Copyright 2021 CEP Magazine, a publication of the Society of
Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE).
The principle of legal professional privilege is a cornerstone
of the legal profession—at least in common-law jurisdictions
such as those in England and Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland, the
United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, etc.
It enables clients to correspond with their lawyers for the
purposes of seeking legal advice in the knowledge that this
correspondence is confidential and protected from disclosure. The
concept of legal privilege in European Union (EU) law is somewhat
narrower, perhaps understandably so given the combination of
common- and civil-law jurisdictions that make up the EU (both
before and after Brexit). At its narrowest, EU legal professional
privilege (EU privilege) has always been concerned with the notion
that advice between a company and its legal counsel can be
protected from disclosure to the European authorities
