Steven Pearlstein does a disservice to Post readers by misstating a bedrock principle of the U.S. justice system -- the attorney-client privilege ["Convictions Drive Home the Point Again," Business, May 26 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052502073.html]. It is the oldest known privilege in common law. In our democracy, the privilege belongs to and benefits the people, not lawyers. It undergirds our justice system and helps protect rights enshrined in the Bill of Rights. Similarly, regulation of lawyer conduct by state supreme courts has served our democracy well for more than 200 years because it protects the public interest. Four years ago, the Securities and Exchange Commission wisely recognized the importance of the privilege and state court regulation of lawyers when it adopted rules to implement the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

The SEC preserved the ability of lawyers, informed by clients' privileged communications, to counsel clients on compliance with laws for the benefit of both clients and society. Its regulations require lawyers to take legal compliance issues to the highest corporate levels of responsibility as the surest way to help managers, the vast majority of whom take their responsibilities with utmost seriousness, fulfill their obligations to the law and to their many constituencies. If lawyers violate their ethical obligations or the law, the courts will impose appropriate sanctions, because no one in America is above the law.