On Sept. 19, 2012, NorthShore University HealthSystem (NorthShore) and the Mayo Clinic announced that NorthShore will be affiliated as a member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network. NorthShore, which operates four hospitals in the northern suburbs of Chicago, entered into a multiyear agreement with Mayo that will allow NorthShore patients quick access to Mayo specialists and research in cardiovascular, cancer and neurological cases.

A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge has approved the sale of Health Diagnostic Laboratory (HDL), based in Richmond, Va., to True Health Diagnostics, based in Frisco, Texas, for $37.1 million...

Most investors have likely heard about the King v. Burwell case, which addresses whether language in the Affordable Care Act allows the government to provide healthcare insurance subsidies...

As the pharma services sector grows, regulators at the Department of Justice and Food and Drug Administration are putting everything from clinical trials to site management under the microscope.

The U.S. Department of Labor issued a request for public comment on proposed rules relating to a recent Executive Order that imposes new requirements on government contractors.

On April 4, 2012, Governor McDonnell signed Senate Bill 115, which reorganizes Virginia’s fiduciary laws into a newly created Title 64.2 (Wills, Trusts, and Fiduciaries).

Some readers have asked why Privilege Points have only rarely focused on work product issues in the insurance context.

In March 2010, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) proposed a substantial increase to the benchmark risk-based capital (RBC) reserve requirement applicable to insurance companies holding commercial and farm mortgage loans.

Corporations face several risks to their privilege protection if employees widely circulate privileged communications, even within the corporation.

Nearly every court finds that client agents/consultants usually stand outside the privilege protection, unless they are necessary for the transmission of privileged communications.

Attorney-client privilege protection lasts forever, but determining work product doctrine protection's duration presents a more subtle analysis.

Under the 2010 changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, work product protection generally extends to testifying experts' draft reports.

The attorney-client privilege normally does not protect pre-existing historical documents, even if clients convey those to their lawyers.

Some courts inexplicably hold that "when a communication is simultaneously emailed to a lawyer and a non-lawyer," the privilege cannot apply because the communication by definition is not primarily legal.

Although the attorney-client privilege generally protects only confidential communications between clients and their lawyers, the work product doctrine can provide a far broader range of protection.

Unless an adversary's entire log clearly falls below the required specificity standard, litigants generally must object to specific log entries rather than challenge the whole log.

Because the attorney-client privilege depends on the involvement of a lawyer and the work product doctrine protection depends on the anticipation of litigation, the availability of both protections depends on the factual context.

The attorney-client privilege provides such a fragile protection that disclosure to nearly any third party waives the protection. Does that general rule apply to communications among corporate affiliates?

Although the attorney-client privilege primarily protects communications between clients and their lawyers, the protection can sometimes extend to communications between corporate employees without a lawyer's participation.

The federal work product rule and its state parallel rules protect only documents "prepared in anticipation of litigation or trial by or for another party or its representative[s]." Fed. R. Civ. 26(b)(3)(A)