In September 2015, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates issued the Yates memo on individual accountability in the context of corporate investigations. It is no understatement to say that this memo created a near-cottage industry of articles and panels on the memo’s impact on government investigations and officer/director liability.
After the change in administration, a favorite parlor game of the defense bar was wagering on the memo’s survival. And after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein revealed, in September and October 2017, that the Yates memo was under active reconsideration, discussions turned serious about whether the memo would be preserved, diluted or outright reversed and whether the distinctions between criminal and civil False Claims Act matters would receive needed nuance.