By Reynolds Holding
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

It’s almost criminal that the snitch will walk in a probe involving SAC Capital. Mathew Martoma, an ex-trader at Steve Cohen’s $14 billion hedge fund firm, faces possible jail time for alleged insider trading. But the doctor accused of giving him secret data doesn’t – he won’t be charged after agreeing to help prosecutors. Flipping suspects to land bigger game is standard. Going easy on serious wrongdoing shouldn’t be.

By Reynolds Holding and Richard Beales
The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are their own.

U.S. prosecutors haven’t given up on landing the biggest fish at SAC Capital. The Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday hit Mathew Martoma, an ex-trader at Steve Cohen’s $14 billion hedge fund firm, with criminal and civil insider trading complaints. The enforcers say the underling helped SAC make $276 million. But if they want Martoma to lend a hand reeling in Cohen, they’ll need to deal.

By Reynolds Holding
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Law firms aren’t immune from the merger risks their clients face. There may be perfectly sensible reasons for Britain’s Norton Rose and U.S.-based Fulbright & Jaworski to join forces and for SNR Denton, headquartered in London and Washington, to seek a three-way tie up with French and Canadian peers. Cross-border deals can help lawyers serve companies increasingly going global. But culture, pay and client conflicts are tough to manage. The danger is sacrificing quality for scale.

By Reynolds Holding
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

U.S. deal lawyers are not as valuable as they may think. Financial markets are largely indifferent to the legal terms of agreed public company mergers, new research shows. That may be because most transactions close regardless of the fine print. M&A attorneys have their uses, but agonizing over detailed wording isn’t the best way to serve clients.

By Reynolds Holding
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Being Apple means (almost) never having to say you’re sorry. The tech giant apologized to customers for releasing a flawed maps application. But it bristled at a UK court order that the company publicly admit as false its accusation that Samsung Electronics had infringed on the iPad. Now the British judges are demanding strict compliance.

By Reynolds Holding
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Executives spared prison time should at least lose their jobs. With criminal charges difficult to prove, watchdogs in the United States are pursuing financial misconduct by filing civil suits against, for example, Wells Fargo. But companies and their shareholders, not the offending officers, usually foot the bill. Effective deterrence demands that the honchos pay something, too. Banning them from executive suites might best serve corporate governance.

By Reynolds Holding and Richard Beales
The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are their own.

Bigger bucks come to Supreme Court clerks who wait. Top U.S. law firms are offering $280,000 signing bonuses to lure the young attorneys who work with America’s nine top judges. But many do stints with the government first. A new Breakingviews calculator shows how that path can be financially smarter over the long run.