Using your own in-house counsel to conduct an internal probe of possible corporate wrongdoing is a quick way to make a government prosecutor very suspicious. The better approach, said Joan Silverstein, an assistant U.S. attorney in Miami, is to hire reliable and independent outside counsel.
“If your general counsel or in-house counsel is conducting the investigation, and has personal relationships with employees there, and with officers with a significant interest in the outcome, then this is an investigation that already has a desired outcome,” she said. “And that would be to minimize whatever they find.”
