As the SEC’s fraud case against former Countrywide Financial executives moves toward trial, the executives charged have previewed their defenses in their failed motions for summary judgment.

Texas billionaire brothers Sam and Charles Wyly, in denying Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that they hid $550 million in trading profits via a maze of offshore trusts and other entities, are pointing at the advice they received from lawyers and financial advisers, according to reports. So, who were the go-to lawyers for the Wylys? Chief among them was Michael French, whom the SEC has also charged with helping the brothers set up the offshore trusts through which they made the trades in question.

One of the longest-running fights waged by the Securities and Exchange Commission over stock option backdating has settled. Former KLA-Tencor CEO Kenneth Schroeder has agreed to pay a $275,000 fine to resolve allegations that he ignored the advice of lawyers and backdated stock options, including his own. Still unresolved is whether Schroeder will be prohibited from serving in the future as an officer or director at a publicly traded company.

This year, Silicon Valley’s corporate lawyers are at long last the popular kids again as tech companies are going public en masse for the first time in years.

Organizing a business is a legal excavation field, and exclusive of suitable information and understanding of the pertinent risks involved, some difficulties can quickly surround you. Managing a business without contemplation can be dangerous, mainly with the consideration of the impending economic and criminal risks you may get surrounded with.