March did not go out like a lamb for white-collar lawyers conducting internal investigations.  Late in the month, a purported "client" of Proskauer Rose - the former chief investment officer of Stanford Financial Group - sued the law firm and one of its partners for malpractice, claiming that their negligence led to the filing of a criminal charge against her.  Less than a week later, a federal judge in California referred the Irell & Manella firm to the State Bar for "appropriate discipline."  This is what can happen when lawyers represent corporations in connection with suspicions of wrongdoing, and simultaneously deal with, and arguably represent, officers of those corporations.  Althought the former Stanford executive withdrew her action without prejudice on April 9, 2009 (for reasons undoubtedly relating to the primacy of the criminal case), damage was still done and there are lessons to be learned.

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