Seminar Tackles New DOJ Guidelines
For the third time in seven years, the U.S. Department of Justice has issued a new policy for investigating and charging corporations, and CEOs and their general counsels are scrambling to understand the revisions’ practical implications.
To that end, David B. Weinstein, managing shareholder of Greenberg Traurig’s Tampa office, served as a panelist recently for a teleconference program organized by the American Bar Association’s Section of Environment, Energy and Resources that explored the U.S. Department of Justice’s new guidelines regarding corporate prosecutions.
The program focused on the much anticipated and newly released “McNulty Memorandum,” which revised the DOJ’s policies concerning government requests for organizations to waive attorney client privilege and work product protections, determining whether corporations are cooperating with investigations, and for deciding whether to bring charges against them. While some have welcomed the revisions as a much-needed sea change in DOJ policy, others have viewed them as only a slight shift from past practices.
“One thing is clear: it will take some time to determine whether the McNulty Memorandum will afford the additional protections against unfettered waiver requests that business, legal, and civil rights organizations all agree are necessary. This has real implications for organizations and their counsel who find themselves in the crosshairs of a government investigation,” said Weinstein.
Weinstein, well-known for his defense of high-profile environmental cases, was joined on the panel by David M. Uhlmann, the Chief of the DOJ’s Environmental Crimes Section and James W. Conrad, Jr., assistant general counsel of the American Chemistry Council. The panel was moderated by Steven P. Solow, a partner with the law firm Hunton & Williams, and former Chief of the Environmental Crimes Section.
About Greenberg Traurig, PA
Greenberg Traurig, PA is an international, full-service law firm with 1,600 attorneys and governmental affairs professionals in the U.S., Europe and Asia. The firm is ranked seventh on The American Lawyer’s Am Law 100 listing of the largest law firms in the U.S., based on number of lawyers. Greenberg Traurig’s Tampa office is home to a legal team focused on representing clients in a broad range of civil and criminal litigation; trial and appellate practice in state and federal courts; alternative dispute resolution; environmental law; construction, architecture and engineering law; lending and other financial matters; as well as business planning and transactions. The GT Tampa team is committed to providing practical legal counsel, promptly and efficiently, both to individuals and to many types of businesses, from closely held companies to multinational corporations. For additional information, please visit the firm’s Web site at www.gtlaw.com.