Insurance Companies and the Attorney-Client Privilege in Arizona
Internal human resources investigations often generate numerous privilege and waiver issues. One recent case assessed a common scenario — raising a scary possibility, but then coming to the right conclusion....more
Last week’s Privilege Point described S.D.N.Y. Judge Lewis Liman’s conclusion that a company waived privilege protection for legal advice it received from its counsel by disclosing the advice to its financial advisor China...more
Companies that retain financial advisors to assist in transactions necessarily share intimate confidential corporate information with them. But can they safely share legal advice with such advisors without risking a privilege...more
The common interest doctrine can sometimes protect as privileged communications between separately represented clients. But litigants seeking the doctrine’s protection face many hurdles and often fail....more
The differing waiver rules governing the fragile attorney-client privilege and the robust work product doctrine protection predictably create stark differences when family members communicate with each other. This type of...more
One thing leaders of organizations routinely recognize is that “you never know what tomorrow will bring.” Another common slogan is “life happens.” If “life” happens to bring the organization a situation that could expose the...more
Although lawyers understandably focus mostly on the privilege that they enjoy when communicating with their clients, other professionals (psychiatrists, clergy) also have privilege protection of one degree or another. Does...more
All lawyers worry that waiving privilege protection for some communications might trigger a damaging subject matter waiver requiring disclosure of related communications. Such a subject matter waiver risk normally does not...more
Starting about 50 years ago in the case of Hearn v. Rhay, 68 F.R.D. 574 (E.D. Wash. 1975), some courts recognized a broad “at issue” waiver that could strip away privilege without the holder’s disclosure of or even reference...more
Last week’s Privilege Point described a Nevada federal court ruling that a lawyer’s testimony about non-privileged matters did not waive that fragile protection. Snow Covered Capital, LLC v. v. Fonfa, Case No....more
For obvious reasons, lawyers rarely testify at trial. The ethics rules normally prevent a lawyer from trying a case if she is “likely to be a necessary witness.” ABA Model Rule 3.7. And any lawyer’s testimony presents...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: In its seminal decision, Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, the Supreme Court held that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is tantamount to discrimination on the basis of...more
This week, we’re delving into the post-2015 landscape of discovery objections and the critical lessons from Bocock v. Innovate Corp., a case that serves as a stark reminder of the perils of general objections and the...more
Every week, the Array team reviews the latest news and analysis about the evolving field of eDiscovery to bring you the topics and trends you need to know. This week’s post covers the week of March 11-17. Here’s what’s...more
Separately represented clients sometimes may avoid the normal waiver implications of sharing privileged communications by entering into a common interest agreement — but such contractual arrangements frequently do not work....more
Under the widely recognized common interest doctrine, separately represented clients may sometimes contractually avoid the otherwise inevitable privilege waiver when sharing privileged communications. As explained previously...more
A whistleblower has triggered a race against time: An internal inquiry, directed by the audit committee and overseen by external counsel, has been launched in response to allegations that revenue was recorded without proper...more
Under the common interest doctrine, separately represented clients may sometimes contractually avoid the normal waiver impact of disclosing privileged communications to each other. But federal and state courts take widely...more
Introduction - Your company is under investigation by the government. As part of the investigation, the government subpoenaed an employee for testimony. The employee retained a lawyer (separate from your company’s outside...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
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
Courts take differing positions on the "client's" identity in the government setting. Among other things, such differing positions might affect the waiver implications of one government agency disclosing its privileged...more
Under some arrangements, major shareholders appoint directors to companies those shareholders partially own. Does such a company waive its privilege by disclosing its privileged documents to a designating shareholder's...more
The common interest doctrine sometimes prevents what would be a waiver when separately represented clients disclose privileged communications to each other. But the doctrine normally requires an identical legal interest, not...more
When a company discovers that a crime may have been committed by individuals within the company, or is alerted by the government of that possibility, the company will often hire an outside law firm to conduct an internal...more