Acacia Research-Acacia Technologies (ACTG)

[Paullee]

Acacia Research Patent Company Fires Top Lawyer After SEC Fine
Oct. 20, 2020, 7:54 PM

Company hired general counsel Meredith Simmons in June
Simmons paid $25,000 to settle SEC civil charges last month
Acacia Research Corp. terminated the employment of general counsel Meredith Simmons after less than five months on the job, the company recently disclosed.

The move, disclosed in a Tuesday securities filing by Acacia, comes after Simmons agreed in September to pay $25,000 in a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC accused Simmons of backdating and withholding records in an insider trading inquiry of her former employer, hedge fund Mason Capital Management LLC.

A spokesman for Acacia, an Irvine, Calif.-based patent licensing and monetization company, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did Simmons, who currently has no disciplinary record with the New York State Bar Association.

The terms of Simmons’ SEC penalty prevent her from serving in any compliance position at a broker, dealer, investment adviser, or other agent for three years. Simmons is also barred from appearing or practicing before the SEC for a year, after which she can apply for reinstatement.

Simmons spent nearly eight years as general counsel and chief compliance officer Mason Capital, a New York-based hedge fund that she left in mid-2018. She spent the past two years as a consultant to the investment management industry.

Acacia announced June 5 its hire of Simmons as general counsel, the same day the company agreed to pay $284 million to acquire life sciences and health care assets from London-based Link Fund Solutions Ltd. Herbert Smith Freehills and Schulte Roth & Zabel advised Acacia on that deal, while LFS turned to Debevoise & Plimpton.

“Meredith has a proven track record of excellence both as an attorney, and in demonstrating her business acumen in her consulting work for hedge funds and private equity firms,” said Acacia CEO Clifford Press in a statement announcing her hire. “We think Meredith’s skills are essential to help us build our platform.”

Simmons was set to earn an annual salary of $400,000 in her role as Acacia’s legal chief, according to a June 4 securities filing by the company. Acacia also disclosed that it paid $131,000 to Simmons for consulting work during its last fiscal year.

Prior to joining Mason Capital in early 2011, Simmons worked as an assistant general counsel at Cantor Fitzgerald LP and was an associate at Epstein Becker & Green, Holland & Knight, and Winston & Strawn.

Darren Miller, who preceded Simmons as Acacia’s general counsel, left this past summer to become senior counsel at Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp., a Hawthorne, Calif.-based aerospace company.

Miller took over from former Acacia legal chief Edward Treska, who was terminated Aug. 10, 2018, and received $660,000 in severance and for a time between $15,000 and $25,000 in monthly consulting fees, according to a securities filing.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Baxter in New York at [e-mail]

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chris Opfer at [e-mail]

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/business-and-practice/acacia-research-patent-company-fires-top-lawyer-after-sec-fine