Powell Goldstein partner R. Joseph Burby predicts that the Justice Department will issue guidelines to address the issues raised by Pallone.

The legislation would require judicial approval of deferred prosecution agreements. If monitors are to be chosen, they would be chosen not by the Justice Department, but by the federal courts. And the courts would have authority to determine whether or not the agreement had been violated.

Burby, a former federal prosecutor, says that while he favors some judicial control over deferred prosecution agreements and monitorship, he doesn't believe that the Justice Department will ever agree to giving up its current authority to the courts. "From the defense perspective, I favor judicial oversight," Burby told Corporate Crime Reporter in an interview earlier this week. "It's helpful for courts to be more involved in deferred prosecution agreements and in selecting corporate monitors. And as a citizen, it's important that this process be above any sort of charge of partisanship, any sort of charge of political influence. As long as there are no standards for selecting monitors, and no judicial oversight, you are susceptible to those charges."

To read the complete interview, please click here.