Business Law | Gautam Dutta

Business Law | Gautam Dutta

Transcription:

Announcer 0:00
Welcome to American Dreams keys to success with your host, Alan Olsen.

Alan 0:06
Welcome back. We’re here today visiting with Gautam Dutta. And formerly an SEC attorney practicing law here in the Bay Area. And we’re talking about your days at the SEC. And during the break, you mentioned that the number one problem with that the SEC, that they face was not necessarily insider trading, but

Gautam 0:30
Right, but cooking the books

Alan 0:31
cooking the book,

Gautam 0:32
also known as accounting fraud.

Alan 0:34
Wow.

Gautam 0:35
Yeah, so just a classic case of people either dipping their hands into the cookie jar or falsifying earnings reports. So that the looks the company looks as the company’s earnings look much better than they are in so that more people invest in the company without knowing all the full information.

Alan 0:52
Interesting. So so, you know, how would you spend with the SEC,

Gautam 0:57
I was there for three years?

Alan 0:59
Okay. Long enough to get good exposure? And What years were they

Gautam 1:03
from 1998 to 2001? In fact,

Alan 1:06
you are right in the middle of the Android, the what the the Enron and also the collapse of the.com.

Gautam 1:13
Yeah, at the tail end of that, right. And, you know, because I remember that point, you know, they’re one of the biggest companies, you know, was at the time MicroStrategy. That was one of the bigger companies now they’re blip on the screen, you know, so yeah, that was a very exciting time. And, actually,

Alan 1:31
which office are you out of?

Gautam 1:32
I was in Washington, DC in the headquarters.

Alan 1:34
Okay.

Gautam 1:34
That’s another thing people might not know. But the SEC, the headquarters are in Washington, they’re not in New York.

Alan 1:38
Okay. I think that all the trades in New York, but

Gautam 1:43
yes,

Alan 1:43
but coming out of the SEC is coming out from Washington divest and regulate the rules. Yeah.

Gautam 1:50
Yeah. They come up with the rules there. And they also have, obviously, they have an office in New York. That’s quite big, but the main offices in DC.

Alan 1:56
So let’s switch back. So now you’re in private practice, and how many years you’ve been?

Gautam 2:01
Ah, I guess I’ve been practicing law for 14 years now.

Alan 2:04
14 years. So a lot of good experience coming out. And, you know, after having some government experiences, the SEC now, applying this to private practice, but how do you help your clients? What what value added? Would you say you deliver the best to your clients work with you?

Gautam 2:22
Well, the value that I add is the breadth of my experience, because I’ve worked in both government, you know, obviously, I was at the SEC, I clerked for a federal judge, I’ve worked for the state tax authority, the State Board of Equalization. And I’ve also worked in the private sector, I’ve worked for a major law firm in Los Angeles. And what this means is that, if any issue comes up, I’ll be able to give the client on my my clients solid advice, not just legal, but common sense. Because, frankly, a lot of times the problems or issues that come up aren’t strictly legal, I’m not sure they ever are, you know, because my goal is to always keep things simple. And make sure that nothing fast, no problem festers and gets worse. And if we do a good job of that, then knock on wood, you never have to go to court, because that is one of my goals to keep my clients out of court, because in my experience a cost money. It’s stressful, and it’s inherently backward looking and distracting from the goal of making money.

Alan 3:25
Why do people Sue?

Gautam 3:26
That’s a good question. You know, as I was mentioning, before, most people, and I’m talking people, not companies, that’s two different things. And we can talk about the second and the second, most people Sue, because they feel like they’ve been wronged or haven’t been heard, they feel like they’ve been disrespected. And I’m convinced that a lot of those lawsuits can be avoided if they had been handled probably had been handled properly earlier on. And I just see that through my clients experience to you know, you know, obviously, I’ve, I’ve been, I’ve sued on behalf of clients, and some of my clients have been sued, I’ve defended them. And in so many of these cases, the common denominator is that there’s been a breakdown of communication. So that’s on the individual personal side. Now, on the company side, it’s sometimes isn’t that much different. Again, you know, maybe a company might have some disagreement or dispute with a customer or with another partner firm. And a lot of times you can work these things out, but it’s funny because in school, we’re taught that businesses behave rationally you know, that is all about dollars and cents, but I can tell you that it’s people of live flesh and bone who run these businesses. So it’s not always quite rational in terms of the decisions that businesses make and I think we all kind of get a get a have a sense of that. So again, it comes down to people and trying to work things out and yes, sometimes you have giants like Oracle and apple that simply can’t agree about a matter that involves deal billions of dollars and yes, sometimes you might, you may well have to go to court, but in May any of these cases you don’t

Alan 5:01
Gautam, if someone wants to contact you for legal services, how do they reach you?

Gautam 5:06
A couple of ways. One is they could just call me I don’t in this time and age, that’s kind of novel concept. But, you know, my numbers, our office number is 415-236-2048 There’s also the web. Oh, I’ll repeat that again. Because it’s a radio slow. It’s 415-236-2048 and my website is businessandelectionlaw.com. So that’s pretty easy. And that has all my contact info there.

Alan 5:34
And your offices where

Gautam 5:36
we’re based in Fremont,

Alan 5:37
Fremont. Okay. Well Gautam, I’m appreciate you being on today’s show.

Gautam 5:41
Oh, thank you so much.

Alan 5:42
We’ll be right back after these messages.

Announcer 5:46
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About Gautam Dutta

A Yale and Georgetown-educated lawyer, Gautam Dutta specializes in corporate, securities, regulatory/public entity, election, and voting rights law.

Mr. Dutta was an enforcement attorney for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Washington, DC for several years. After clerking at a federal district court in DC, Mr. Dutta worked as a commercial litigator at the Los Angeles firm of Buchalter Nemer. He has also served as tax counsel at the California Board of Equalization.

Between 2007 and 2010, Mr. Dutta was Deputy Director of the Political Reform Program at the New America Foundation. That program educated opinion leaders and the public about electoral alternatives (including Instant Runoff Voting and Proportional Representation). In this capacity, Mr. Dutta worked closely with the Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Pasadena City Councils. Last spring, Mr. Dutta wrote an amicus brief in federal court that successfully defended San Francisco’s innovative Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) system. Furthermore, he drafted and spearheaded legislative strategy for IRV bills in both the California Senate and Assembly.

Throughout his career, Mr. Dutta has played a prominent role in civic affairs. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa appointed him to the position of commissioner on the Los Angeles Industrial Development Authority, which he served in from 2006 to 2007. Between 2005 and 2010, Mr. Dutta served on the Board of the American Civil Liberties Union (Southern California), where he was elected to the Executive Board. Mr. Dutta currently serves as Executive Director of Asian American Action Fund, a national political organization.

A prolific writer and political commentator, Mr. Dutta has been featured and quoted in top media outlets, including the San Francisco Chronicle, Sacramento Bee, San Jose Mercury News, Boston Globe, Associated Press, Los Angeles Daily News, Orange County Register, Huffington Post, Politico, and AAA-Fund Blog (of which he is Publisher).

In Washington, D.C., Mr. Dutta was President of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association Educational Fund, as well as Vice Chair of the District of Columbia’s Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs.

Mr. Dutta received his undergraduate degree in economics and German literature from Yale University and his law degree from Georgetown University. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Political Monthly, and is fluent in Spanish, German, Hindi, and Bengali. Mr. Dutta is a member of the State Bar of California, the South Asian Bar Association, the Asian Pacific American Bar Association, and the Fremont Chamber of Commerce.