Our White Collar & Regulatory Defense group has unparalleled experience and expertise, and is among the most respected and successful in the United States. We regularly represent Fortune 500 companies and their executives and boards in connection with investigations by federal and state enforcement authorities, and in courtrooms nationwide. We excel at developing creative and successful strategies and defenses for responding to or preventing government investigations and enforcement proceedings.
Mike Gertzman Publishes Article in New York Law Journal's White-Collar Crime Section
July 22, 2008 Full PDF
Litigation partner Mike Gertzman published in article in the White-Collar Crime special section of the July 21 New York Law Journal. The article, "Uncertainty Continues Concerning Selective Waiver," discusses the "selective waiver" doctrine, which permits the holder of attorney-client and work product protections to produce privileged material to government investigators but nevertheless to retain claims of privilege to third parties. This doctrine continues to be a matter of significant controversy since it was given life in 1977, as it has been fueled by policies and practices in place at the United States Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission, and other federal and state regulators that encourage corporations to waive the attorney-client and the attorney work product privileges. By way of two recent decisions in the Southern District of New York that highlight the lack of a uniform approach, the article discusses the circumstances in which courts uphold or reject claims of selective waiver by corporations that previously disclosed privileged material to government investigators, and whether the approaches taken by the courts are reasonable. Litigation associate Billy Clareman assisted substantially in the research and drafting of this article.