Tokyo Dispute Resolution and Crisis Management Newsletter - February 2018

King & Spalding
Contact

Attorney-Client Privilege and Corporate E-Mail: Navigating the Morass of Personal Communications in Investigations -

Internal investigations are an important process for identifying potential wrongdoing by agents of a company, evaluating the associated litigation and regulatory risks, and devising appropriate responses. In the course of an investigation, the company’s internal and external counsel alike must take steps to protect the disclosure of privileged information so as not to forfeit the right to withhold potentially sensitive material, often about the very risks and issues under investigation.

While a company’s counsel will typically be seeking to protect its own privilege, difficult questions arise in relation to emails sent by employees to their own personal lawyers using the company’s IT systems. This is because it is unclear whether such emails retain confidentiality. Experienced practitioners know that the purpose of the attorney-client privilege is to protect the confidentiality of client communications. Thus, as company policies that allow monitoring of emails or provide third party access may undermine any reasonable expectation of confidentiality, they may determine whether the privilege applies to personal communications sent on a company server.

Please see full publication below for more information.

LOADING PDF: If there are any problems, click here to download the file.

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.

© King & Spalding | Attorney Advertising

Written by:

King & Spalding
Contact
more
less

King & Spalding on:

Reporters on Deadline

"My best business intelligence, in one easy email…"

Your first step to building a free, personalized, morning email brief covering pertinent authors and topics on JD Supra:
*By using the service, you signify your acceptance of JD Supra's Privacy Policy.
Custom Email Digest
- hide
- hide