General counsel across the globe should be relieved by the acquittal of Mark Belnick - the general counsel of US company Tyco recently cleared of fraud charges by a New York jury - his lawyer said last week.

Reid Weingarten, partner at Washington DC-based Steptoe & Johnson, said Mr Belnick's acquittal on charges of grand larceny, securities fraud and falsifying business records meant the standards expected of internal counsel had returned to normal.


He said: 'The verdict means that general counsel can still behave as a normal, prudent lawyer, as opposed to supercop. It will act as a deterrent to prosecutors trying to impose standards that are not clear in the law.'


Mr Belnick had been accused of accepting an illegal bonus payment of $17m (£9 million) from Tyco chief executive Dennis Kozlowski as hush money for concealing fraud during a Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry in 2000. The prosecution claimed the payment had not been approved by the board.


Mr Weingarten said: 'The essence of the prosecution's case was that Mark Belnick turned a blind eye to the plundering and pillaging of the CEO and CFO. This verdict shows that they must prove actual knowledge as a minimum.


'Mark Belnick did not question the authority of his boss [in giving him the bonus] and did not look behind every decision.'


The trials of Mr Kozlowski and chief financial officer Mark Swartz ended in mistrials in April, but are scheduled for re-hearings next January.