Legal News

Another Former Ropes & Gray Lawyer Ensnared in Galleon Probe

By Amir Efrati

This just in: a former Ropes & Gray lawyer who left the firm in September 2008 appears to be close to pleading guilty in connection with the Galleon-related insider-trading case that broke last month.

Prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan filed a “notice of intent to file an information” in U.S. v Brien Santarlas, meaning the former intellectual property associate is likely to plead guilty to criminal charges at a scheduled 12:30 hearing. The prosecutor who filed the notice, Reed Brodsky, is one of the lead prosecutors handling Galleon matter.

It’s unclear whether Santarlas has been charged with conspiring with Arthur Cutillo, another former Ropes & Gray lawyer who was charged last month on insider-trading related charges. But a person familiar with the matter confirmed the Santarlas case is connected to the Cutillo case.

A spokesman for Ropes sent along the following statement:

The actions of these two former associates represent an extreme breach of their duty of trust to our clients and the firm, as well as gross violations of our policies and civil and criminal law. We have been actively cooperating with the authorities in their investigation of this matter.

A call to Santarlas’s lawyer was not immediately returned.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on December 10, 2009 (boomark / email).