Was Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe somehow spooked by a senior partner’s involvement in a corporate espionage case related to China’s hunger for genetically modified seed technology? The firm won’t say, but the partner is gone and the firm has withdrawn from the high-profile case even as it continues to expand.
Last month, white-collar chair Mark Beck quietly left Orrick after agreeing to represent Mo Hailong (a.k.a. Robert Mo) in a widening criminal prosecution in Iowa, in which Mo and other Chinese nationals are accused of pilfering patented GMO seeds from agribusiness giants Monsanto Company and E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. According to an Orrick spokeswoman, Beck is taking a temporary leave from the firm.
