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Virginia Beach partner partakes in Q&A

Law360
September 29, 2009

Virginia Beach partner Jim Wheaton recently gave a Q&A to Law360 in which he talks about what attracted him to M&A work, his most challenging legal problems and advice he’d give to young lawyers.

The Q&A is part of Law360’s continuing series on practice group leaders. Wheaton heads Troutman Sanders’ Mergers, Acquisitions and Business Ventures practice group.

What’s most troubling today, said Wheaton, is “the emerging tendency of federal and state authorities to second-guess bad business decisions by requiring or coercing clients to waive attorney-client privilege.”

“I worry that many of us will consciously or unconsciously begin to hedge our advice and provide less than zealous representation of our clients because of a fear that lawyers are no longer free to offer clients their best judgment about complex legal problems without fear of later repercussions. Good and even aggressive advice does not become nefarious simply because of a bad business outcome.”

See Wheaton’s full Q&A here.
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