Suppose you are in-house counsel for a construction company. Your Guaranteed Maximum Price (“GMP”) is blown and the Owner has refused to execute any change orders during the Project. You know you are heading towards a claim....more
Boards of Directors and management at companies of all sizes face a common problem: they need to make decisions that are best for the company and in order to do so they need to know the facts — the pleasant and the unpleasant...more
Institutions and organizations are increasingly expected to conduct a thorough, neutral investigation of allegations of impropriety, misuse of authority, and sexual harassment, among many other issues. No organization, public...more
On August 11, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a writ of mandamus supporting the robust applicability of the attorney-client privilege and attorney work product doctrines in the context of False...more
On September 9, 2015, the Department of Justice issued a memo (“Individual Accountability for Corporate Wrongdoing”) to federal prosecutors nationwide implementing new policies that—for the first time—prioritize the...more
A recent decision from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, one of the most important courts in the nation, reaffirmed that a company’s internal investigations—if structured properly—are protected from disclosure in litigation...more
The attorney-client privilege has long protected attorney-client communications made during the course of an internal investigation. Upjohn Co. v. United States, 449 U.S. 383 (1983). Of course, the privilege encourages “full...more
Internal investigations play a lead role in a company’s effective ethics and compliance program. They are one of the best ways for a company to detect, thoroughly understand, and remedy situations that may violate its code...more
At least since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its seminal 1981 decision in Upjohn Co. v. U.S., 449 U.S. 383 (1981), the conventional wisdom has been that companies can rest assured that materials prepared during internal...more
Investigators can be nerds. Some enjoy reading documents; others enjoy conducting witness interviews. Both are challenging tasks. Each requires a separate set of skills. Some investigators are able to master a document...more