OCBA is proud to have recently participated in the vigorous and highly successful efforts of the organized bar, including both the New York State Bar Association as well as the American Bar Association, in protesting a 2005 enactment by the United States Sentencing Commission which would have given sanction to an ongoing practice of the United States Justice Department requiring targeted corporations to waive attorney-client and work product privileges.  Because of the strong protests which were lodged, the Sentencing Commission voted on April 12, 2006 to rescind this policy (USSG §8C2.5).

The Justice Department and the U.S. Attorneys around the country still maintain policies which may require such waivers and the local OCBA Task Force (co-chaired by Edward Z. Menkin and OCBA President Ellen Weinstein, and including Scott Porter, Kevin McCormack, Jim McGowan, Ken Moynihan and Federal Defender Alex Bunin) is in the process of engaging the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District (Hon. Glenn Suddaby) in an ongoing dialogue concerning the implementation of such a policy.  The text of a recent letter the Task Force has written to the U.S. Attorney can be found here.

Additionally, a recent case decision has impacted the "Thompson Memorandum" as well as Attorney-Client Privilege in United States vs. Jeffrey Stein.