Free Advice Helps End A Dispute Over Advice

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Publish Date:
March 16, 2015
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The Wall Street Journal
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Summary

Professor Rob Daines is quoted in this Wall Street Journal article by Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman on the unusual settlement between Credit Suisse Group and Freeport-McMoRan Inc. 

A dispute between a bank and a client over advice ended in a settlement Monday that included an unusual payment: more advice.

Credit Suisse Group AG agreed to pay $16.25 million to Freeport-McMoRan Inc. and its shareholders amid allegations it gave faulty counsel on two acquisitions. The agreement comes in two parts: Credit Suisse is to pay Freeport $10 million in cash, and the Swiss bank must give the natural-resources company $6.25 million worth of investment-banking advice free over the next two years.

“It’s a bit like complaining of a hair in your soup and getting a discount on your next bowl of the same soup,” said Robert Daines, a lawyer and former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who teaches at Stanford University.

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