The District Court of Tel Aviv ("Court") recently
ruled on the applicability and maintenance of attorney-client
privilege to corporate board meeting minutes.
This decision was made in the course of an application for
approval of a class action suit against an Israeli bank and the
bank officers, all of whom allegedly violated their duty to
disclose information to shareholders. This specific issue arose in
connection with a request to view certain board meeting protocols,
which included citations from conversations with the bank's
external and internal counsel ("Protocols").
In its ruling, the Court granted the bank's request to
redact information contained in the Protocols relating to
conversations held with bank attorneys, holding that these
communications fell under the rubric of attorney-client privilege
and were therefore confidential. The Court applied a two-pronged
test: first, whether the conversations were held with bank counsel,
and second, whether the
