Clients depend on their lawyers to provide advice confidentially
and to protect that advice from disclosure to the fullest extent
permitted by law. In many instances, it is easy to determine
whether a particular communication is privileged and confidential.
There are other instances, however, when the scope of protection is
not as clear.This uncertainty arises, in part, because applying the
attorney-client privilege raises intensely fact-specific questions.
As a result, courts have reached different, sometimes conflicting,
decisions when determining the scope of protection provided to
confidential and privileged communications.
Although this fact-intensive nature of privileges makes
bright-line rules difficult, there are useful guidelines and best
practices that attorneys can follow. This paper provides a brief
overview of the attorney-client privilege and some of the common
privilege questions that arise for in-house and transactional
attorneys.
