Tips for In-House Counsel
December 15, 2009
U.S. v. Ruehle And Attorney-Client Privilege: An Executive’s Statements to Outside Counsel During Internal Investigation Not Privileged
By Yuri Mikulka
The Ninth Circuit has held that a corporate executive’s statements made to outside counsel hired to conduct an internal investigation and to report its findings to corporate auditors, are not protected by attorney-client privilege, even if the executive may not have received a proper Upjohn-type warning. In U.S. v. Ruehle, 583 F.3d 600 (9th Cir. 2009), the Court found that the officer’s “statements were not ‘made in confidence’ but rather for the purpose of outside disclosure.” As a result, the executive could not later suppress disclosure and use of those statements in a federal criminal proceeding against him based on attorney-client…
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