White Collar Defense and Compliance : New Jersey White Collar Defense Lawyer & Attorney : Fox Rothschild Law Firm : Criminal Defense, Insider Trading, RICO, Consumer Fraud : New Jersey, New York City

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Determined to halt efforts by DOJ attorneys to improperly demand the fruits of internal investigations as a price for achieving a DPA or a non-prosecution agreement,  32 former federal prosecutors recently issued a letter expressing their support for legislation that would preclude federal attorneys and agents from seeking waivers of attorney-client privilege or attorney work product protection in conducting civil or criminal investigations of business organizations (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/business/23law.html?ref=business&pagewanted=print).

The legislation, entitled the Attorney-Client Privilege Protection Act of 2007, is authored by Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter. A corresponding bill passed in the House of Representatives in November 2007 (http://www.foxrothschild.com/Newsstand/News.aspx?id=5666). The Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on the legislation in September 2007, receiving testimony from such witnesses as former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh (http://www.foxrothschild.com/Newsstand/News.aspx?id=5328). Senator Specter introduced a revised bill on June 26, 2008, modified to tighten language regarding organizations eligible to benefit from the organization and other language that the Department of Justice had criticized as ambiguous (http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?position=all&page=S6294&dbname=2008_record). As Senator Specter, a former prosecutor, noted, “The prosecutor has enough power without the coercive tools of the privilege waiver" (http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?position=all&page=S6295&dbname=2008_record).