CFOs have long complained about the cost of litigation, and it is not just the perpetual whining about overly generous jury awards. You can win the case, and the litigation costs still will blow the balance sheet.

One source estimates legal costs at Fortune 500 companies at $500 million per year on average. Even with smaller, Fortune 1000 companies, observers aren’t surprised to see costs running $200 million. In 2006, litigation costs amounted to 20 percent of corporate profit, reports Deidre Paknad, CEO, PSS Systems, citing figures from the eLaw Forum. In 2009, corporate profits have shrunk but litigation costs remain high, rising to 35 percent of corporate profit.

Since winning a legal case can be almost as costly as losing one, it is time to shift the decision-making from the corporate counsel to the CFO. Given the amounts of money involved, the decision to pursue litigation cannot be a legal decision. Rather, it is a C-level business risk decision with serious bottom line ramifications. more

The U.S. Senate will vote this afternoon on the President Obama’s nomination for chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Gary Gensler.

Here’s a profile of Gensler, and here’s some criticism, from the left (during the depths of the financial crisis), of his nomination. ###

If you thought David Walker was sharp, thoughtful, and independent-minded during his tenure as Comptroller General of the United States (I sure did), you ought to hear him now.

Actually, you can do just that.

ACL has posted an interview with Walker, now touring the country as the president of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. Walker delves into the evolving role of internal audit, government accountability, and the materiality of fraud and waste in organizations, among other GRC issues.

For more on Walker, see his interview with Business Finance. ###

Although I wrote about it in January of this year, it’s still hard for me to grasp that a drastic revision of the time-hallowed tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance may be at hand. But such is indeed the case as Congress wrestles with the new administration’s plans for a fundamental reshaping of the national health-care ecosystem. more

Lost in much of the hoopla regarding pending credit card legislation is the impact a proposed amendment may have on businesses as well as consumers. The proposed Welch-Shuster Credit Card Interchange Fees Act of 2009, or H.R. 2382, is intended “to amend the Truth in Lending Act to prohibit unfair practices in electronic payment system networks, and for other purposes,” according to govtrack.us. The proposal was introduced and referred to committee in the House earlier this week, also according to govtrack.

The bill would, among other things, let merchants refuse to accept cards with especially high fees, allow retailers to set minimum purchase levels for customers using charge cards, and finally, let them choose the financial routing system that’s least costly. Nothing too unreasonable. more