White Collar Defense - Employees and Attorney Client Privilege - Tampa Criminal Defense

Tampa Criminal Defense Attorney reports that the Department of Justice DOJ has discontinued its policy that previously considered companies as not cooperating if they paid attorney fees for employees or failed to share attorney-client work product and confidences with prosecutors. The new DOJ guidelines that are intended to protect a company's attorney-client privilege, work product, and employees' right to counsel.

Executive Summary: The following is a summary of the new DOJ Policy

Credit for cooperation will depend on the disclosure of relevant facts, not on the corporation's waiver of attorney-client privileges;

A corporation's payment of attorneys' fees for employees is not a factor in determining cooperation;

A corporation's participation in a joint defense agreement with employees does not preclude credit for cooperation;

Whether the corporation has sanctioned or retained culpable employees is not a factor in determining credit for cooperation;

Historically, it has been the DOJ's policy to give credit to a corporation in exchange for its cooperation, but what exactly a corporation must do to earn such credit? According to Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip, the new guidelines reflect the DOJ's "commitment to two goals: safeguarding the attorney-client privilege and
preserving the DOJ's ability to investigate corporate wrongdoing effectively."

Important Note: The guidelines do not apply to investigations by other federal agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency.