Preserving the Attorney–Client Privilege when Communicating with Corporate Counsel

Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP
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Don’t assume the attorney–client privilege protects all pre-litigation communication with in-house counsel. That privilege may not attach or may be easily waived by the unwary.

A dangerous and common misconception in the practice of law is that all communications between business personnel and in-house counsel are protected by the attorney–client privilege. An email between nonlawyer corporate employees that merely copies an attorney in the corporate legal department offers no more protection than a privilege legend at the bottom of the email asking an in-house attorney to go to lunch. If company employees and the in-house and outside counsel with whom they work take a cavalier approach to privilege, they risk a court strictly applying the elements of the attorney–client privilege and finding one or more missing.

Originally published in In-House Defense Quarterly - Summer 2020.

Please see full publication below for more information.

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DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations. Attorney Advertising.

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