It may be time to put a cork in Silicon Valley's most famous law firm. Wilson Sonsini is no longer celebrating its new attorneys with champagne. That trimmed perk is just the beginning of its woes.

A federal judge is "unlikely to dismiss" a shareholder-filed suit against the board of directors of Brocade Communications, including high-powered lawyer and Silicon Valley demigod Larry Sonsini, over its alleged tolerance of backdating stock options. [San Jose Mercury News]

"The press is entirely wrong," Hewlett-Packard counsel Larry Sonsini just told a Congressional hearing panelist. "I never took the position that pretexting is legal." He's speaking now at the hearing about HP's pretexting case.

On the day of the Congressional hearing for Hewlett-Packard, the first federal investigation into corporate espionage practices that could be industry-wide, we're following who says what, but more importantly, who refuses to speak at all. Here's who took the Fifth so far:

When Hewlett-Packard admitted that the company tried to spy on and misinform journalists at CNET, the New York Times, and other papers, the media was, well, not amused. The upshot is that we all get to see the opposition writing guest editorials in major papers. The lawyer for ex-HP board member Tom Perkins (who resigned when he discovered HP's investigators spied on him) tells the Wall Street Journal:

HP's chairwoman resigned from the board — at least she'll always be a Hall-of-Famer — and CEO Mark Hurd will immediately replace her. Here's what comes next:

Washington Post:

By Beth Gottfried

Now that Hewlett-Packard's Patricia Dunn said she'll step down as chairwoman but stay on the board, don't get caught saying "What's Dunn is done." Remember these facts when you chat about HP at the water cooler or conference lobby.