| Description |
The U.S. Department of Labor has recently blown a big hole in the protection for whistleblowers under the federal environmental laws, and in so doing has reduced the protection of all of us from environmental hazards. In a recent decision by the Department of Labor Administrative Review Board (“ARB),1 the ARB held that lawyers employed by corporations, in-house counsel, may not use any documents or information covered by lawyer-client privilege in claims for illegal retaliation when they blow the whistle on their employers’ environmental law violations.2 The ARB’s decision ignores the leading cases allowing the use of privileged information by in-house counsel in lawsuits brought to seek redress for their illegal firing or other discriminatory action,3 as well as a recent American Bar Association formal opinion on legal ethics addressing this problem. (Description from Source) |