The news of a federal agent delivering a grand jury subpoena or other investigative process can be stomach churning. At that moment, in-house counsel typically does not know whether the company or its executives are under investigation, whether employees may have engaged in suspicious or unlawful activity, or whether the government is simply seeking to collect documents or other information in the company's possession. The agent's visit could be benign or it could mark the beginning of a long, expensive, and difficult process. In either scenario, in-house counsel can take several steps, detailed below, to put the company in the best possible position vis-à-vis the government's investigation. 

Contact experienced counsel

Effectively engaging the government in the course of a investigation requires experience and specialized knowledge. The government wields tremendous power in the investigatory stage of both criminal and civil investigations, and failure to adequately respond to a subpoena or civil investigative demand (CID) could put the company and its representatives at greater risk. Ideally, the company should retain counsel familiar with the type of process at issue (e.g., criminal subpoenas, CIDs, agency administrative subpoenas), the agency issuing that process (e.g., Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau), and, if knowable, the subject matter of the investigation.