ABA president praises legislation

American Bar Association President Carolyn B. Lamm says her organization applauds the introduction in Congress or legislation "designed to roll back federal agency policies that continue to erode fundamental attorney-client privilege, work product and employee legal protections." Lamm said the Attorney-Client Privilege Protection Act "recognizes the importance of the attorney-client privilege to our legal system, our nation's economic health and our society as a whole. "Protecting confidential attorney-client communications from government-compelled disclosure," Lamm said, "fosters voluntary compliance with the law, and that benefits everyone." The ABA leader said government tactics "that coerce disclosure, on the other hand, undermine these benefits and our adversarial system of justice, and can unfairly threaten the very survival of organizations, including even the largest, most robust corporations." "Government policies that pressure companies to refuse to provide employees with legal assistance while investigations are pending, or to fire them for asserting their Fifth Amendment rights, weaken the constitutional presumption of innocence and undermine principles of sound corporate governance," Lamm said. "The ripple effect harms employees, investors and all of society. While the ABA supports the revised corporate charging guidelines issued by the Justice Department last year that expressly bar prosecutors from forcing organizations and their employees to waive fundamental protections during investigations, Lamm said those guidelines "do not have the assurance of permanence and do nothing to change the similar policies still in effect at the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and other agencies. " Such policies, like the Justice Department's previous policy, pressure organizations to waive their privileges and violate their employees' Sixth Amendment right to counsel and Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to receive cooperation credit during investigations." Lamm said. The bill recently introduced in Congress would make the Justice Department's reforms permanent, give them the full force of law and apply them to all federal agencies, according to Lamm. "The legislation," she said, "would create a sensible, uniform standard of conduct for all federal agencies and strike the proper balance between the legitimate needs of prosecutors and regulators, and the constitutional and fundamental legal rights of individuals and organizations." Lamm said the ABA "strongly urges Congress to approve this critical legislation as soon as possible." Published: Wed, Dec 30, 2009

––––––––––––––––––––
 Subscribe to the Legal News!
 https://test.legalnews.com/Home/Subscription
Full access to public notices, articles, columns, archives, statistics, calendar and more
Day Pass Only $4.95!
One-County $80/year
Three-County & Full Pass also available