Does The Attorney-Client Privilege Protect Information Shared With Investment Ba

By Elinor R. Hoffmann and S. Calvin Walden

Imagine yourself in the midst of a major international deal. A European-based corporation and your client, a U.S.-based multinational, are buying a substantial interest in a third corporation with global activities, predominantly owned by Canadian and U.S. nationals. The negotiations have been complex. Each party has retained at least one, and from time to time more than one, major law firm to advise it on legal questions arising under the tax, corporate, securities, antitrust and regulatory laws of a number of jurisdictions. Each of the parties has also retained financial advisors, that is, investment bankers and large accounting firms, to advise it on how to structure the deal to yield the greatest financial benefit and the least financial risk, and in the buyers' case, to conduct due diligence of the target corporation.