On June 9, 2016, the New York Court of Appeals issued its decision in Ambac Assurance Corp. v. Countrywide Home Loans Inc. and held that the common interest doctrine protects only communications among deal parties that are related to a shared legal interest in pending or reasonably anticipated litigation. The court justified its decision as adhering to long-standing New York precedent, which had traditionally limited the doctrine’s application to litigation-related communications.

Originally published in Law360 - June 9, 2017.