By Rebecca Guiterman Trade secrets cases are on the rise. Most often, they happen when an employee steals confidential computer code or client lists or marketing plans. You may think of them as disputes between employers and employees (or, in one instance, by a...
I Didn’t Have “Media Stories about Protective Orders” on This Year’s Bingo Card
By Sara Kropf Protective orders in criminal cases are . . . . typical. Boring, even. (Are you really going to read a blog post about protective orders?) But even the most mundane procedural matters seem to take on outsized importance when they arise in the criminal...
A Moth to a Flame: No-Contact Orders and Early Jencks in the Trump Case
By Sara Kropf In case you’ve been living under a rock recently, former President Donald Trump was indicted on 37 federal criminal charges relating to classified documents and obstruction of justice. I’m not going to deny that I enjoy this spectacle in many respects,...
DOJ Says Incomplete 302s Resulted from an “Inadvertent Failure of Process”: The Irony(!) and the Uncurable Prejudice of a Retrial
By Sara Kropf When a regular person does something wrong, the Department of Justice has no qualms about bringing criminal charges against him. When the Department of Justice does something wrong, well, it asks for a second chance. A few years ago, I wrote about...
DOJ’s Outsourcing of Investigations Under Fire (Again)
By Sara Kropf The Department of Justice repeatedly issues guidance to beg coerce encourage companies to self-report wrongdoing and, in effect, sell out their executives as the wrongdoers. As part of this “cooperation,” companies will conduct an internal investigation,...
Surprise Arrests and Scheduled Arrests – Or, Why Donald Trump Knows His Arrest Date (Updated)
By Sara Kropf UPDATE 4.1.2023 (not an April Fool's joke): The media has reported that Donald Trump will be formally arrested in New York on April 4, 2023. For folks who watch lots of crime procedural dramas, you may be disappointed to learn that most people accused of...
New DOJ Policy Could Put In-House Counsel in a Tough Ethics Spot
By Sara Kropf DOJ’s new corporate cooperation policy includes a provision that places in-house counsel in an awkward—and potentially unethical—position. This new policy formalizes Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco’s policy announcement last year. The new policy...
Should You Sign a Certification of Compliance with a Subpoena? The Trump Example
By Sara Kropf Recently, the Department of Justice asked a federal court to hold former President Donald Trump in contempt for failing to comply fully with a grand jury subpoena demanding that he return all classified documents he took when he left office. The...
Squaring the Monaco Memo with Joint Defense Agreements – Nothing New to See Here?
By Sara Kropf When I represent an individual client, a joint defense agreement with my client's employer can be extremely helpful. The company can share information and documents to help me advise my client about agreeing to a voluntary interview or prepare for grand...
Telling DOJ to Stuff It (Politely)
By Sara Kropf One thing you quickly learn as defense counsel is that the government has considerably more power than you do. In pre-indictment discussions, if I push back too hard on the government, the prosecutor could decide to add more charges to the indictment or...