Sonsini’s role in Silicon Valley’s option scandal (NYT continued)

(NYT: Linda Sue Scott)

The New York Times takes another poke at Larry Sonsini, who leads Wilson Sonsini, the law firm that has provided legal counsel on issues like the proper handling of stock options to roughly half of the 25 Silicon Valley area companies implicated so far in the widening probe of improper stock option “backdating.”

Greg Reyes, the chief executive of Brocade Communications Systems, and one of the first executives to be charged in the scandal, noted earlier this year that Mr. Sonsini advised the company on its stock options policies, the story reports.

In February, Mr. Reyes told BusinessWeek that Mr. Sonsini encouraged him in 1999 to assume sole authority to award Brocade options through the creation of a so-called committee-of-one…

The story also gives comments from Sonsini and quotes liberally from his supporters.