"Why hire a lawyer to do an internal investigation? It’s because you
get the privileges. Otherwise, you’d save a little money and hire a
consultant or accountant." These are the wise words of Bruce A. Green, Director of the Louis Stein Center for Law and
Ethics at Fordham Law School, as quoted in
the New York Times yesterday in an article about the obstacles
JPMorgan Chase has put in the way of prosecutorial access to internal
notes of interviews regarding the bank's involvement in the Madoff case.
For government ethics, the most important question here isn't the strategy of using lawyers rather than other investigators (or, in the case of ethics advice, lawyers instead of government ethics professionals). The most important question is, Should government attorneys be differentiated from other government officials on the basis of their function or on the basis of their membership in a professional group?
For government ethics, the most important question here isn't the strategy of using lawyers rather than other investigators (or, in the case of ethics advice, lawyers instead of government ethics professionals). The most important question is, Should government attorneys be differentiated from other government officials on the basis of their function or on the basis of their membership in a professional group?