Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Weintraub (1984)
- Docket
- 84-261
- Decided
- 1984-01-01
Summary
Question: Does the trustee of a corporation in bankruptcy have the power to waive that corporation's attorney-client privilege with respect to communications that took place before the bankruptcy petition was filed? Conclusion: Justice Thurgood Marshall, writing for a unanimous court, reversed the Seventh Circuit. The Supreme Court held that a bankruptcy trustee does have the power to waive attorney client privilege for communications that occurred before filing the bankruptcy petition. This power is held by the management of a corporation, and a bankruptcy trustee is merely a new form of management. If the power to waive attorney-client privilege remained with the corporation's directors, it would frustrate the goal of the trustee, to uncover fraud and misappropriated corporate assets. Justice Lewis F. Powell did not participate.