LACK OF WISCONSIN LICENSE NO BAR TO PROMOTION FOR SENSIENT EXEC

LACK OF WISCONSIN LICENSE NO BAR TO PROMOTION FOR SENSIENT EXEC.

By Michael Horne

It’s been a week since www.milwaukeeworld blew the lid off of the unlicensed general counsel racket that has infested this state’s roster of large corporations. The story got picked up by a number of legal websites, including mention in the American Corporate Counsel Association, legalblogwatch and inhouseblog.

By 5:10 a.m. on October 20^th, the item had already received a comment from Frederick J. Krebs, the president of the Association of Corporate Counsel. Krebs pointed out a distinction I had never made regarding those who are not licensed at all, and those who are licensed in another state. (I never alleged that any non-lawyer claimed to be a General Counsel for a Wisconsin corporation.). He did go on, however, to make my case for me, and did so in these words:

“I believe case law and sound public policy support the distinction between those situations where someone is not licensed at all and an attorney who is admitted in another state. This is no way obviates the need for attorneys to follow the admission and licensing rules in the state where they practice.”

[You may find the complete text of Mr. Krebs’ remarks here.]

The lack of a Wisconsin license has not deterred a promotion for James J. Clarke II, who left his decades-long involvement in a Chicago law firm in 2003 to join the non-Wisconsin licensed lawyers on the staff at Sensient Technologies Corporation (NYSE: SXT). Two days as his name was mentioned here as one of the unlicensed, Clarke was promoted to Assistant Secretary and Assistant General Counsel of the fragrance and chemical flavoring agents company.

It looks like the law department at Sensient will be kept busy for a time. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran a front page story Sunday about the ill effects suffered by workers who handle diacetyl, a chemical used to simulate the flavor of butter in such products as microwave popcorn. Sensient, headquartered in Milwaukee, and with a plant in Juneau, Wisconsin, is among corporations that have been named in lawsuits filed by workers who claim respiratory damage due to exposure to the chemical.