Attorney Client Privilege

Public officials often say they can't reveal information because it's subject to “attorney-client privilege,” even though it would be legal to do so. That was the case with a story this week about Baltimore County's deliberations over whether to file suit against Merrill Lynch over losses on a $21 million investment . Earlier this week, four council members attended a meeting with County Attorney Mike Field and members of Kevin Kamenetz's...

An administrative hearing to determine whether Howard County school board member Allen Dyer should be removed from the panel opened Monday with Dyer questioning fellow board member Frank Aquino for about three hours. Aquino had drafted the resolution the Howard school board approved in June asking the state school board to oust Dyer, accusing him of such violations as breaching confidentiality requirements. The state school board sent the matter to the office of administrative hearings.

The investigation of alleged illegal tape-recording by Linda R. Tripp hit a major obstacle yesterday when a Howard County judge said her former attorney would not have to answer questions posed by state prosecutors.The potential outcome is unclear, but legal experts said the ruling could derail the investigation into Tripp and her secretive tape recordings of White House intern Monica Lewinsky, which ignited a national scandal and the impeachment of President Clinton.While alluding to the uphill battle ahead, State Prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli said yesterday the investigation would continue.

Public officials often say they can't reveal information because it's subject to “attorney-client privilege,” even though it would be legal to do so. That was the case with a story this week about Baltimore County's deliberations over whether to file suit against Merrill Lynch over losses on a $21 million investment . Earlier this week, four council members attended a meeting with County Attorney Mike Field and members of Kevin Kamenetz's...

A private foundation fighting to preserve a 300-acre farm in Columbia scored a legal victory last week that could prevent the property from becoming a regional park.Even though the outcome is months away, the latest action will give lawyers representing the Elizabeth "Nancy" C. Smith Foundation more ammunition in their fight to preserve Blandair farm.The foundation, established by friends of the reclusive Smith, is suing Smith's heirs to prevent them from selling the farm to Howard County, which has plans to build a park, replete with soccer fields and nature trails.

An administrative hearing to determine whether Howard County school board member Allen Dyer should be removed from the panel opened Monday with Dyer questioning fellow board member Frank Aquino for about three hours. Aquino had drafted the resolution the Howard school board approved in June asking the state school board to oust Dyer, accusing him of such violations as breaching confidentiality requirements. The state school board sent the matter to the office of administrative hearings.

WASHINGTON -- One of President Clinton's White House lawyers, Lanny Breuer, appeared before the Monica Lewinsky grand jury yesterday, after Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist rejected a White House plea to protect staff attorneys from having to testify about their talks with Clinton.But Breuer's appearance sparked another skirmish. After he had testified for several hours, Breuer, prosecutors and White House lawyers met privately with U.S. District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson in what appeared to be another battle over the White House's claim of attorney-client privilege.

BYPASSING the Circuit Court of Appeals, Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr has asked the Supreme Court to rule this term on whether presidential aides may be compelled to testify about what the president told them. The court ruled in 1974 that President Richard M. Nixon had some executive privilege, but not enough to keep tapes of his conversations secret, given the gravity of accusations against him.A judge has ruled that Secret Service agents may be compelled to testify to what a president said while they were protecting his life, turning them into informants on every future president unless this is appealed and reversed.

The Justice Department said yesterday that it is reining in some of the legal tactics used by its attorneys in cracking down on corporate fraud, apparently in response to criticism that prosecutors may be too aggressive when pressuring businesses to cooperate in investigations. The revisions address some of the agency's internal guidelines that prosecutors use to decide whether to criminally charge a corporation rather than its executives or employees. Companies now have more leeway to resist demands to turn over confidential documents and protect employees' legal rights without facing greater risk of indictment.

WASHINGTON -- Blunting comparisons to Richard M. Nixon and Watergate, President Clinton abandoned yesterday his effort to use executive privilege to keep top White House aides from testifying before a grand jury.But the president pressed on with his claim that the doctrine of attorney-client privilege should shield his conversations with a trusted adviser in the Monica Lewinsky matter. And, in a brief filed in the Supreme Court, Clinton's attorneys argued that the nation is nowhere near a constitutional crisis requiring the justices to step in immediately to resolve the conflict.

The Justice Department said yesterday that it is reining in some of the legal tactics used by its attorneys in cracking down on corporate fraud, apparently in response to criticism that prosecutors may be too aggressive when pressuring businesses to cooperate in investigations. The revisions address some of the agency's internal guidelines that prosecutors use to decide whether to criminally charge a corporation rather than its executives or employees. Companies now have more leeway to resist demands to turn over confidential documents and protect employees' legal rights without facing greater risk of indictment.

Democrats seek mud to fling at Judge Roberts Let there be no misunderstanding of the reasons behind the Democrats' push to have the president release confidential documents regarding Judge John G. Roberts that are closely held as a result of attorney-client privilege ("The secrecy precedent," editorial, Sept. 13). Sen. Edward Kennedy and his ilk are fishing for something, anything, they can use to fling mud at the president and his administration. Mr. Kennedy knows a thing or two about attorney-client privilege and his desire for this president to waive that privilege has nothing to do with wanting to know Judge Roberts' positions on anything.

WASHINGTON - Defying Senate Democrats, the Bush administration will withhold some documents written by Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. while he worked for Republican administrations, advisers to the White House said yesterday. The documents, written while Roberts worked in President Ronald Reagan's White House and the first President George Bush's Justice Department, will be withheld on grounds of attorney-client privilege, they said on Sunday news shows. But some Democratic senators disputed the need to keep them secret and argued that precedent suggests they should be released.

WASHINGTON - First came tough new rules for accountants. Next, regulators unveiled steps to keep financial analysts on the straight and narrow. Now - and much to their discomfort - it is lawyers' turn for a new code of conduct. In one of the final pieces of regulatory business inspired by debacles involving Enron Corp. and other corporations, the Securities and Exchange Commission wants to require lawyers to, in effect, blow the whistle on financial misconduct if a company refuses to reverse it after repeated, in-house warnings.

A private foundation fighting to preserve a 300-acre farm in Columbia scored a legal victory last week that could prevent the property from becoming a regional park.Even though the outcome is months away, the latest action will give lawyers representing the Elizabeth "Nancy" C. Smith Foundation more ammunition in their fight to preserve Blandair farm.The foundation, established by friends of the reclusive Smith, is suing Smith's heirs to prevent them from selling the farm to Howard County, which has plans to build a park, replete with soccer fields and nature trails.

The investigation of alleged illegal tape-recording by Linda R. Tripp hit a major obstacle yesterday when a Howard County judge said her former attorney would not have to answer questions posed by state prosecutors.The potential outcome is unclear, but legal experts said the ruling could derail the investigation into Tripp and her secretive tape recordings of White House intern Monica Lewinsky, which ignited a national scandal and the impeachment of President Clinton.While alluding to the uphill battle ahead, State Prosecutor Stephen Montanarelli said yesterday the investigation would continue.

WASHINGTON -- In the law, there are two Bill Clintons, separate in many ways: the president and the person. But the two have come together to assert a right to resist a Senate committee subpoena -- an apparently unprecedented claim that could wind up in court.The White House and the president's private lawyers told the Senate Whitewater committee Tuesday they would not hand over notes of a November 1993 meeting, attended by seven Clinton attorneys.This morning, the committee is expected to vote on whether to demand obedience to the subpoena -- a vote that could move the dispute a step closer to a major constitutional fight in court.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court, rebuffing Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr yesterday for the second time this month, rejected his demand for a lawyer's notes that may link Hillary Rodham Clinton to a White House scandal.At the same time, the 6-3 decision offered Starr some hints that he may succeed in obtaining other evidence in the overall investigation of President Clinton and his associates.Yesterday's decision threw a protective shield of attorney-client secrecy over three pages of notes made five years ago by a private attorney for Vincent W. Foster Jr., then the deputy White House counsel.

An attorney for Linda R. Tripp will avoid appearing before a Howard County grand jury tomorrow about his client's alleged illegal wiretapping, but New York literary agent Lucianne Goldberg is expected to tell prosecutors about her conversations with Tripp.The state prosecutor's office subpoenaed attorney Joseph Murtha last month in its almost five-month-long investigation of Tripp's taped conversations with Monica Lewinsky about the former White House intern's relationship with President Clinton.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton should refuse to testify before the grand jury, no matter what the political price.He should testify fully and truthfully, and then tell all to the American people about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, even if it means saying he previously lied.He should testify, but refuse to answer any questions about sex.He should stick to his original story -- deny, deny, deny!So goes the chorus of free, unsolicited legal advice being offered these days to the president, in the press and on the airwaves, in advance of his session Monday with the office of independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr and the Lewinsky grand jury.