Legal Commentary

Some of you may recall that Mark Hurd was HP's CEO during its pre-texting scandal and was credited with doing a good job of cleaning up the company's compliance program and strengthening its Board in the wake of that scandal.  Well, it looks like he did a good job. 

In the wake of a sexual harassment claim made by an HP contractor against Hurd, the company's General Counsel has announced today that although an internal investigation found no evidence of harrassment, it found that Hurd had shown questionable judgment and had violated various provisions of the company's Code of Business Conduct (on CNBC, Maria Bartiromo is reporting that Hurd filed false expense reports - why do smart, high-level people do dumb things?) .  Based on conversations with HP's Board, Hurd decided to resign. 

Given that the company itself has been doing very well and Hurd's conduct apparently has nothing to do with the company's operational performance, Hurd's resignation is significant because it demonstrates the company's (well, really its Board's) willingness to abide by its internal code.   Good for them.  Now let's see if Hurd collects any severance.