Opinion ID: 167649
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Culture of Waiver

Text: 91 Amici curiae, Association of Corporate Counsel and the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, support Qwest's position by suggesting their employers and members, respectively, now litigate in a culture of waiver instituted by federal prosecutors. They argue that companies facing federal investigations do not choose to waive their privileges; under current enforcement standards, companies cannot risk being labeled as uncooperative; and cooperation, as defined by federal officials, requires producing privileged documents. 9 Amici state that the demand for privilege waivers by the government as a pre-requisite to fair treatment by prosecutors is now routine. Amici Br. at 10. They urge the court to note with disapproval this culture of waiver as a matter of policy that should be reversed. Id. at 8. 92 Amici's position is supported by commentators. See, e.g., Ronald C. Minkoff, A Leak in the Dike: Expanding the Doctrine of Waiver of the Attorney-Client Privilege, 154 PLI/NY 165, 178 (2005); see also Kathryn Keneally, New Life for Selective Waiver, 30 Champion 42 (2006). It is not, however, supported by the record. Aside from the anecdotal material serving as the foundation for the purported culture of waiver, the record is silent regarding its existence, significance, and longevity. More specifically, the record is silent about Qwest's particular dealings with the agencies and whether it experienced the tactics deplored by amici. Even though common sense and human nature suggest there is some level of pressure for companies to satisfy the government by disclosing as much as possible, including even privileged and protected material, this court cannot rely on such a sparse record to recognize a new doctrine of selective waiver or to create a new privilege for government investigations. 93 A similar argument has been unsympathetically received by at least one other circuit. The Second Circuit stated: 94 Whether characterized as forcing a party in between a Scylla and Charybdis, a rock and a hard place, or some other tired but equally evocative metaphoric cliché, the Hobson's choice argument is unpersuasive given the facts of this case. An allegation that a party facing a federal investigation and the prospect of a civil fraud suit must make difficult choices is insufficient justification for carving a substantial exception to the waiver doctrine. 95 Steinhardt Partners, 9 F.3d at 236. In Branzburg, the Supreme Court found similar arguments about changing policies and practices insufficient to support the creation of a journalist's privilege: 96 It is said that currently press subpoenas have multiplied, that mutual distrust and tension between press and officialdom have increased, that reporting styles have changed, and that there is now more need for confidential sources . . . . These developments, even if true, are treacherous grounds for a far-reaching interpretation of the First Amendment fastening a nationwide rule on courts, grand juries, and prosecuting officials everywhere. 97 408 U.S. at 699, 92 S.Ct. 2646 (footnote omitted). 98 At least to the degree exhorted by amici, the culture of waiver appears to be of relatively recent vintage. Whether the pressures facing corporations in federal investigations present a hardened, entrenched problem suitable for common-law intervention or merely a passing phenomenon that may soon be addressed in other venues is unclear. For example, certain language in Application Note 12 to Sentencing Guideline § 8C2.5 can be read to tie cooperation to a waiver of applicable privileges. The Sentencing Commission, however, recently promulgated an amendment deleting that language because the sentence at issue could be misinterpreted to encourage waivers. Sentencing Guidelines for the United States Courts, 71 Fed. Reg. 28063, 28073 (May 1, 2006). This amendment will take effect on November 1, 2006 unless Congress intervenes. Id. at 28063. Congress also appears concerned about these issues; the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security recently took oral testimony at an oversight hearing on corporate privilege waivers. White Collar Enforcement (Part I): Attorney-Client Privilege and Corporate Waivers: Oversight Hearing Before the H. Comm. on the Judiciary, Subcomm. on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, 109th Cong. D193 (Mar. 7, 2006). Finally, the Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules recently voted to recommend publication of a proposed Rule 502, providing for selective waiver to the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure (the Standing Committee) of the Judicial Conference of the United States. The Standing Committee is expected to take up the issue at its June 2006 meeting. 99 Rule 501 places responsibility for development of the common law of testimonial privilege on the federal courts. Each decision along the path of the common law is directed by the discrete, underlying facts developed in the record. As decisions accrue, the process is facilitated by the accumulation of experience, but it remains dependent on the factual foundation of each constituent decision. Legislative and rule-making processes, however, are not confined by the same gradual, brick-by-brick progression. Legislatures and rule-making bodies are endowed with tools to marshal evidence, facts, and experience from numerous and diverse sources that can support more dramatic and immediate creation of new rules or modifications of old rules. Cf. In re Subpoenas Duces Tecum, 738 F.2d at 1375 (If a change is to be made because it is thought that such voluntary disclosure programs are so important that they deserve special treatment, that is a policy matter for the Congress, or perhaps through the SEC (through a regulation). Courts are not the appropriate forum—for one thing, courts do not know enough—to decide on policy grounds to treat those programs (or others like them) in an exceptional way.); see also Branzburg, 408 U.S. at 706, 92 S.Ct. 2646 (Congress has freedom to determine whether a statutory newsman's privilege is necessary and desirable and to fashion standards and rules as narrow or broad as deemed necessary to deal with the evil discerned and, equally important, to refashion those rules as experience from time to time may dictate.). 100 Whether a rule-making or legislative venue is appropriate to address the issues raised by Qwest and amici is a question for the Standing Committee and Congress. The rule-making and legislative processes, however, need not proceed wholly independent of the common law. The accumulated experience of federal common law in the area of attorney-client privilege and work-product protection is but another source for the legislative and rule-making bodies to draw on to inform their deliberations concerning the need for and parameters of selective waiver or a new privilege.