In re Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc.

Summary

The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted Kellogg Brown & Root’s petition for a writ of mandamus and vacated a district court order requiring production of documents from an internal investigation. The court held that the attorney-client privilege applies when obtaining or providing legal advice is one of the significant purposes of an internal investigation, even when the investigation also serves regulatory or business purposes. The court declined to reassign the case to a different district judge.

Holdings

1. Attorney-client privilege applies to confidential communications made during a corporate internal investigation when obtaining or providing legal advice was one of the significant purposes of the communication, even if the investigation also served business, regulatory, or compliance purposes.
2. Mandamus was warranted because KBR had no other adequate means to protect the privilege before disclosure, its entitlement to relief was clear and indisputable, and the circumstances made issuance of the writ appropriate.
3. Reassignment was not warranted because the district judge's conduct did not reach the exceedingly high standard of displaying a clear inability to render fair judgment.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the district court applied the correct legal test in determining whether KBR's internal investigation communications were protected by the attorney-client privilege.
2. Whether the district court's privilege ruling constituted the type of clear legal error warranting a writ of mandamus.
3. Whether the case should be reassigned to a different district judge.

Disposition

writ_granted