to settle the claims on an actual cash value basis (ACV), which is a method of establishing the value of insured property that must be replaced to determine the indemnity by the insurer. There are multiple methods to calculate ACV. Auto-Owners decided to use the ACV calculation method of deducting depreciation from the cost to repair or replace the damaged property. Depreciation is the decline in value of a property since it was new because of use, age or wear. The rationale behind this method is that an insured should not make a profit by recovering the cost of, for example, a new roof for a damaged roof that was ten years old, and thus depreciation is deducted from the indemnity.

Auto-Owners, however, decided to deduct both the materials and the repair and replace labor costs, as depreciation, when calculating the ACV. Neither of both policies under dispute specifically mentioned that repair labor costs could be depreciated in their ACV definitions. The parties thus disagreed on whether depreciation applies only to the materials or to both materials and repair labor.

One of the policies defined ACV as “the cost to replace damaged property with new property of similar quality and features reduced by the amount of depreciation applicable to the damaged property immediately prior to the loss;” while the other did not define ACV but stated that ACV included a deduction for depreciation.

The insureds argued that depreciation should be limited only to the cost of the replacement materials. In their view, the language “depreciation applicable to the damaged property” eliminates labor costs, which are intangible and cannot be depreciated because they do not age or wear out. The insureds also argued that the “prior to the loss” policy language eliminated labor costs because the costs at issue were post-loss repair costs. Auto-Owners contended that neither policy was ambiguous because depreciation of a property is calculated based on the total replacement cost, which includes both labor and materials.

Allowing Auto-Owners to depreciate the cost of labor would leave the insureds with an out of pocket loss inconsistent with the principle of indemnity of insurance to make insureds whole. However, allowing the deduction may in turn cause a windfall to the insureds, also defeating the purpose of indemnity. The Tennessee Supreme Court sided with the policyholders and solved the dilemma by citing to case law from, among others, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Nebraska and Minnesota, as well as regulations in Vermont, California and Mississippi.

The Court noted that Oklahoma uses the “broad evidence” rule to determine ACV. This method, also followed in New York, allows insurers to consider any and every fact and circumstance that logically tends to a correct estimate of the loss.

Accordingly, in Redcorn v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., 55 P.3d 1017, 1020 (Okla. 2002), the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that repair labor must be depreciated under the “broad evidence” method.

A decade later, the Arkansas Supreme Court was more persuaded by the dissenters than the majority in Redcorn and concluded that labor was not depreciable because labor does not lose value due to wear and tear over time in Adams v. Cameron Mutual Insurance Co., 2013 Ark. 475, 430 S.W.3d 675 (2013). However, in 2017 the Arkansas legislature abrogated Adams and enacted Arkansas Statute section 23-88-106, which specifically included the cost of labor in its definition of an expense depreciation.

The Tennessee Supreme Court further noted that Nebraska, which also uses the “broad evidence” rule, sided with the Oklahoma Supreme Court majority. It held that property is a combination of materials and labor and thus repair labor costs must also be depreciated from the replacement cost to determine ACV. Henn v. American Family Mutual Insurance Co., 295 Neb. 859, 894 N.W.2d 179 (2017). The court also considered a third approach from Minnesota, which also follows the “broad evidence” rule. In Wilcox v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., 874 N.W.2d 780, 785 (Minn. 2016), the Minnesota Supreme Court held that certain labor costs may be depreciable making it an issue of fact rather than law.

The Court then turned for guidance to case law from the federal circuit courts of appeals involving the law of Missouri, Kansas and Kentucky. The Tennessee Court found that Missouri and Kentucky lean towards allowing insurers to deduct repair labor costs as depreciation; while Kentucky, on the other hand, leans towards seeing depreciation as an ambiguous term and thus interpreted against insurers, preventing carriers from subtracting repair labor costs as depreciation.

The Tennessee Court then turned to insurance departments’ regulations of the point in California, Vermont and Mississippi. California (Cal. Code Regs. tit. 10, § 2695.9(f)(1) (2019)) and Vermont (Insurance Bulletin No. 184) prohibit the depreciation of repair and replacement labor. On the other hand, the Mississippi Insurance Department Bulletin 2017-8 declared the absence of a statutory prohibition to labor costs depreciation in that state but that insurers should clearly provide for it in the insurance policy if they intended to do so.

Tennessee acknowledges both the “broad evidence” rule and the replacement-cost-less-depreciation method to determine ACV. The Tennessee Supreme Court was persuaded that, since neither of the policies explicitly stated whether labor costs are depreciable when calculating ACV, there was an ambiguity that had to be interpreted against insurers and in favor of insureds.

This decision in Tennessee serves as a warning that, absent policy language stating otherwise, property insurers cannot depreciate repair labor costs when calculating the ACV of a property using the replacement cost less depreciation method in Tennessee.

An on-demand podcast episode of The Proskauer Brief discusses potential pitfalls that lurk in employment agreements and other employee compensation arrangements.

Speakers are Kate Napalkova, special employee benefits and executive compensation counsel, and associate Oleg Zakatov.

The podcast focuses on key contractual provisions that employers should incorporate into any document that includes a confidentiality covenant.

“Employers should be sure to tune in to see why involving your in-house team and outside executive compensation and employment counsel to regularly audit employment agreements, employee handbooks, independent confidentiality and IP assignment agreements, and other company policies is always a good idea,” according to an introduction to the podcast.

Listen to the podcast
or read a transcript.

Ariel S. Wolf has rejoined Venable LLP as counsel in the eCommerce, Privacy, and Cybersecurity Practice in the Washington, DC office, and will lead the firm’s Mobility and Transportation Technology Group.

The firm said Wolf most recently served on U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Elaine L. Chao’s leadership team as counselor to the deputy secretary, where he advised the secretary and deputy secretary on all matters pending before the DOT. Wolf launched and directed the DOT’s new Non-traditional and Emerging Transportation Technology (NETT) Council, oversaw the DOT’s efforts on spectrum and connected vehicles, and developed policies and regulations governing automated vehicles, drones, hyperloop, commercial space launch and licensing, and other innovative technologies.

During his tenure at Venable from September 2011 to June 2018, Wolf was involved with complex legal and policy issues at the intersection of privacy, cybersecurity, transportation, consumer protection, and emerging technology, according to a release from the firm. He represented clients before Congress, the Federal Trade Commission, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Department of Commerce, and other federal and state agencies, and worked with clients facing investigations and enforcement actions at both the federal and state levels. For clients facing security incidents and data breaches, Wolf provided crisis management counseling that considered legal and regulatory obligations, public relations issues, potential congressional and state attorney general scrutiny, brand reputation, and other key factors that affected businesses.

The firm said Wolf also worked closely with manufacturers, suppliers, and technology providers to navigate the emerging legal and policy landscape being transformed by connected cars, transportation mobility technology, and the Internet of Things. His work included supporting a leading coalition of companies to advance federal and state policy priorities related to fully automated vehicles, and provided legal counsel in such areas as automobile recalls, drones, general transportation law, and enforcement actions by NHTSA and related agencies.

Wolf received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 2011 and his B.A. from Harvard College in 2005.

The International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC) – the invitation-only global legal organization for attorneys who represent corporate and insurance interests –announced that it has launched the IADC Diversity and Inclusion Award and has presented its first award to the Diverse Attorney Pipeline Program (DAPP).

DAPP, a non-profit organization founded to advance opportunities for women of color and the creator of DAPP Direct, the first and only national job placement fair for women of color law students, will be formally recognized as the award’s recipient at the IADC’s 2019 Annual Meeting in July in Asheville, N.C.

In a release, the firm said he IADC Diversity and Inclusion Award recognizes an individual, group, organization, company or country that has championed diversity and inclusion within the legal profession. The recipient also has taken purposeful, tangible actions that have yielded positive outcomes in helping to achieve diversity and inclusion in the legal profession and/or has significantly advanced understanding of the need for diversity and inclusion in the profession.

“The IADC recognizes that diversity and inclusion is a core tenet and central to our organization,” said Bonnie Mayfield, Chair of the IADC’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee and Chair of the organization’s Employment Law Committee. “This award is designed to identify and honor those persons or entities who have championed diversity and inclusion in the legal profession through meaningful and tangible actions. We believe what gets recognized gets repeated.”

Mayfield, who is a product liability and labor and employment defense lawyer at Dykema Gossett PLLC, stressed that the legal profession is not where it needs to be in terms of increasing diversity and inclusion, and that recent studies on diversity in the profession confirm that that African American/Black equity partners are rare and may even be declining.

“DAPP is precisely the type of organization that the IADC wants to recognize and celebrate through this award for its tangible contributions to helping diverse individuals succeed in the legal profession,” Mayfield added.

Founded in 2014, DAPP is a non-profit corporation that addresses the continued and systemic decline of women of color lawyers in law firms and across other coveted positions in the legal profession. Through its scholars program and national job placement program, DAPP Direct, DAPP works to expand opportunities for women of color law students to succeed in law school and secure paid summer positions at law firms and corporations following their first year of law school. DAPP Direct pairs law firms with women of color in-house counsel who interview on their behalves and place talented, first-year women of color law students in paid law firm internships across the nation. The DAPP Scholars Program provides scholars with placement assistance, academic support, coaching, counseling, book stipends, tutoring, seminars and workshops, tailored professional development, mentorship, and more.

DAPP was started by two African-American female attorneys who graduated from law school during the height of the recession, and through their leadership positions in minority bar associations and diversity organizations, witnessed the barricades to, and rapid decline of, women of color in big law.

Andrea G. Lovell has joined Littler as a shareholder in its Phoenix office. Lovell joins from Ryley Carlock & Applewhite where she led the firm’s Labor and Employment Practice Group.

In a release, the firm said Lovell has experience counseling and defending employers in matters involving harassment in the workplace and in discrimination claims related to disability, gender, age, race, national origin and religion. She also represents clients in matters involving wrongful termination and various employment-related torts, as well as against unfair labor practice charges and in labor arbitrations under collective bargaining agreements. Lovell defends companies in state, federal and appellate courts and before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Arizona Civil Rights Division and other administrative agencies, the firm said.

The firm said Lovell has conducted numerous training sessions focused on harassment avoidance and disability discrimination in the workplace, and regularly helps clients develop comprehensive workplace policies and employee handbooks. A prolific speaker and writer, Lovell has authored several articles on labor, employment and litigation-related topics and regularly delivers presentations to legal and human resources professionals on workplace issues.

Lovell received her J.D., with honors, from the University of Washington and her B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of Puget Sound.

The Dallas litigation boutique Bailey Brauer PLLC celebrated its sixth anniversary with a move from the second to the sixth floor of Dallas’ Campbell Centre I, 8350 N. Central Expressway, which doubled the firm’s office space.

“The new office is more reflective of who we are as a firm. We were at capacity for quite some time in our previous office and this gives us the much-needed room to expand,” said firm co-founder Clayton Bailey, about the move. “We doubled the size of our office, giving us a more functional workspace that enhances our collaborative team approach to litigation.”

“Our success as a firm has required us to expand three times in six years. Everyone here is excited about the new space and what it means for our future now that we again have room to grow,” said firm co-founder Alex Brauer. Additional attorneys are expected to join the firm this summer.

In addition to Bailey and Brauer, the firm currently includes veteran business litigator Gary Powell, complex commercial and bankruptcy litigator Benjamin Stewart, and litigator and regulatory attorney Adam Bell.

Founded in 2013, Bailey Brauer has earned multiple individual and firm honors from Chambers USA, BTI Consulting Group, Benchmark Litigation, the National Law Journal, The Best Lawyers in America, Texas Super Lawyers and D Magazine.

Sidley Austin LLP announced that Samuel (Sam) Newman has joined its global Restructuring group as a partner in the Los Angeles office.

Newman was previously a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.

Saxe Doernberger & Vita, P.C. announced that associates Larissa A. Branes and Sarah M. Borrelli have joined the firm’s SDV West Coast office.

In a release, the firm said Branes has focused on complex commercial and residential real estate matters and complex secured nonconventional lending. She also has experience in discovery and motion practice as well as settlement negotiations, mediations and arbitrations, trials and appellate practice.

Borrelli was an elementary school teacher in Arizona, having earned a Master of Education, before switching careers and attending law school, where she served on California Western Law Review and was the Executive Editor of Notes and Comments for the International Law Journal.

For the first time in John Roberts’ 14 years as chief justice of the United States, he will likely be the deciding vote on several final, tense cases — a total of 24 over the next two weeks, according to CNN.

“Two of the most politically charged cases awaiting resolution, testing 2020 census questions and partisan gerrymanders, could lead to decisions favoring Republican Party interests and reinforce the partisan character of a court comprising five GOP appointees and four Democratic ones,” writes CNN’s Joan Biskupic.

Read the CNN article.

ABA approval for Thomas Jefferson School of Law, which was placed on probation in November 2017, has been withdrawn by the council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, reports the ABA Journal.

On its website, the San Diego-based school took issue with the withdrawal: “The Law School is disappointed by this capricious decision and strongly disagrees with the Council’s findings.” The statement says the school plans to appeal the council’s decision, a process that could extend through the fall.

When the school was placed on probation in 2017, it was found to be noncompliant with several standards, including such areas as program resources, maintaining a rigorous program, admissions, academic attrition, and admissions policies, writes the Journal‘s Stephanie Francis Ward.

The law school’s 2018 California bar passage rate for was 23.85 percent, according to ABA data, compared to the California bar passage rate for graduates of ABA-accredited law schools in 2018 of 60.34 percent.

Read the ABA Journal article.

The Arizona Capitol Times is reporting that an applicant for the Arizona Court of Appeals plagiarized multiple memorable passages from confirmation hearings for two U.S. Supreme Court justices.

Kristina Reeves, an attorney in private practice and former assistant attorney general, is one of 11 applicants hoping to fill a vacancy on the Court of Appeals, reports the Capitol Times‘ Dillon Rosenblatt.

The alleged plagiarism involved copied-and-pasted passages from speeches by U.S. Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito, including multiple passages of Gorsuch’s confirmation speech to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2017, altering it minimally to suit her gender, according to Rosenblatt.

Read the Capitol Times article.

Despite the increasing complexity of corporate governance, many new directors do not receive any form of onboarding, or even a job description, according to the National Association of Corporate Directors. Yet effective onboarding will equip new directors with the information and skills they need to contribute value—immediately.

The NACD has published a guide titled “Navigating the First Year: An Onboarding Guide for New Directors” that can provide new directors with essential information.

The full version of the guide is available to members of the NACD, but nonmembers are invited to download an executive summary.

The guide provides:

• The questions all directors should understand they need the answers to
• Practical advice on what to do (and what not to do) during board meetings
• A checklist process for effective onboarding and helpful directorship practices
• Information on public disclosures needed when onboarding new public company directors

Download the executive summary.

As the U.S. commercial real estate sector prepares in the downswing of an extended economic expansion, executives and investors continue to be highly optimistic about the market and the overall U.S. economy, according to an annual survey by U.S. law firm Akerman LLP. The tenth annual Akerman U.S. Real Estate Sector Report – completed by more than 200 C-suite and senior executives – shows that developments such as federal tax reform and evolving technology have taken root and spurred growth, even amid mounting uncertainty and the likelihood of a market correction.

Coming off a record-high outlook in the 2018 survey, when 68 percent of respondents expressed more optimism for the market in comparison to the prior year, 70 percent this year say they are more bullish about 2019 market activity than 2018. Nearly half (46 percent) say the continued improvement of the U.S. economy is the primary driver of this increased confidence.

In a release, the firm said the survey also shows sentiments of softening with a market slowdown looming. A third of respondents (33 percent) say interest rate uncertainty is their primary concern, followed by uncertainty in global economic conditions (23 percent) and uncertainty of federal government policy in the U.S. (22 percent). With the prospect of an interest rate reduction by the Federal Reserve, concerns about rising interest rates are abated for the time being and certain subsectors like industrial and multifamily are outperforming in major markets like Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York.

“While the U.S. real estate market has remained resilient since the economic downturn, the headwinds we expected coming into 2019 are starting to come to fruition,” said Eric Rapkin, chair of Akerman’s national Real Estate Practice Group. “Nonetheless, capital is still chasing deals, especially in gateway markets, and we’re beginning to see executives capitalize on tax advantages and deferral strategies such as Opportunity Zones.”

Additional trends identified in Akerman’s 2019 survey include:

• Tax Reform and Opportunity Zones Generate Activity: With the commercial real estate sector a key beneficiary of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed in December 2017, it’s no surprise that 46 percent of respondents rank tax reform among the top three trends they expect to have a significant impact on real estate development over the next three years. On the heels of the release of the U.S. Treasury Department’s second round of proposed regulations, developers and investors are expressing more interest in Opportunity Zones – areas designated for federal tax breaks. As further clarity is being brought to the program, nearly a quarter of respondents place Opportunity Zones among the top three areas they believe will fund the most commercial real estate debt and/or equity in 2019.

• Digital Transformation and Disruption: Executives responding to the survey view technological advances as having the most influence on real estate development, with 48 percent selecting it among the top three trends that will have a significant impact over the next three years. Incorporating the latest technology and design attributes has become critical across all sectors of the real estate market, including luring and retaining tenants in office buildings, attracting millennials to residential properties and facilitating the use of automation and robotics for the industrial sector.

• Aging Population Drives New Areas of Growth: The graying of America closely follows technology and tax reform as the trend expected to most impact real estate development, with 45 percent of respondents designating it among their top three choices. As seniors account for more of the population, new types of healthcare facilities are experiencing growth, including microhospitals, ambulatory surgery centers and other medical uses within traditional retail locations.

• Housing Still Dominates: Survey respondents continue to express confidence in multifamily with 67 percent placing it among the top two sectors they expect to be the most active for real estate transactions in 2019, followed by single-family residential (50 percent). These results echo last year’s survey where 63 percent of respondents predicted the multifamily sector would be the first or second most active in 2018. Within multifamily, 2019 respondents rank apartment development as likely to be most active this year, followed by senior living facilities.

• China, Canada and Latin America Lead the Way: Uncertainties abound in an unbalanced global economy – driven by such developments as the trade war with China, ongoing Brexit gridlock and the upcoming U.S. presidential election. Nonetheless, respondents expect cross-border investment across a range of areas. Executives predict China to be the region that will invest most heavily in the U.S. hospitality, industrial, office and retail sectors. However, Canada is expected to contribute most to foreign investment in the predicted hot markets of multifamily and single family residential. Within Latin America, respondents expect the greatest increase in investment in U.S. real estate to come from Mexico (38 percent), followed by Brazil (30 percent).

• Private Equity and Banks Lead Among Funding Vehicles: For the fourth year in a row, real estate executives expect most funding to come from private equity funds and institutional lenders. In reflecting on the top three areas they expect to fund the most commercial real estate debt and/or equity in 2019, 53 percent chose private equity and 51 percent selected banks. Additional funding sources selected by respondents include foreign investors (45 percent), insurance companies (28 percent) and real estate investment trusts (24 percent).

Smart contracts are best suited to execute somewhat rudimentary legal tasks, which typically involve transferring funds or imposing financial penalties when certain conditions are satisfied, explain Maria Alicia “Fernandez and Guillermo Gonzalez Frankenberger of Hogan Lovells.

“However, as the applications of blockchain and the assets controlled by it expand, the use of smart contracts is likely to become more complex and legally sophisticated,” they write in the firm’s Real Estate Horizons.

“Notwithstanding its promising applications,There are concerns that need to be addressed before the wide- spread application of smart contracts,” the authors explain.

Read the article.

Trial lawyer James “Jim” Nye has joined Winston & Strawn LLP. Nye, formerly with Baker Hostetler, will be a partner in Winston’s Houston office and focus on complex commercial litigation with a concentration in the energy industry.

The firm said Nye’s practice focuses on several areas of litigation, including commercial, real estate, environmental, and trade secrets. He has counseled clients with high-exposure investigations and industrial emergencies and has successfully taken numerous cases through to a jury verdict. Most recently, he won a $62 million verdict in a jury trial in Texas. In addition to his extensive track record in trial work, Jim has substantial experience with arbitration.

Nye is an honors graduate of the University of Houston Law Center and earned a B.B.A degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

Stroock has announced that the firm has realigned its talent management and professional development functions and created a new partner acquisition role.

Stroock has hired Regina Robbins in the newly created role of assistant director of talent acquisition. She will concentrate on firmwide lateral partner and associate recruiting. She recently involved in lateral partner recruiting in her prior role at an Am Law 100 firm.

As part of the realignment, Yakiry Adal has been named director of talent and inclusion, where she will oversee on-campus recruiting and summer associate programs and lead Stroock’s diversity and inclusion efforts.

The firm said Diane Cohen has been named director of legal personnel and LA administration, where she will oversee legal personnel and administration of the Los Angeles office.

The firm has also hired Tami Segal as its Miami office administrator. She joins Stroock from a Florida-based law firm.

The revamped recruiting team also includes Clarice Wahba, senior manager, professional development; Sandra Ramirez, recruiting coordinator; and new hires Sabina Braciak, recruiting coordinator, and Steven Westreich, recruiting assistant.

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP partner Charles A. Roberts Jr. is among the recipients of the M&A Advisor’s 10th Annual Emerging Leaders Awards recognizing the achievements of young M&A, financing and turnaround professionals under the age of 40.

The awards recognize the achievements of young M&A, financing and turnaround professionals who have reached a significant level of success while still under the age of 40.

The M&A Advisor’s Emerging Leaders began as the 40 Under 40 Awards in the United States in 2010 and later became the Emerging Leader Awards upon expansion to the United Kingdom and Europe. An independent judging panel of prominent leaders in the M&A, finance and turnaround community determined the winners, who will be formally recognized at a black tie awards gala Sept. 17 in New York City as part of the 2019 Emerging Leaders Summit.

A member of Bradley’s Corporate and Securities Practice Group and chair of Bradley’s Public Companies team, Roberts practices in the corporate and securities area, with a focus on public company representation, advising private equity companies in leveraged buyouts and portfolio company acquisitions, and advising real estate developers and sponsors on joint ventures and capital raises. In addition to representing public companies with 34’ Act reporting compliance, public debt and equity offerings, and corporate governance matters, Roberts has experience in public and private mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and joint ventures. He represents both public and private companies in a broad range of industries, including private equity, financial services, automotive, manufacturing, and real estate development. Roberts also is a member of Bradley’s Finance Committee.

An executive from the biologics arm of Korean conglomerate Samsung faces arrest as part of a probe into the company’s accounting practices. according to MedCityNews.

The arrest of the executive, surnamed Lee, is part of an accounting scandal in which Samsung BioLogics allegedly inflated its value ahead of its 2016 initial public offering, after which executives from the company – led by CEO Kim Tae-han – destroyed evidence of the maneuver, reports MedCityNews’ Alaric Dearment.
“Kim appeared in court two weeks ago in Seoul for a hearing to determine whether to issue a warrant for his arrest,” Dearment writes. “Lee is the eighth Samsung BioLogics executive to be arrested.”

Read the MedCityNews article.