Attorney-Client Privilege: Your Confidential Legal Shield
When your company is involved in litigation, communications with your lawyer are protected by a crucial legal shield: the attorney-client privilege. This privilege ensures that your confidential discussions and legal advice remain private and don’t have to be disclosed to the opposing side. However, many companies inadvertently make a critical mistake that can shatter this protection.
The Litigation Mistake That Can Shatter Your Privilege
In this vital video, Phil Crowley, founder of Crowley Law LLC, explains a common pitfall: distributing communications from your lawyer too broadly within your organization to individuals who don’t strictly “need to know.”
Understanding Attorney-Client Privilege and Its Risks
What is Attorney-Client Privilege?
It’s a legal doctrine that keeps communications between an attorney and their client confidential. This is especially important during the discovery process in litigation, where each side typically has the right to review many of the other’s internal documents. Privileged communications are an exception.
The Risk of Broad Distribution
If you share your lawyer’s advice or sensitive legal communications widely within your company (e.g., in group emails to many employees, or forwarding to those not directly involved in the legal strategy), you may be deemed to have waived the attorney-client privilege.
The Damaging Consequences of Privilege Waiver
If the privilege is waived, all of that “secret stuff” – your confidential legal analysis, strategies, and advice discussed with your attorney – could become exposed and accessible to the opposing party. This can severely damage your case and undermine your legal position.
Key to Preservation: Restrict Access to Essential Personnel
Phil urges companies to be extremely mindful of how they handle and disseminate information received from their legal counsel, especially during active or anticipated litigation. Restricting access to such communications to only essential personnel is key to preserving this vital privilege.
This is critical advice for any business facing or involved in legal disputes.
