Throughout the week over at Securities Docket, I highlight the most interesting columns and blog posts from around the web on the subjects of SEC enforcement and securities litigation. Here is a digest of my picks for the week ending February 4:

At Risk For Recommending Foreign Lawyers

fcpablog.com | William Nelson | Feb 3, 2011

Could an American lawyer violate the FCPA just by recommending a foreign lawyer to handle a risky transaction? It hasn't happened yet, but it could.

A tale of two (insider?) traders

Fortune | Duff McDonald | Feb 2, 2011

Setting aside the issue of actual guilt or not – I'm no judge or jury, and have no inside information on the government's insider trading investigation – watching Rajaratnam and Cohen respond to actual charges (in Rajaratnam's case) or insinuation (in Cohen's) has offered a case study in the two ways one might go about refuting allegations of misdeeds. Rajaratnam is playing it like Butch Cassidy, going down guns-a-blazing. Cohen, as has always been his wont, is attempting to hide in plain sight. The latter seems a more prudent choice, at least from where I'm sitting.

The Big Idea: The Case for Professional Boards

Harvard Business Review | Robert C. Pozen | Feb 1, 2011

I propose a model of professional directorship that directly responds to the three main factors behind ineffective decision making. In this model, all boards would be limited in size to seven people. Management would be represented by the CEO, and the other six directors would be independent. Most of the independent directors would be required to have extensive expertise in the company's lines of business, and they would spend at least two days a month on company business beyond the regular board meetings.

The Myth of the Enron Whistleblower

Houston's Clear Thinkers | Tom Kirkendall | Jan 31, 2011

Courageous whistleblowers such as Enron's Sherron Watkins now have in WikiLeaks another valuable conduit for publicizing alleged corporate wrongdoing. There is only one problem with that narrative, at least as it applies to Watkins. She was never a whistleblower.

Supreme Court could redefine insider trading

MarketWatch | Artur Davis | Jan 31, 2011

Congress, under the rule of Republicans in 2002 and Democrats in 2010, has overhauled the structure and reach of financial services laws but has never gotten around to addressing whether it likes what courts and government lawyers have done with the evolution of insider-trading standards. It is possible that the three justices who wanted to scrap the “honest services” statute altogether and at least two other sticklers for congressional intent, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, will be especially troubled by another example of Congress punting its constitutional duty to write laws that define wrongdoing....

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