An Amendment of FASB Statements 5 and 141(R)” (“Exposure Draft or Amendment”) and why was it involved?
Ide: The Task Force was given the task of coordinating the ABA’s submission to the FASB with respect to the Exposure Draft. The Task Force utilized a drafting committee of me, Stanley Keller (Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP); Lewis H. Ferguson (Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP), a former General Counsel of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, and Giovanni Prezioso (Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP), a former General Counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission. We received input from other members of the Task Force, ABA Sections and Committees, as well as a broad range of in-house and outside lawyers. The Task Force was deeply involved because of our concern that the Exposure Draft would jeopardize the attorney-client privilege and work product rights (the”Privilege”) of companies, by requiring them to speculate about litigation outcomes. This would provide plaintiffs with privileged information about a company’s litigation vulnerabilities and defense strategies, thus h
