Professional Responsibility Keyed to Hazard
In re Grand Jury Subpoena
Facts
Individuals and corporations in this matter were referred to by fictitious names because of the secrecy of grand jury matters. Oldco pled guilty to conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and agreed to cooperate with the government’s investigation of current and former officers, employees, and customers. As part of this cooperation, Oldco expressly waived applicable attorney-client and work product privileges. Not long after, a federal grand jury issued a subpoena duces tecum to Oldco’s parent corporation, Newparent, Inc., for records relating to Oldco. Although Oldco was now owned by Newparent, at the time covered by the investigation, Oldco was a closely held corporation run by Roe and Moe. Lawyer was Oldco’s principal outside counsel. These three people intervened and filed a motion to quash the subpoena. Lawyer claimed that he represented Oldco, Roe, and Moe jointly after a longstanding joint defense agreement; and this agreement provided that all communications among the three clients were jointly privileged and could not be released without unanimous consent. The district court denied the motion to quash. Roe, Moe, and Lawyer appealed.
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