Originally Posted by
Midtowner
To be fair, it is perfectly possible that this could be handled in an ethical manner. Simply because a managing partner is the son of a high ranking executive means that, ethically speaking, he would simply have to be excluded from any information and decision making regarding this particular task. McAfee Taft is the second largest firm in the State next to the Oklahoma Attorney General's office, so I'm sure they would have the manpower to walk and chew gum, i.e., allow their managing partner to manage the firm while an independent team does their work without involving that partner.
Do remember though that the Archdiocese is the client of McAfee Taft, and the firm has no duty to disclose their findings to the public and no duty to have any sort of independent investigation. Those words carry zero legal impetus. If I were to advise the Archdiocese, this is exactly what I would advise them to do--perform an independent investigation, get the results, then make decisions on what to do with those results. One option would definitely be to conclude that there are no results as far as the public is concerned. There may be that there is never a written report because it would be problematic to create such a thing when it might be obtained in discovery at some point through the crime-fraud exception to the attorney client privilege.
But really, this story isn't evidence of anything. It's just some outside groups, not necessarily privy to any information, gritching that they don't think this process is independent or transparent. They're entitled to their opinions. Other than that, aside from the fact that McAfee Taft has been hired to do some kind of internal investigation of the Archdiocese and that outside groups don't like the setup, what other information is there here?
It is important to remember that McAfee Taft's legal responsibility is to their client. Not the public. Not victims of abuse.
And let's attempt to be fair to the Catholic Church. While yes, some children and adults have been abused by predators who were able to use the apparatus of the Church to perpetrate their crimes and get away with them, the Church probably spends more than any other Church in the country for charitable works and organizations like Catholic Charities, Knights of Columbus, etc.
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