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Griffin Bell background
Griffen Bell is mentioned in the desposition of Dr. Donald Bennett, former Dow Corning scientist.
The majority of his documents were sealed by Judge Pointer as an on-going internal investigation.
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[King & Spalding] Griffin Bell graduated cum laude from Mercer [Griffin B. Bell] University Law School in 1948.
After graduation, he practiced law in Savannah, Georgia and Rome, Georgia Griffin B. Bell and joined King & Spalding
as a partner in 1953. He became Managing Partner of King & Spalding in 1958. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed
him to serve as a United States Circuit Judge on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Bell served on the Fifth Circuit
for 15 years until 1976 when he returned to King & Spalding.
He served as the 72nd Attorney General of the United
States from 1977-79. Judge Bell then returned to King & Spalding where he served as Chairman of the Management Committee
from 1980-83 and Chairman of King & Spalding's first Policy Committee from 1985-87. He is a member of the American College
of Trial Lawyers, serving as its President from 1985-86. He is also a member of the American Law Institute.
Judge
Bell was the initial Chairman of the Atlanta Commission on Crime and Juvenile Delinquency. During 1980, he headed the American
delegation to the conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, held in Madrid. In 1984, Judge Bell received the Thomas
Jefferson Memorial Foundation Award for Excellence in Law. From 1985-87, Judge Bell served on the Secretary of State's Advisory
Committee on South Africa, and in 1989, he was appointed Vice Chairman of President Bush's Commission on Federal Ethics Law
Reform.
Although his private practice is multi-faceted, a principal focus in recent years has been advice and counsel
on matters related to corporate crime. His recent work emphasizes his experience and interest in all phases of internal corporation
investigations. His organization of the Firm's Special Matters Group assembles lawyers with a wide variety of experience in
representing corporations faced with charges of criminal or civil wrongdoing.
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During 1985, Griffin Bell and King & Spalding were retained by the Board of Directors of E.F. Hutton Company Inc.
to conduct an exhaustive internal corporate investigation into facts that caused Hutton to plead guilty to approximately 2,000
counts of wire fraud and mail fraud. This work, completed in less than four months, was undertaken by fourteen lawyers and
ten legal assistants at King & Spalding, and it culminated in the issuance of a comprehensive report to the Board of Directors
of Hutton in September of 1985.
Shortly after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska in March 1989, the Board of Directors
of Exxon Corporation appointed an Independent Litigation Committee to investigate various allegations in shareholder derivative
actions and demand letters. Judge Bell and King & Spalding were retained to represent the Committee and assist in its
investigation. Fifteen lawyers and ten legal assistants at King & Spalding worked on this matter.
Based on its
extensive involvement in internal corporate investigations for Hutton and Exxon, and other similar civil and criminal matters,
King & Spalding has formed a Special Matters Group consisting of trial lawyers experienced and knowledgeable in handling
internal investigations for corporations and all related criminal and civil matters. The internal investigations are generally
performed for a corporate board of directors, the outside directors or for the chief executive officer, although they may
be performed for an independent committee of the board of directors where a shareholder derivative suit has been filed. The
primary objectives in these matters are to assess responsibility, fully defend against the charges, and structure creative
solutions to the issues which gave rise to the investigations.
For the healthcare industry, services rendered by
lawyers in the Special Matters Group include representation of hospital chains, a public hospital authority, managed care
companies, billing companies, and physicians in numerous civil and criminal fraud investigations. We presently are counsel
to health care companies in more than a dozen pending criminal and civil fraud investigations and qui tam actions in Georgia,
Florida, Texas, Maryland, Virginia, Louisiana, and California. We also provide ongoing compliance advice to large healthcare
providers. The Special Matters group coordinates closely with King & Spalding's Health Care lawyers on substantive issues.
Lawyers from both Groups also assist in legal audits and provide counseling in preventive law, including advice about
systems that monitor corporate and individual conduct.
During the last ten years, the Firm also has been actively
involved in a substantial number of internal corporate investigations and related matters for a host of national companies,
ranging from confidential investigations to investigations involving high profile matters of public interest. The volume of
work and number of lawyers vary based upon the confidentiality and scope of the representation. Whether the matter is a short-term,
confidential investigation handled by one lawyer, or an extensive analysis involving matters of public interest, internal
corporate investigations and related criminal and civil litigation require the highest degree of care and sensitivity.
Important issues in such investigations include:
1. the manner in which the investigation is conducted;
2. who
conducts it;
3. evidentiary issues involving the attorney-client privilege and the attorney work product doctrine;
4.
testimony before the grand jury;
5. dealing with governmental agencies during regulatory investigations;
6. development
of defenses based on lack of clarity in government rules and inconsistency in implementation of such rules;
7. evaluation
of possible vicarious liability of a corporate parent for acts of one of its employees or of an employee of a wholly-owned
subsidiary;
8. negotiating with government officials concerning criminal charges and civil claims;
9. the defense
at trial of criminal and civil fraud prosecutions; and
10. appellate work related to the criminal or civil trials.
The
Special Matters Group includes
former U.S. Attorney General Griffin B. Bell,
former U.S. Attorney Larry D. Thompson,
former Justice Department trial attorney and Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers Jack Bray,
former U.S.
Attorney Stephen S. Cowen,
former U.S. Attorney Kent Alexander, former Chief of the Criminal
Fraud Section of the
Justice Department William C. Hendricks III, and
former Assistant U.S. Attorney and U.S. Senate Special Counsel J.
Sedwick
Sollers III.
Partners/Counsel in the Special Matters Practice:
Kent B. Alexander
Griffin B. Bell
John M.
Bray
Stephen S. Cowen
William C. Hendricks III
Charles M. Shaffer, Jr.
Joseph Sedwick Sollers
Larry D.
Thompson
Associates in the Special Matters Practice
King & Spalding represents numerous healthcare industry
clients in the provision, financing and purchase of healthcare services and products. The Firm's clients include individual
hospitals, hospital corporate organizations, hospital authorities, nursing homes, physician group practices, providers of
home care services, health insurers, and firms engaged in monitoring and administering payment for care.
The Firm
provides specialized assistance to investors, underwriters, lenders and corporate benefits managers in healthcare industry
transactions, and regulatory and intellectual property assistance to firms developing biomedical technology.
The
Firm assists with the strategic, regulatory and transactional aspects of delivery system restructuring and integration. The
Firm works with both hospitals and physicians in the design and implementation of physician/hospital organizations, managed
care contracting organizations, physician group practices, medical foundations, management service organizations, multi-provider
networks, and integrated delivery systems. Attorneys with healthcare industry experience in antitrust, tax, fraud and abuse,
and ERISA provide advice on transaction structuring and regulatory compliance.
The Firm represents clients purchasing
or selling existing healthcare facilities. The Firm assists clients involved in transactions to raise capital for healthcare
industry ventures, acting as bond counsel, as counsel to issuers, underwriters and purchasers of securities, and as counsel
to borrowers and lenders. The Firm also assists in the planning and execution of hospital corporate reorganizations.
The representation of firms involved in financing the delivery of healthcare services includes securing certificates of
authority from agencies regulating insurance, regulatory compliance advice, direct contracts with self-insured plans, and
the implementation of managed care arrangements.
Litigation on behalf of healthcare clients consists of practice
before governmental agencies and before trial and appellate courts in numerous states. The matters generally involve disputes
with governmental or private payors, commercial litigation involving healthcare issues, specialized medical malpractice defense,
antitrust litigation, competitive certificate of need proceedings, licensure and certification disputes, and patient rights
litigation.
The Firm also assists healthcare industry clients in governmental affairs and legislative work at both
the state and federal levels, including the preparation of policy analyses, legislation and testimony.
Partners/Counsel
in the Healthcare Practice:
Jon R. Harris, Jr.
Glen A. Reed
Richard L. Shackelford
Associates in the Healthcare
Practice
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Public Figures:
Griffin Bell
Bell,
Griffin
Interviewed by: Clifford Kuhn and William L. Bost
June 12, 1990
Box B-1; Folder 4; 74 pp.
Griffin
Bell served as Chief of Staff under Gov. Ernest Vandiver, was a judge on the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals from 1961-76,
and was U.S. Attorney General from 1977-79.
Among topics discussed: Family background; education; early legal career;
King and Spalding; changes in legal profession; the Georgia Bar Association; Ernest Vandiver; Robert Jordan; Vandiver's 1954
lieutenant governor campaign; King and Spalding support for Fred Hand in 1954 governor's race; protecting clients' interests;
potential governors in the late 1950s; "No, not one" decision; Cooper v. Aaron; Bell becomes Gov. Vandiver's chief
of staff; Holcombe Perry; school desegregation; Bell's role in creating the Sibley Commission; George Busbee; HOPE; changes
in black leadership; meetings during University of Georgia desegregation crisis; 1960 Democratic National Convention; Bobby
Troutman; Bell's role as Georgia Kennedy campaign co-chair; presidential campaign tactics in Georgia; Kennedy supporters in
Georgia; Martin Luther King Jr.'s arrest; Robert Kennedy involvement in King case; Kennedy campaign organization; county unit
system decision while Bell on bench; redistricting cases; importance of school desegregation issue to the public; Bell's view
of solution to desegregation issue.
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Interviewed by: Clifford
Kuhn and William L. Bost
September 19, 1990
Box B-1; Folder 5; 68 pp.
Among topics discussed: Vandiver's appointees;
war experience; Atlanta law firms after WW II; Judge Hooper; rural roads controversy; desegregation issue in Atlanta; school
closure issue; "Forward Atlanta"; Atlanta's highway system; starting idea of mass transit in Atlanta; how Bell became
Vandiver's chief of staff; selection of staff; opposition to Bell; Brown v. Board of Education; C. Vann Woodward's testimony;
free textbooks; single school plan (desegregation); Sibley Commission; Bell's confirmation hearings; appointment of Judge
Robert Elliott; voting rights violations in Hattiesburg, Miss.; Voting Rights Act; Bell's judicial philosophy; Bell as chairman
of Atlanta Commission on Crime and Juvenile Delinquency; Federal Judicial Center; Neighborhood Justice Center; work on Criminal
Code; parole system; Federal Justice I; jury system; diversity jurisdiction; addition of a court of appeals between circuit
courts and U.S. Supreme Court; pre-trial discovery abuses; summary procedure; Judge John R. Brown; Judge Elbert Tuttle.
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