Debbie Feinstein Unpacks DOJ’s New Civil Subpoena Deadline Policy in Bloomberg Law

Debbie Feinstein, Arnold & Porter Antitrust/Competition partner and former Bureau of Competition Director at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), was quoted in the recent Bloomberg Law article, "DOJ Move to Speed Civil Antitrust Investigations Draws Doubts," on a September 8 memo in which Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward instructed Antitrust Division attorneys to stop routinely granting extensions on deadlines for civil investigative demands (CIDs) and to sue more often when recipients miss the original deadline.

Debbie noted that a company's response to a CID deadline often depends on how broad the government's request is, since CIDs are typically answered on a rolling basis, with extensions built in over time. Because reviewing large volumes of documents takes time on both sides, she cautioned that compressed deadlines may not speed things up the way DOJ intends.

"Realistically, the government can only look at things so quickly," she said. "The idea that 'Oh we have to have a million documents in the first month,' well they're not going to process a million documents themselves. It takes time to go through that. It takes time to understand them."

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