General counsel at scandal-ridden Penn State University (PSU) steps down, while SEC suspends Atlanta lawyer for fraud.
Cynthia Baldwin, the PSU’s first general counsel, announced that she is stepping down. Baldwin has held the position of vice president, general counsel and chief legal officer since January 2010, the university says. At that time, Baldwin was expected to be in the position temporarily while the school’s new legal department gained some ground. Once established, the search for a permanent general counsel would ensue.
But there has been an interesting turn of events. Over the last year, Baldwin has been taming the fire of the ongoing legal battle that came to light after allegations of sexual abuse surfaced against he university’s football team coach, Jerry Sandusky. According to the Philadelphia Business Journal, ‘the school’s chief legal officer, Baldwin counseled top officials when two Penn State administrators, Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, testified a year ago before a grand jury investigating retired assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, who was arrested in November and charged with 50 counts of child sex abuse.’
PSU says that the lawyer managed to build a robust legal department during her two-year stint as general counsel, and is now leaving behind ‘two attorneys, a paralegal and an administrative assistant at University Park, and two attorneys and a paralegal based at Penn State Hershey.’
In other news, the SEC has disbarred Chalmer Detling II, general counsel of Aiken Continental, from appearing or practicing as an attorney before the commission for five years.
The SEC says that Detling signed an opinion letter as counsel of the Atlanta-based casket company in which he made improper and misleading representations. Furthermore, he falsified materials and made omissions in connection with the 2006 offer and sale of $2.96 million of industrial development revenue bonds.
Moreover, Detling failed to disclose key players to the transaction, including the issuer, bond counsel, the underwriter, and the bondholders’ trustee, that Aiken had been indicted for financial fraud in late 2005. Detling also neglected to reveal that he was in the process of negotiating a plea agreement for the company just before the bonds were issued in October 2006.
The SEC says that Detling serves as general counsel for another unnamed company in Georgia.
In addition to his suspension, Detling has agreed to pay $10,000 in disgorgement, $3,052 in prejudgment interest, and a $25,000 civil penalty.
