Just sad to see cancel culture run amok.
I don’t know if I still have my collection or not. I never had more than 5-10 or so, but they were SO COOL. I’m a little bummed that they may not still be buried in a box somewhere. I’m remember being so upset when I missed getting the Enduro badge by like 3 seconds when I was like 8.
Fuck, how did I forget yet another reason Swingers is awesome?
Speaking as a corporate lawyer, there’s a million things that go on in the C-Suite that you don’t know about. You have to count on your client (the Board actually is the representative of your client, not the officers, though obviously you work closely with the officers as needed) to keep you in the loop and consult you appropriately. Most org charts have the shareholders at the top, with a line down to the Board, then a line from the Board down to the CEO, and a separate line down to the CLO. In other words, you don’t report through the officer structure like literally everyone else but the CEO, you report independently to the Board. This gives you the power to go right to the Board & not be blocked by officers who may be involved in misconduct.
Then there’s the fun fact that lawyers cannot be whistleblowers. If you go to the Board & explain there’s officer misconduct (and likely recommend actions to stop it), but the Board decides to do nothing, you’re still bound by attorney-client confidentiality. You have two options: be complicit in potential or existing crimes (so long, law license), or resign quietly (in a way that would not breach confidentiality by stating or implying what you learned).
Under California law, there are only two circumstances where an attorney can breach attorney-client confidentiality. First, if the attorney participates in planning or carrying out a crime or fraud, then attorney-client confidentiality does not apply. Second, if the attorney reasonably believes a client communication must be disclosed to prevent someone from committing a criminal act that will cause death or substantial bodily harm, like a client saying they will harm or kill potential witnesses (and after reporting that to the police or prosecutor, then you resign from representing that client). Unless one of those two narrow exceptions applies, you cannot disclose what you learn in confidence, full stop. Keep your pie-hole shut, or resign.
So looking at what Ms. Hart and Activision said about her departure, and her refusal to talk to the press about it or disclose details on social media, I’m leaning in favor of her acting ethically. There was probably all kinds of crap going on that Kotick & other C-level officers kept from her, or she made recommendations to deal with that crap that the officers & Board promptly round-filed. When the investigations started and the curtain was pulled back on a variety of big problems she didn’t know about, she couldn’t rat out her client to the authorities, because she learned it in the scope of her representation. She probably didn’t get Board support to fire or discipline the people responsible, because the Board seems to love or be pals with Kotick (he’s on the Board too, but he would have been excluded from that meeting). She doesn’t want to get pulled into exception #1 by participating in possible fraud, and there’s no imminent threat of death or bodily harm, so exception #2 does not apply. So the law left her with one option: resign quietly. She didn’t give any reasons why she quit, because she can’t without violating attorney-client confidentiality. She might be subpoenaed to testify, but those usually are quashed because there’s a continuing duty of loyalty to former clients, so an attorney still cannot talk about confidential client information after the representation has ended.
So with all of that in mind, I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt & say she acted ethically by resigning from a client whom she probably felt was going to continue illegal behavior(s).
That was informative, thanks!
I agree, thanks for your analysis Supertanker!
Agreed. Always good to have reminders of why going into law was never an option. Dodged a bullet there (as if I ever considered it).
So, not the best time to sink my 403(b) investments into Activision?
I don’t know why most gaming stocks are down 10% year to year. Ubisoft, Activision, Nintendo, etc. Did people stop buying video games in the pandemic or something?
The market is largely speculative of what they think will happen. So maybe they feel that if the pandemic eases up game sales will drop off as people want to leave their house, travel, etc.
And I wouldn’t expect a whole lot of rationality from the market. I mean, look at GME. :)
I got the Dragster patch for a sub 6 second run! Wish I still had that…
LOL $18 million. That’s all it took? Feds are pussies.
“Hey Frank, crank out a new mount for the WoW store, we gotta pay off this EEOC fine.”
Just for reference, the company made $8.09 BILLION in revenue last year.
And with that, no reason to do better in the future. Pay the fine and continue to abuse women indiscriminately!
Wow. Weak as piss.
I would not be surprised to find out though that the government is limited in the amount of fines or whatever they can impose based on the laws involved. I seriously doubt the folks on the government side are looking to lowball the penalties, so if they are as low as this it may well be because their hands are tied. Just a speculation though.
This is just the federal government, the state of CA is still pursuing, yes?
Good point, this settlement does not relate to the CaDEFH suit.
One of the biggest problems with the justice system, is the inherent inequity in regards to “punishment” via a monetary settlement. For poor and working class people, fines can be life destroying, for the rich or for corporations, fines don’t even rise to the level of inconvenience. Easy solution, fines are percentage based.
There are certainly larger penalties available for civil suits, so there may still be some hope there, but once you reach a certain level of income, monetary penalties are a joke.