Preface

• Pages: 16-19

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PREFACE

The fourth edition of the Antitrust Grand Jury Investigations

Handbook is a substantial revision to the third edition, published 20 years

ago in 2002. As with prior editions of this treatise, this edition focuses

on various procedural issues that may arise during the course of an

antitrust grand jury investigation. In some respects, these issues are

similar to those that counsel may face during the course of other kinds of

grand jury investigations. But unlike other types of criminal matters

investigated by local U.S. Attorneys’ offices around the country, criminal

antitrust investigations are conducted exclusively by the Antitrust

Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (the “Division”). The

Division’s longstanding Leniency Program for corporate and individual

whistleblowers has unique features that differ from policies followed by

other components of the U.S. Department of Justice. And the Division’s

increasing focus on international conspiracies in the past twenty years

raises numerous issues relating to how the Division obtains evidence

located abroad and how investigations by foreign governments may

affect prosecutions in the U.S. courts.

The first three chapters of the Handbook provide an overview of the

initial questions faced by counsel retained by a corporation or individual

facing an antitrust investigation. There are various ways in which a

criminal antitrust investigation may begin, and the genesis of a specific

investigation may significantly affect how—and how quickly— counsel

should respond. Service of a grand jury subpoena, without the use of

additional investigatory tools, usually signals that the government does

not have the benefit of information provided by a leniency applicant. In

these instances, counsel may be able to proceed more slowly with its

response to the internal investigation. The execution of a search warrant,

however, is a far more serious situation requiring counsel to move very

quickly.

Chapter 4 provides an overview of issues arising from representing

an individual. An individual client who is a target of the investigation

may be facing the prospect of prosecution and even incarceration, so

counsel will need to be prepared to deal with the emotional as well a s