Cooley's Jonathan Bach Testifies Before Senate Judiciary Committee

New York – April 15, 2015 – Jonathan Bach, partner in charge of Cooley LLP's New York office and leader of the firm's east coast litigation practice, provided testimony today before the Senate Judiciary Committee on behalf of the New York Council of Defense Lawyers.

Stemming from the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Kaley v. United States, Bach appeared before the committee to address the issue of forfeited assets by indicted criminal defendants. In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 opinion that defendants are not entitled to a post-indictment hearing on certain issues to determine whether prosecutors may freeze assets that could be used to pay for legal representation. Previously, Bach submitted an amicus brief in Kaley that was cited by Justice Elena Kagan in the opinion for the majority, and by Chief Justice John Roberts in the dissent.

In his testimony, Bach supported legislative reform of asset forfeiture laws. "We note that much of the Supreme Court's concern in Kaley appears to arise from what the majority perceived as the difficulty of having a judge revisit a grand jury's determination of probable cause," he said. "We think that appropriate legislation can eliminate this problem."

A copy of Bach's full testimony can be found here.

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