Insurance Companies and the Attorney-Client Privilege in Arizona
Last week’s Privilege Point described S.D.N.Y. Judge Lewis Liman’s conclusion that a company waived privilege protection for legal advice it received from its counsel by disclosing the advice to its financial advisor China...more
When a company discovers that a crime may have been committed by individuals within the company, or is alerted by the government of that possibility, the company will often hire an outside law firm to conduct an internal...more
Introduction - Privilege assertions and waivers are a hot area for internal investigations and government proffers. One burning question centers around whether a party may claim privilege over materials that it furnished to...more
In a high-profile dispute between federal prosecutors and the Los Angeles Angels relating to criminal charges filed in the aftermath of a tragic overdose and death of an Angels pitcher, the government went on the offensive...more
A federal district court in Washington recently held that a claims handling mishap resulted in a waiver of the attorney-client privilege otherwise protecting a coverage opinion provided by the insurer’s internal legal...more
In United States ex rel. Wollman v. Massachusetts Gen. Hosp., Inc., No. CV 15-11890-ADB, 2020 WL 4352915 (D. Mass. July 29, 2020), yet another district court agreed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia...more
While much of the corporate legal world has been focused on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, a little-noticed case working its way through the federal courts in Washington, D.C. threatens to whittle down the scope of...more
The NC Business Court delivered a full Opinion last week on attorney-client privilege in Technetics Group Daytona, Inc. v. N2 Biomedical, LLC, 2018 NCBC 115. It’s on the subject of the scope of attorney-client privilege...more
The Hong Kong Competition Tribunal has ruled for the first time on the extent of the Competition Commission’s discovery obligations in enforcement proceedings. The Speed Read - A recent Hong Kong Competition Tribunal...more
Electronic discovery cases that made headlines in 2017 featured well-known names such as Taylor Swift and Lynyrd Skynyrd, and reached all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. As the year draws to a close, it’s a good time to...more
On November 8, 2017, Suzzanne W. Decker, a Principal in the Miles & Stockbridge Labor, Employment, Benefits & Immigration practice group, and Sandra McLelland, Managing Counsel at Under Armour, presented a webinar to members...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that a predecessor company’s intentional waiver of attorney-client privilege can survive the company’s merger. In re OptumInsight, Inc., Misc. Docket No. 2017-116 (Fed....more
On June 6, 2017, the First Department had an opportunity to apply—and reaffirm—last month’s decision in Peerenboom v. Marvel Entm’t, LLC, where the Court held that use of a company email system for personal purposes “does...more
Following a recent federal court ruling, parties contemplating an advice of counsel defense must consider carefully the scope of the accompanying attorney-client privilege waiver. In United States ex rel. Lutz v. Berkeley...more
While courts and the Federal Rules of Evidence take an increasingly pragmatic approach to the question of when inadvertent disclosure of privileged information results in waiver, a recent federal magistrate’s ruling serves as...more
Attorney invoices may be protected in their entirety by the attorney-client privilege during ongoing litigation. After litigation has concluded, however, those same invoices may be discoverable. So concludes the California...more
On November 20, 2014, the District Court for the District of Columbia once again ordered Kellogg, Brown and Root (“KBR”) to produce all documents prepared as part of an internal investigation. The District Court’s decision...more
The Delaware court of chancery held recently that control over a target company’s attorney-client privileged communications, including communications between the target company’s counsel and its pre-merger stockholders,...more
Most people communicating with their lawyer rightfully believe their discussions are privileged and cannot be disclosed to others without permission. However, when litigation ensues, because the attorney-client privilege...more
Our team at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck recently alerted you to the risk of corporate executives using business email accounts for personal purposes. Click here to read the first alert. In light of developing case law in...more