Lawyers and non-lawyers frequently train their corporate colleagues. Determining any applicable attorney-client privilege or work product protections can implicate a number of variables....more
In the aftermath of the soap opera-like ethical scandal over an undisclosed romantic relationship between a Jackson Walker partner and a Texas bankruptcy judge, an Oregon federal court dealt with discovery of a renowned...more
Criminal defendants accused of white-collar crimes often deal with lawyers before and even while engaged in their alleged criminal misconduct. All or most lawyers have the vague notion that the attorney-client privilege can...more
Unlike the absolute attorney-client privilege (and the absolute or nearly absolute opinion work product doctrine protection), a litigant can overcome the adversary’s fact work product protection if it “shows that it has...more
Companies facing ongoing or threatened litigation must sometimes estimate their likely or possible financial exposure — for internal purposes, reporting to auditors or other reasons. Depending on the circumstances, one would...more
Outside and in-house lawyers may of course normally claim privilege protection for their investigation-related communications, as long as they were primarily motivated by the need for legal advice. Depending on the...more
Several courts have adopted a nonsensical principle that, as one court put it, “[w]hen documents are prepared for dissemination to third parties, neither the document itself, nor preliminary drafts, are entitled to immunity.”...more
Numerous Privilege Points have described cases concluding that advertising agencies are outside privilege protection but inside work product protection (although they normally cannot themselves create protected work product)....more
The differing waiver rules governing the fragile attorney-client privilege and the robust work product doctrine protection predictably create stark differences when family members communicate with each other. This type of...more
Some readers have asked why Privilege Points have only rarely focused on work product issues in the insurance context. In addition to the sometimes dramatic differences between states’ handling of this issue, a recent case...more
With the growth of litigation funding as a mechanism for financing litigation, companies interviewing and ultimately selecting a funder inevitably share work product with them. In such circumstances, courts must assess (1)...more
As explained in previous Privilege Points, courts frequently must decide which state’s privilege law applies to communications involving several states. Fed. R. Evid. 501 states that federal courts should apply state law but...more
Although lawyers understandably focus mostly on the privilege that they enjoy when communicating with their clients, other professionals (psychiatrists, clergy) also have privilege protection of one degree or another. Does...more
Courts have been scrambling to catch up with the fast and sometimes unpredictable evolution of lawyers’ use of generative AI. Many if not most courts require lawyers to advise them if they relied on AI in preparing filings...more
Last week’s Privilege Point noted the Southern District of New York’s privilege expert’s opinion confirming the modern view that an extrajudicial disclosure of a privileged communication normally does not trigger a subject...more
All lawyers worry that waiving privilege protection for some communications might trigger a damaging subject matter waiver requiring disclosure of related communications. Such a subject matter waiver risk normally does not...more
Some courts understandably conclude that the anticipation of litigation that can assure work product protection also requires the litigant to impose a litigation hold on pertinent documents. Perhaps that is not a perfect...more
Given the bare bones nature of many privilege logs, courts sometimes may be called upon, or themselves decide, to review withheld documents in camera to assess the grounds for the documents’ withholding. A handful of courts...more
Corporate litigants’ privilege logs often trigger privilege disputes about internal corporate communications not involving a lawyer — because the log does not mention a lawyers’ participation. But there are at least two...more
In contrast to the somewhat abstract doctrine-driven attorney-client privilege, courts have described the work product doctrine as “intensely practical.” Their treatment of defendants’ surveillance videotape of personal...more
Most lawyers know that state statutes or common law doctrines often protect communications between spouses – although there is wide variation in such approaches. But there is a lurking danger that all of us should keep in...more
Starting about 50 years ago in the case of Hearn v. Rhay, 68 F.R.D. 574 (E.D. Wash. 1975), some courts recognized a broad “at issue” waiver that could strip away privilege without the holder’s disclosure of or even reference...more
Last week’s Privilege Point described a Nevada federal court ruling that a lawyer’s testimony about non-privileged matters did not waive that fragile protection. Snow Covered Capital, LLC v. v. Fonfa, Case No....more
For obvious reasons, lawyers rarely testify at trial. The ethics rules normally prevent a lawyer from trying a case if she is “likely to be a necessary witness.” ABA Model Rule 3.7. And any lawyer’s testimony presents...more
Under every state’s ethics rules, lawyers not licensed there may temporarily provide legal advice under certain conditions, but normally may not establish a “systematic and continuous” presence there without violating...more