Whistleblower Presses Challenges Over Access to KBR Docs
By Andrew Ramonas, Legal Times
Lawyers for a whistleblower on Monday asked a full federal appeals court to hear a dispute over access to Kellogg Brown & Root Services Inc. documents that the company contends are shielded from disclosure.
Attorneys Michael Kohn, Stephen Kohn and David Colapinto, who represent whistleblower Harry Barko in his False Claims Act lawsuit against KBR, urged the full U.S Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to review a three-judge panel decision. The panel on June 27 said the documents can remain confidential under the attorney-client privilege.
The panel decision by D.C. Circuit judges Thomas Griffith, Brett Kavanaugh and Sri Srinivasan overturned a trial judge’s order that required KBR to give the whistleblower’s lawyers 89 documents. In the appeal, business advocates sided with KBR in arguing that the documents should not be provided to Barko and his lawyers.
The KBR papers concern an investigation into whether the company and a subcontractor, Daoud & Partners Inc., maintained an inappropriate relationship that involved kickbacks. Daoud built and staffed laundry facilities in Iraq for the U.S. military.
“If this ruling is not vacated it will result in an explosion of emergency petitions for writs of mandamus seeking immediate interlocutory review of discovery rulings on privilege claims and result in efforts to extend the unprecedented standard adopted by the panel to other jurisdictions,” Barko’s lawyers wrote in their petition on Monday. “Accordingly, the titanic shift in the evaluation of the attorney-client privilege in the business setting and the nationwide impact it can predictably bring raises a question of exceptional importance that warrants rehearing en banc.”
