Larry Ribstein blogs on the HP story:
I'm not saying that independent directors are more prone to illegality and foolishness, as some commenters misread. Rather, I'm saying that the essence of independence is to increase distrust among board members, which impedes the functioning of the board. Clearly a more collegial board would not have been sniping and leaking, which is what triggered the pretexting.
I think that's exactly right.
