LawyersUSA

More than thirty former U.S. Attorneys have signed a letter stating their support for a bill that would strengthen the attorney-client privilege in cases of alleged corporate wrongdoing.

Under the Attorney-Client Privilege Protection Act of 2008, federal prosecutors would not be allowed to threaten businesses with charges for refusing to hand over corporate attorney-client communications.

The measure is a response to the Justice Department's 2006 McNulty Memorandum, which outlines federal prosecutors' ability to encourage corporate defendants to waive the attorney-client privilege in order to cut a better plea deal.

The former prosecutors sent the letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, requesting that he hold a vote on the Senate bill, which was reintroduced at the end of June.

"This bill is crucial to stemming the Department of Justice's widespread practices and policies that pressure businesses to waive the attorney-client privilege in return for avoiding a harsher charging decision," the letter said.

It went on to say that these policies have "led to the erosion not only of the privilege itself, but also to the constitutional rights of the employees who are caught up, often tangentially, in business investigations."

Under the bill, federal prosecutors would be banned from demanding that corporations waive the attorney-client privilege and from using companies' decision as a factor in determining whether to indict.

The measure also would bar prosecutors from making a corporation turn over its attorneys' litigation materials.

A similar bill, H.R. 3013, passed the House in late 2007.

The newly introduced Senate version was amended to set more specific parameters for the DOJ, SEC and other agencies whose policies and practices would be affected by the changes.