FCA Does Not Authorize In-House Counsel/Relator to Reveal Client Confidences
Client Alert | 1 min read | 11.18.13
In Fair Lab. Practices Assocs. v. Quest Diagnostics (Oct. 25, 2013), the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a qui tam suit that was brought by a general partnership formed for the purpose of bringing the suit because (1) the partnership included the defendant's former general counsel, and (2) the former general counsel violated his ethical obligations by divulging confidential client information in pursuit of the litigation, notwithstanding that a non-lawyer member of the partnership initiated the suit. While the Second Circuit did not create a bright-line rule barring all in-house lawyers from using client information in FCA cases, it did strike a balance between a lawyer's ethical obligations to the client and the government's competing interest in encouraging "whistleblowers" to report fraud, finding that the disclosure exceeded what was necessary to prevent the client from committing a crime.
Insights
Client Alert | 15 min read | 08.20.25
In this eighth alert in our weekly series on the EU Pharma Package, we continue our overview of initiatives with respect to security of supply and shortage prevention and mitigation. Our last alert looked at how the Pharma Package seeks to address these issues. However, the Pharma Package does not exist in isolation, and in this alert we will discuss the interplay between its measures and those contained in other important EU initiatives such as the proposed Critical Medicines Act (CMA), and the Medicinal Countermeasures Strategy and the EU Stockpiling Strategy.
Client Alert | 2 min read | 08.19.25
Client Alert | 4 min read | 08.19.25
Forged Faces, Real Liability: Deepfake Laws Take Effect in Washington State and Pennsylvania
Client Alert | 1 min read | 08.19.25
