Roderick Thomas Discusses D.C. Circuit’s Ruling on Attorney-Client Privilege in KBR Case

August 18, 2015

Roderick L. Thomas, chair of Wiley Rein’s White Collar Defense & Government Investigations Practice, was quoted by Bloomberg BNA’s Federal Contracts Report in an August 11 article about a federal appeals court’s ruling that documents produced during an internal investigation, and sought by the relator in a False Claims Act (FCA) case, are protected by attorney-client privilege.

According to the article, a former employee of Kellogg, Brown & Root Inc. (KBR) is the relator in an FCA complaint alleging that the company defrauded the government while administering contracts in Iraq. The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacates the district court order compelling KBR to turn over documents related to a prior internal investigation.

Mr. Thomas told Bloomberg BNA that despite the favorable ruling, “in-house counsel should continue to take steps to clearly indicate an investigation is privileged lest they find themselves embroiled in a similar time-consuming and costly dispute.”