Interesting stuff via Bloomberg. on pending legislation that would curb the power of prosecutors investigating corporate crime. The main tool that appears to be in jeopard of coming off the table is the ability of prosecutors to demand that companies under investigation offer up confidential information in talks with their lawyers - waiving attorney client privilege in order to win leniency in plea deals.

This is not exactly a new bill, as some version of it has been floating around for a year at least. and folks have been planning for the demise of the Thompson memo era for a long while now, basically since it was written. They got a boost recently when district court judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York found fault with the DOJ's actions in its prosecution of a group of former KPMG executives, which as lead to renewed efforts to get a bill passed to protect the sanctity of attorney client privilege.

Investors, well...less so.

-- MDT

Labels: attorney client privilege, corporate investigation, legislation, pre-trial agreements, Thompson memo

If you company kills people, you may have to pay to advertise the fact, according to proposed legislation...

-- MDT

Labels: corporate negligence, legislation

House Resolution 4709, recently signed into law by the President explicitly protects telephone records by using pretextual tactics. The law disallows the sale of telephone records without the explicit prior approval of the customer (be careful what you sign...).

-- MDT

Labels: legislation, pretexting