Texas Supreme Court Draws Line on Attorney Immunity Privilege
The litigation privilege insulates communications made by lawyers and their clients during, and in some circumstances, prior to judicial or quasi-judicial proceedings from defamation and other tort claims. ...more
The concept of the “shareholder principle” in English law provides that a company cannot assert privilege against its own shareholders, unless the privileged documents in question were created for the dominant purpose of...more
Four co-defendants meet with their joint defense counsel to discuss a pending lawsuit. The meeting ends and all participants are confident that the discussions will remain private. There is just one problem. One of the...more
Legislation must show a clear, explicit and unequivocal intention to abrogate privilege before a party is required to disclose privileged information, the Ontario Court of Appeal reiterated in its recent decision of Ontario...more
Privilege is a legal concept that can have a significant impact on internal investigations. It refers to certain types of communications or documents that are protected from disclosure because they are considered confidential...more
HR Managers and in-house lawyers frequently face the task of navigating and protecting legal privilege. Issues around privilege often arise during internal investigations, data subject access requests and discussions of...more
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently affirmed the dismissal of a direct claim against an attorney based on the litigation privilege. The attorney, who represented the wife in a divorce proceeding, was sued by...more
When are communications with counsel that are for both legal advice and business purposes protected by the attorney-client privilege? From least to most stringent, courts have required that a communication be “because of”...more
Legal professional privilege, litigation advice privilege, iniquitous principle, unfair dismissal, right to appeal, unlawful protection from wages claim, income protection payments - EAT concludes that an email sent prior...more
Our inaugural issue focuses on a truly transnational and important rule of law: the attorney-client privilege and related protections against disclosure. While this is a topic common to all areas of law, the tax arena at...more
In the recent decision of The Financial Reporting Council Limited v Frasers Group Plc, the English High Court held that documents detailing advice received from accountants in respect of a company’s tax structure were not...more
This issue of Skadden’s semiannual Cross-Border Investigations Update takes a close look at recent cases, regulatory activity and other key developments, including DOJ guidance on the use of corporate monitors in criminal...more
Litigation privilege and the circumstances in which courts will inspect documents over which privilege has been claimed. In a significant decision, the English Court of Appeal has restricted the scope of litigation...more
Brief Comments on The Director of the Serious Fraud Office v. Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation Limited [2018] EWCA Civ 2006 - On Sept. 5, 2018, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales handed down a unanimous...more
In two recent decisions, the English courts have grappled with the application of litigation privilege in the wake of Andrews J’s decision in SFO v ENRC. In Bilta v RBS, the court upheld a claim to litigation privilege over...more
On October 11, 2017, Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation was granted permission by the Court of Appeal to appeal the High Court's ruling articulating a significant restriction on the scope of legal professional privilege...more
Any recorded communication (for example: e-mails, recorded phone conversations (including voicemails), letters, memoranda, computer records etc) may have to be produced to the other party in a subsequent legal dispute or...more
A recent decision out of the English High Court narrows the scope of the legal advice privilege, which will have important implications for US companies that have ties to the UK. ...more
180-Day Notice Period for Biosimilar Approval Is Always Mandatory and Enforceable by Injunction - Amgen Inc., v. Apotex Inc., (Fed. Cir. July 5, 2016) - A year after analyzing the patent dance and notice...more
On June 9, 2016, a divided New York Court of Appeals in a much-anticipated ruling held that the attorney-client privilege can only be maintained for communications involving third parties in situations where litigation is...more
The Target data breach has been the source of countless discussions of what to do and what not to do following a data breach. A recent ruling from the federal district court overseeing the consumer class action provides...more
The attorney-client privilege normally does not protect pre-existing historical documents, even if clients convey those to their lawyers. In the work product context, lawyers' selection of certain intrinsically unprotected...more
Answering the open question of whether pre-litigation communications by attorneys are entitled to the same absolute privilege from defamation claims as litigation communications, the Court of Appeals has just held that they...more
A D.C. Circuit decision (In re Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc.) has confirmed privilege over employee statements during in-house investigations. Can the world take comfort? This article examines privilege in the context of...more
In Bellatrix Exploration Ltd. v Penn West Petroleum Ltd., 2013 ABCA 10, the Alberta Court of Appeal explains the key principles of settlement privilege and confirms the important protection this provides. The Court addresses...more