The 2015 VW Scandal: Where were the lawyers?

We hear this from the Executive Committee of the VW oversight board:   http://www.volkswagenag.com/content/vwcorp/info_center/en/news/2015/09/AR_Erklaerung.html   Note how they discuss the Chairman, his resignation and the issue of what he knew about cheating on emissions tests.  Investigation of this matter is apparently only beginning but the Board already comes to conclusions about the Chairman's knowledge.   How about the lawyers?   While VW stock is traded in Germany, and not in the United States, the company also has "American Depository Receipts" (ADRs) that are traded in the United States (ADRs can be converted into VW stock and trade similarly to the stock).  This means that the company is a 1934 Act reporting company with respect to the ADRs and its lawyers who work on disclosure to the ADR investors are subject to SOX 307, including mandatory up the ladder reporting under the statute and SEC rules.   Lawyers who work only on disclosures made to the investors in the stock traded in Germany, however, presumably are not subject to SOX or other US rules.  Also, the lawyers working on disclosures to the ADR holders may say that they relied on disclosure documents prepared by other lawyers responsible for disclosures to holders of the underlying stock subject only to German law.   All of the VW lawyers may deny that they knew anything about what was going on with the emissions tests.  But is this plausible? If some of them did know, what were their professional obligations?   Some of the best securities plaintiffs lawyers in the US are already looking into all of this:   http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150921006185/en/TheGrantLawFirm-PLLC-Investigates-Volkswagen-AG-Potential-Violations#.VgLjDqMo7cs   What should the corporate lawyers have done to prevent it from happening?