Publications
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit dealt
a severe blow to efforts by federal prosecutors to dissuade
employers from paying attorneys’ fees for indicted employees.
The decision in U.S. v. Stein, No. 07-3042-cr, 2008 WL
3982104, at *1 (2d Cir. Aug. 28, 2008) sends a strong message
to the government that the days of interfering with an employer’s
policy of advancing fees are now over. The court reached the
extraordinary result of dismissing indictments against partners
and employees of the KPMG accounting firm, and the decision
may very well bring about the death of the so-called Thompson
and McNulty Memoranda with respect to the issue of
advancement of fees. continue...
Over the last several years there has been a dramatic change in the
practice of white collar criminal defense. The highly publicized
corporate scandals involving Enron, WorldCom, and others, and the federal
government's reaction to those events have resulted in an enormous shift
of power away from protecting corporate employees' rights.
After the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation and the Justice
Department's issuance of the so-called Thompson Memorandum, the focus
has been on enhancing the power of big government and protecting the
existence of big corporations. continue...
