On March 6, ACC joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers in filing an amicus brief in In re Fluor Intercontinental, Inc. in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. In the brief, the group argued that a government contractor did not waive its attorney-client privilege when it complied with a required disclosure to the government regarding employee misconduct.
Fluor corporation’s legal department investigated an alleged conflict of interest involving an employee, Steven Anderson, and as required by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (“FAR”) Mandatory Disclosure Rule, reported the results of its investigation to the Department of Defense (“DOD”). FAR explicitly states that contractors do not waive privilege by making such disclosures. Later, Anderson sued Fluor, and the trial court held that through its disclosure to the DOD, Fluor waived attorney-client privilege. In its brief, ACC requested the Court grant a writ of mandamus and hold that Fluor did not wave attorney-client privilege over an entire internal investigation by complying with government investigators in reporting employee misconduct. Further, we argued that the District Court’s ruling would discourage companies from developing strong internal reporting and compliance programs by disincentivizing cooperation with the government.
Click here to read the brief.