Tom Spahn

Tom regularly advises a number of Fortune 500 companies on such issues as creating and preserving attorney-client privilege and work product protection when conducting corporate investigations and dealing with the government. He recently published a two-volume 1,500 page book entitled "The Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine: A Practitioner's Summary Guide.” Tom was selected as the 2013 metro-Washington DC "Lawyer of the Year" for "Bet the Company Litigation" by The Best Lawyers in America (Woodward/White, Inc.).

Firm/Organization: McGuireWoods LLP

Blogs: Password Protected, Subject to Inquiry

Latest Articles

Password Protected

Putting Lawyers in Charge of Investigations Does Not Assure Privilege Protection

By Tom Spahn on January 29, 2018

Corporations’ investigations generally deserve (1) privilege protection only if the corporations are primarily motivated by their need for legal advice; and (2) work product protection only if they are motivated by anticipated litigation, and the company would not have created the investigation-related documents in the same form but for that anticipated litigation. In In re Premera Blue Cross Customer Data Security Breach Litigation, Case No. 3:15-md-2633-SI, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 178762 (D. Or. Oct. 27,…

Subject to Inquiry

Avoiding Waiver When Disclosing Facts to the Government

By Tom Spahn on March 26, 2014

All but a handful of courts find that companies disclosing privileged communications or protected work product to the government waive both of those protections. Courts properly analyzing waiver rules also recognize that disclosing historical facts does not cause a waiver – because historical facts are not privileged. In two related cases, Judge Francis of the Southern District of New York dealt with the intersection of these basic principles. In In re Weatherford International Securities Litigation,…

Tom Spahn

Putting Lawyers in Charge of Investigations Does Not Assure Privilege Protection

Avoiding Waiver When Disclosing Facts to the Government

Company

Support

New to the Network