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Attorney-Client Privilege Work-Product Doctrine Discovery

BCLP

Navigating a Security Incident - Communication “Dos” and “Don’ts”

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Communication during a data breach is challenging in the best of circumstances, and control of information, especially early in a breach response, is critical. Below are some DOs and DON’Ts for communicating during a data...more

McGuireWoods LLP

JM Smucker Avoids a Discovery Jam

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Normally a third party does not have standing to challenge a document subpoena. But what if the subpoena seeks discovery of the third party’s privileged or work product-protected documents in the subpoena target’s possession?...more

McGuireWoods LLP

Two S.D.N.Y. Cases Decided the Same Day Provide the Same Key Privilege Guidance: Part II

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Last week’s Privilege Point described an S.D.N.Y. opinion rejecting privilege and work product claims for a document that on its face did not contain legal advice or any allusion to or analysis of anticipated litigation....more

McGuireWoods LLP

Seeking Attorneys’ Fees Triggers Work Product Waiver Issues: Part I

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Under what is called the American Rule, winning litigants normally pay their own attorneys’ fees. But in some situations, they can seek recovery of those fees from the losing adversary. Not surprisingly, such efforts...more

Kilpatrick

The Attorney-Client Privilege: The Corporate Communication Conundrum – Part II

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As anyone faced with discovery requests knows, one of the most important parts of producing documents is determining what documents are subject to attorney-client privilege or work product doctrine and must therefore be...more

McGuireWoods LLP

Do Not Forget the Consequences of Judges’ Role in Assessing Privilege Protection

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In both the federal and state judicial systems, judges assess privilege and work product protection claims — sometimes coordinating with judges at other levels. But there is a lurking unspoken risk that some lawyers may...more

Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C.

Sued: What In-house Counsel Without Litigation Experience Need to Know - Preparing Your Inside Team

3: Preparing Your Inside Team - Preservation, Privilege, Potential Pitfalls -This is the third in a series of articles that explores considerations and suggested actions for in-house counsel who are inexperienced in patent...more

McGuireWoods LLP

Courts Disagree About Privilege Log Requirements: Part I

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All or nearly all courts require litigants to log documents withheld on privilege or work product grounds (with an exception discussed next week). But they disagree about what the log should include — with some courts taking...more

McGuireWoods LLP

Does Disclosure During Settlement Negotiations Waive Work Product Protection?

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For obvious reasons, the law encourages settlements. During settlement negotiations, participants may be tempted to disclose work product-protected documents or intangible communications. Can participants or even third...more

McGuireWoods LLP

What’s the Deal With “Intangible” Work Product? Part III

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The last two Privilege Points (Part I and Part II) explained that the 1947 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Hickman v. Taylor, 329 U.S. 495 (1947), created a common law protection for litigation-related tangible and intangible...more

McGuireWoods LLP

What’s the Deal With “Intangible” Work Product? Part II

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Last week’s Privilege Point explained that nearly every court extends work product protection beyond the “documents and tangible things” specified in Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(b)(3) and understandably mentioned in a recent Southern...more

McGuireWoods LLP

What’s the Deal With “Intangible” Work Product? Part I

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The “work product” doctrine provides an entirely separate protection from the attorney-client privilege. Unlike the privilege, the work product doctrine is not ancient, normally not absolute, and not fragile. The many...more

McGuireWoods LLP

Can Any Data Breach Investigation Report Deserve Protection? Part II

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Last week’s Privilege Point described a data breach victim’s latest losing effort to claim privilege protection for its consultant’s investigation report. Leonard v. McMenamins Inc., Case No. C22-0094-KKE, 2023 U.S. Dist....more

McGuireWoods LLP

Attorney-Client Privilege Lasts Forever —  What About Work Product Protection?

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Attorney-client privilege protection lasts forever, but determining work product doctrine protection’s duration presents a more subtle analysis. Most courts protect work product if it is sought in later litigation related in...more

Gray Reed

When is an Accountant Forced to Testify Against Their Client?

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Recently, in a criminal case involving a physician who hired an accountant to prepare and submit certain tax forms to the IRS on her behalf, the court denied attorney-client and work-product privilege claims and ordered the...more

McGuireWoods LLP

Texas Court Applies Several Basic Work Product Principles

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Because work product protection only applies at certain times, clients must be able to identify the exact moment that they first anticipated litigation. And not surprisingly, they must also explain why they first anticipated...more

McGuireWoods LLP

Work Product Protection Can Be Overcome in Some Circumstances, but the Privilege Is Absolute — Right?

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Most lawyers know that fact work product protection can be overcome in certain circumstances, opinion work product is “absolutely or nearly absolutely” protected, and that the attorney-client privilege is absolute. But as...more

McGuireWoods LLP

Federal and State Courts Issue Helpful Investigation-Related Decisions: Part I

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Internal corporate or other entity investigations frequently generate discovery motions that focus on privilege and work product creation and waiver issues. Two recent decisions offer some good news for defendants resisting...more

McGuireWoods LLP

Can an Interviewee Witness List Ever Deserve Work Product Protection?

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Facts and events normally do not deserve work product protection. But a lawyer's careful selection of such facts or important events sometimes may reflect his or her strategic assessment or litigation planning. For example,...more

Freiberger Haber LLP

The Attorney-Client Privilege: Common Interest Doctrine and Communications By Corporate Representatives Which Convey Legal Advice

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On numerous occasions, this Blog has examined the attorney-client privilege and the attorney work product doctrine.1 Today, we take another opportunity to explore the contours of these privileges....more

McGuireWoods LLP

State Supreme Court Seems to Ignore Its Own Work Product Rule

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Because what is called "opinion work product" deserves higher protection than fact work product (and in many courts enjoys "absolute or nearly absolute" protection), litigants understandably seek to withhold documents on that...more

McGuireWoods LLP

Another Difference Between the Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine

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The ancient attorney-client privilege protection provides absolute but fragile immunity from discovery. The relatively new litigation-related work product doctrine provides limited but robust immunity from discovery. Lawyers...more

McGuireWoods LLP

Waiver Implications of Disclosing Work Product to the Government

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Last week's Privilege Point described a court's refreshingly correct acknowledgment that disclosing work product to friendly third parties does not waive that robust protection — in contrast to the more fragile privilege...more

Nossaman LLP

Ninth Circuit’s “Primary Purpose” Test Governs for Dual-Purpose Attorney-Client Communications

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The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a petition for writ of certiorari to review a decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit addressing the scope of the attorney-client privilege....more

McGuireWoods LLP

Southern District of California Applies the Sporck Doctrine

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In 1985, the Third Circuit protected as opinion work product a lawyer's "selection and compilation of [intrinsically unprotected] documents . . . in preparation for pretrial discovery." Sporck v. Peil, 759 F.2d 312, 316 (3d...more

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