Through a glass darkly: plumbing the depths of privilege in corporate internal investigation interviews
February 20, 2017
Dechert Partner Matthew Cowie and Associate Richard Hodge discuss professional privilege in UK corporate investigations in the February 2017 edition of Financier Worldwide.
The days that unfounded or exaggerated claims to legal professional privilege in UK corporate investigations into economic crime pass unchallenged are well and truly over. Alun Milford, UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) general counsel, has emphasised this point, noting that the SFO will “view as uncooperative”, any “false or exaggerated claims of privilege” – and the SFO will be prepared to litigate over them, as “to do otherwise would be to fail in our duty to investigate crime”.