Brennan Center for Justice

The Center represented bar associations, legal services lawyers, and other advocates who intervened as amici in a lawsuit defending the ability of Legal Services for New York City to withhold confidential client information from the Inspector General of the Legal Services Corporation. The Inspector General had already required LSNY to turn over information indicating the reasons why clients had sought legal assistance and then attempted to compel LSNY to turn over the names of the clients associated with that information. The Center submitted a brief to the district court, which granted the Inspector General’s motion to enforce his subpoena but permitted LSNY to bring privilege claims on behalf of individual clients. The Center then submitted a similar brief in the appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which subsequently affirmed the holding of the district court.