A jury sides with BusinessWeek in a lawsuit brought by a former Microsoft director

A jury sides with BusinessWeek in a lawsuit brought by a former Microsoft director, Crosscut, Dec. 18, 2007.

A BusinessWeek reporter doing a story about how family dynamics affect the workplace interviewed the plaintiff and his psychologist. The plaintiff said that the reporter had promised not to use his name or employer in the story -- but she did. He sued. She testified there was no promise, and the jury agreed.

Side note: Judge Robert Lasnik said he would have to recuse himself if the case came to involve Microsoft because his wife owns some shares of stock. The parties agreed that it wasn't relevant. That reminds me of an article I came across recently: Ronald D. Rotunda, Judicial Ethics, the Appearance of Impropriety, and the Proposed New ABA Judicial Code, 34 Hofstra L. Rev. 1337 (2006), available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=926437. Rotunda slams the "appearance of impropriety" prohibition as impossibly ambiguous.