Doe

In this interlocutory appeal, John Doe challenges the district court’s order compelling an attorney to testify. 1 The district court based its order on the crime-fraud exception and ordered the attorney to obey the grand jury subpoena. We have jurisdiction 2 and affirm the order.

I. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Doe serves as a trustee for an ERISA pension fund on behalf of a local union. The fund has three trustees selected by the union and three selected by the employers. Doe represents the interests of the union. The government is investigating the efforts of Doe and the other union trustees to have the fund hire an investment monitor of their choosing. The three management trustees strongly objected to this investment monitor, and the issue eventually went to arbitration. The government suspects that Doe went to extraordinary lengths to have the investment monitor hired because Doe was receiving kickbacks from him. A grand jury investigating Doe subpoenaed the attorney who represented Doe as well as the two other union trustees.

When Doe and the attorney asserted the attorney-client privilege in response to the subpoena, the government asked the district court to compel the…