Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 204: Listen and Learn -- Scope of Discovery and the Work-Product Privilege
Internal Investigations in the Asia-Pacific Region
Cyberside Chats: Preserving Legal Privilege After a Cybersecurity Incident
Jones Day Presents: Strategies for Dealing with the IRS: The IRS Examination
Day 15 of One Month to Better Investigations and Reporting-the Parameters of Privileges
The Northern District of Ohio denied a motion to compel the plaintiff to produce test results referenced in its initial disclosures and complaint. The court found that because the “test results are not facts but rather are...more
Unlike the fragile attorney-client privilege that can be waived even upon disclosure to family members, the work product doctrine is much more robust. A recurring corporate scenario confirms this important distinction....more
Last week’s Privilege Point described generally accepted principles under which the attorney-client privilege can protect intra-corporate communications without a lawyer’s involvement. To some lawyers’ surprise, the...more
A recent decision from the U.S. District Court in Kansas—Spears v. Thermo Fisher Scientific—ruled that a pay equity analysis conducted primarily for business purposes was not protected by attorney-client privilege or the work...more
This one-hour Ethics CLE program will cover the challenges to attorney-client privilege that may arise during a corporate crisis, including tips to communicate with attorneys and outside consultants, invoking the common...more
Litigants in data breach class actions often fight over whether a data breach investigation report prepared in response to the breach is protected by the work-product doctrine. Common areas of dispute include whether the...more
Should California courts permit litigants to conduct discovery into litigation funding, namely whether a third party is funding their adversary’s litigation efforts?...more
Florida’s Sixth District Court of Appeal (6th DCA), which considers appeals from trial courts in an area running from Orange County down to Collier County, recently confirmed that discovery privileges apply to communications...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
Discovery rules and court orders normally require litigants to list people with possible claims or potentially responsive information. But as in many other contexts, the “intensely practical” work product doctrine can apply...more
Last week’s Privilege Point described a court’s review of a lawyer’s conversation with a witness and its conclusion that none of the conversation deserved the heightened opinion work product protection. LaBudde v. Phoenix...more
Lawyers and non-lawyers frequently train their corporate colleagues. Determining any applicable attorney-client privilege or work product protections can implicate a number of variables....more
Not everything stamped “privileged” is safe from prying eyes. The Pennsylvania Superior Court recently ruled that interview notes compiled by a sorority’s leadership after a tragic incident were not shielded by...more
Unlike the absolute attorney-client privilege (and the absolute or nearly absolute opinion work product doctrine protection), a litigant can overcome the adversary’s fact work product protection if it “shows that it has...more
Companies facing ongoing or threatened litigation must sometimes estimate their likely or possible financial exposure — for internal purposes, reporting to auditors or other reasons. Depending on the circumstances, one would...more
Outside and in-house lawyers may of course normally claim privilege protection for their investigation-related communications, as long as they were primarily motivated by the need for legal advice. Depending on the...more
Numerous Privilege Points have described cases concluding that advertising agencies are outside privilege protection but inside work product protection (although they normally cannot themselves create protected work product)....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
Some readers have asked why Privilege Points have only rarely focused on work product issues in the insurance context. In addition to the sometimes dramatic differences between states’ handling of this issue, a recent case...more
With the growth of litigation funding as a mechanism for financing litigation, companies interviewing and ultimately selecting a funder inevitably share work product with them. In such circumstances, courts must assess (1)...more
On October 25, 2024, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ordered Comcast Corporation (“Comcast”) to identify the date on which it learned of each patent, patent application, and printed...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
Courts have been scrambling to catch up with the fast and sometimes unpredictable evolution of lawyers’ use of generative AI. Many if not most courts require lawyers to advise them if they relied on AI in preparing filings...more
In Stuart v. County of Riverside, 2024 WL 3086634, at *3 (C.D. Cal. Jun. 14, 2024), the District Court found a relationship between work product designations and triggering of the common-law duty to preserve....more
In Florida, if you want to use surveillance footage at trial, you have to provide a copy to the plaintiff beforehand. After you provide the footage, the plaintiff might seek to compel the private investigator’s report as...more