Legal Professional Privilege In Switzerland: Overview, Recent Developments And Trends

1 Introduction ¹

The contours of legal professional privilege vary from one jurisdiction to another. In transnational internal investigations or in multi-jurisdictional criminal proceedings, it is not rare that lawyers need to coordinate their actions and deal with this issue. This paper is thus mainly addressed to foreign lawyers who wish to know more about the scope and the limitations of Swiss legal professional privilege.

After briefly setting out the basis of legal professional privilege (see below 2), this contribution will first distinguish the activities that are protected by privilege from those that are not and discuss de lege ferenda limitations that may be imposed by the Federal Act on Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing of 10 October 1997 (Anti-Money Laundering Act, ("AMLA") (see below 2.3.2). It will then focus on the circumstances under which the legal professional privilege can be lifted (see below 2.4). Finally, it will mention some