Legal Fee Prerogative Gives Goldman Sachs Some Leverage

New York Times business writer Gretchen Morgenson takes a look at the Goldman Sachs formula for deciding whose legal bills it will and won’t pay. The firm says it will cover “officers” without defining what that means, a  policy that it has described as “permissive indemnification.” The ambiguity, Morgenson says, can give the firm leverage in case the accused is tempted to implicate higher ups. The issue of indemnification surfaced recently in the appeal of a former Goldman Sachs vice president who has been accused of stealing code from the company. A three-judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to the district court for a determination on the meaning of “officer.”