Overview
Law.com quoted Ashwin Ram in a December 21 article titled "Did Boies Schiller Represent Theranos' Elizabeth Holmes or Not?" The article discusses how the Theranos federal fraud case is the latest to attempt to untangle the blurred lines of attorney-client privilege in white-collar investigations.
Ram says the lines get blurred when attorneys lose sight of the fundamentals, which is easy to do. Ram, who was a US attorney in the major frauds section of the US Attorney's Office in Los Angeles for seven years, stresses the importance of providing an Upjohn warning, or corporate Miranda, letting clients know that they represent the company and not the executive. But sticking to fundamentals gets more difficult after the first interview.
"Even if an attorney gives the Upjohn warning in that first interview with the company, agent or executives, what about the next 100 times they talk?" he says. "Is the attorney really expected to keep repeating that, 'Hey, I'm not representing you. I'm representing the company.' No, and realistically, that doesn't happen. So that's I think where you could get into a gray area."
The full article can be read at Law.com (subscription required).