In an era of accounting and securities scandals there seem to be more and more internal corporate investigations. If you happen to work for an employer that gets caught up in one of these internal investigations you may be interviewed by your employer’s outside lawyers. If this happens you need to be aware that these attorneys probably do not represent your interests even though you are an employee of the company that they represent. You may want to consider hiring your own counsel to be in attendance at these interviews to represent your interests.
In this situation the employer’s lawyers may give you what is called a “corporate Miranda warning.” The attorney will indicate that she represents the corporation, not you as the employee, and will remind you that conversations and other types of communication between you and her will be privileged. However, this privilege belongs to your employer. Therefore, you have no right to declare these communications privileged in any litigation; meaning that the content of your communications with this lawyer could be disclosed in court. If your employer’s lawyer does not give you these warnings it does not mean you should not take heed. All the more reason to consider having your own counsel present to protect your interests.
Please contact your Bamberger attorney for more information on this subject.
Author: Lori Young (bio)
Phone: 812.452.3560
email: lyoung@bamberger.com
Tags: corporate scandals, internal investigation, Lori Young, privileged information