It was easy to miss the news about the $864 million legal payout by Moody’s Investors Service over its ratings of crisis-era mortgage securities. It was announced on a Friday afternoon, just as the last of the Obama Justice Department staff was cleaning out their desks to make way for the new administration.
Up to now, big banks have been the favored villains for all manner of bad business practices, like hasty home foreclosures, interest-rate manipulation and money laundering. But today’s report that DLA Piper, a large law firm, allegedly overbilled a small businessman by millions could give lawyers their turn in the spotlight. Are they ready?
I attended a panel Wednesday night at The Columbia Journalism School that asked whether the financial press failed the public by overlooking issues that led to the financial crisis. (The event was co-sponsored by Public Business Media and the Columbia Journalism Review.) The genesis of the event was an article by Dean Starkman, a former […]