Wal-Mart Hires Rob Walters in Mexican Bribery Scandal Litigation

© 2012 The Texas Lawbook. Content of The Texas Lawbook is controlled and protected by specific licensing agreements with our subscribers and under federal copyright laws. Any distribution of this content without the consent of The Texas Lawbook is prohibited.

© 2012 The Texas Lawbook. Content of The Texas Lawbook is controlled and protected by specific licensing agreements with our subscribers and under federal copyright laws. Any distribution of this content without the consent of The Texas Lawbook is prohibited.

By Mark Curriden, JD
Senior Writer for The Texas Lawbook

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has hired prominent Dallas trial lawyer Rob Walters and his partner at Gibson Dunn, Ted Boutrous, to lead its civil litigation defense efforts involving allegations of widespread corruption and bribery in the retail giant’s Mexican operations.

Walters, who is the former general counsel at Dallas-based Energy Future Holdings, is representing Wal-Mart against a dozen shareholder and derivative lawsuits filed in Delaware Chancery Court and state and federal courts in Arkansas and New York.

The civil lawsuits and investigations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Fort Worth Regional Office and the U.S. Justice Department were sparked by an article in the New York Times in April, which reported that Wal-Mart officials violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by making illegal cash payments to Mexican officials in return for receiving licenses and permits to open and operate new stores.

Lawyers familiar with the Wal-Mart inquiry say that SEC Assistant Director Michael King, who heads the Fort Worth Regional Office’s FCPA enforcement division, is leading the investigation. King was previously a lawyer at Haynes and Boone. The SEC’s Fort Worth office has enforcement responsibilities for publicly traded companies in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

Neither Walters nor King would comment on the Wal-Mart inquiry.

Sources also said Wednesday that a handful of associates in the Dallas office of Jones Day are assisting their non-Texas-based partners, who have been hired by Wal-Mart to conduct an internal inquiry into what went wrong with its internal corporate compliance efforts.

A 1983 University of Texas Law School graduate, Walters recently served as lead counsel to Tenet Healthcare when the Dallas-based company was targeted by Community Health Systems in a $7 billion hostile takeover bid. Walters successfully employed federal securities laws to fight off the buyout effort. His corporate clients have included Blockbuster, Liberty Mutual Life Insurance and Pioneer Natural Resources.

Boutrous, who is with Gibson Dunn in Los Angeles, has represented Wal-Mart in other high profile matters, including the class action lawsuit filed on behalf of thousands of women employees at the company who claimed the retailer discriminated against them when it came to compensation and promotions. Boutrous argued the case to the Supreme Court of the United States, which handed him and his client a major win last June.

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