Association of Corporate Counsel; McKesson

From: RDShatt
To: krebs@acc.com
CC: robert.roach@nyu.edu, eslavitt@avxus.com
Sent: 5/12/2009 12:05:32 P.M. Central Daylight Time
Subj: For ACC Compliance & Ethics Committee

Dear Mr. Krebs,

Last May I corresponded with Mr. Roach and Mr. Slavitt of the Compliance & Ethics Committee. You may find some of the correspondence at this link: http://robertshattuck.blogspot.com/search/label/G2.%20Assoc.%20of%20Corporate%20Counsel. The current status of Mr. Roach and Mr. Slavitt in the Compliance & Ethics Committee appears unclear to me from the ACC website.

A class action lawsuit against McKesson Corporation prompted me to send this email yesterday to the McKesson General Counsel: http://robertshattuck.blogspot.com/2009/05/email-to-mckesson-general-counsel.html

I continue to be interested in engaging with the leadership of the ACC Compliance & Ethics Committee about this subject.

Would you please forward this email to the leadership of the Compliance & Ethics Committee and also to ACC director N. Cornell Boggs III (who is identified as Chief Responsibility & Ethics Officer at Miller Coors)?

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Robert Shattuck

Email to McKesson General Counsel

From: RDShatt
To: corporatesecretary@mckesson.com
Sent: 5/11/2009 8:45:44 P.M. Central Daylight Time
Subj: Dear Ms. Seeger,

I am quite sure you will not reply to me, but what the heck.

I am a non-professional objector in class action lawsuits. To my knowledge I am not a member of the plaintiff class in this class action against McKesson that McKesson has settled : McKessonAWPSettlement.

I am, however, going to attempt to be as vociferous as I can in objecting as a member of the public, as you may infer from this link: http://robertshattuck.blogspot.com/2009/05/mckesson-drug-pricing-settlement.html

I think what most agitates me about the McKesson class action is how illustrative it is of the validity of the argumentation that I set forth in this article of mine: Does the Law Undermine Business Ethics?

I'd love to get in a discussion with you or the McKesson Chief Ethics Officer about the matter, but I suspect you will not accommodate me.

But it doesn't hurt to ask.

Sincerely,
Robert Shattuck

McKesson drug pricing settlement

There has been a settlement in a drug pricing class action against McKesson Corporation and other defendants that has been pending in the federal district court for the District of Massachusetts. (http://www.mckessonawpsettlement.com/index.htm)

The notice describes the tenor of the class action as follows:

Prescription drugs often are priced using certain benchmarks. The most common
pricing benchmark is called the Average Wholesale Price ("AWP"). AWP is often
used in determining how much insurance companies and other Third-Party Payors
will reimburse for these prescription drugs and the co-payment price that some
consumers pay for them. The lawsuit claims that two Defendants, McKesson
Corporation ("McKesson"), a large drug wholesaler, and First DataBank ("FDB"), a
publisher of drug data, wrongfully inflated the mark-up factor used by FDB to
determine the AWP for certain prescription drugs ("Subject Drugs"). The lawsuit claims that, as a result, many drug purchasers overpaid for these drugs. Both FDB and McKesson deny any wrongdoing.

Under the Settlement Agreement, it appears that McKesson will pay into the Settlement Fund $350,000,000 and McKesson will not object to attorneys' fees for the plaintiffs' lawyers to the extent they do not exceed 30% of the Settlement Fund.

Objections must be filed with the Court by June 8, 2009.

I don't believe I am a member of the plaintiff class. This type of class action litigation that goes on significantly affects the public as a whole, and I propose to attact it as a member of the public.

Watchdog Blog/Public Citizen

http://citizen.typepad.com/watchdog_blog/

Below comment has been submitted to the Watchdog Blog and is awaiting moderation.

Would you care to comment on the argumentation I set out at the following link: http://robertshattuck.blogspot.com/2007/11/i-thought-this-would-be-effective-email.html
Thanks.

Tort Burger- Hold the Reform

Some of the websites appear to be purveyed by trial lawyers, such as this one: http://tortburger.wordpress.com/category/tort-reform/

I left this comment, which is awaiting moderation for posting.

May 10, 2009 at 2:53 am
Jeff, I would be interested in engaging in discussion and debate with you if you would be willing. Thanks. Robert Shattuck

Tortdeform

I have discovered some anti-tort reform websites. I am trying to engage in discussion and debate with their purveyors. The first one I have done is Tortdeform.

I left the below comments at this link on Tortdeform: http://www.tortdeform.com/archives/2009/05/work_it_wednesday_1.html#comments

Comments

Kia, would you kindly comment on this article of mine: http://robertshattuck.blogspot.com/2007/11/i-thought-this-would-be-effective-email.html.
Thank you.
Posted by: Robert Shattuck May 7, 2009 03:51 AM

I am sorry. The link in the first comment does not work because a period got stuck at the end. Try this: http://robertshattuck.blogspot.com/2007/11/i-thought-this-would-be-effective-email.html

Posted by: Robert Shattuck May 7, 2009 03:59 AM

Interchange with Beyond Moral Reasoning author

From: RDShatt
To: ruodan.shao@sauder.ubc.ca
Sent: 5/5/2009 10:11:23 A.M. Central Daylight Time
Subj: Re: Beyond Moral Reasoning: A Review of Moral Identity Research and Its Impli...

Thank you for writing back to me, Ruodan. I cannot tell for sure whether it was incorrect to address you as "Professor." For your information, I am not a professor.

Sincerely,
Robert Shattuck

In a message dated 5/4/2009 1:42:50 A.M. Central Daylight Time, ruodan.shao@sauder.ubc.ca writes:

Dear Professor Shattuck,

Thank you for your email and for reading our paper.

Actually, we have attempted to address the importance of examining the interaction of both situational factors and individuals' moral identity on people's (un)ethical behaviours and decisions in the following paragraph.

I agree that people usually hold corporate officers accountable for their misconducts. However, sometimes we ignore the social pressure or any other situational factors that might impact people's behaviours and decisions.

I'd like to clarify that I am a PhD student that has been working on this paper with Professor Aquino and Professor Freeman. Professor Aquino is an expert in business ethics and he is well accomplished in this field. Professor Freeman is also specialized in this area and has been collaborating with Professor Aquino on many research projects in this area. Therefore, I think they two will have better and deeper thoughts on your proposed questions.

I am not sure about the civil liability system's impacts on business ethics. I guess Karl and Dan might have some insightful comments on this issue.

Thank you again for your email.

All the best,
Ruodan