Also known as: attorney client confidentiality · attorney-client confidential · attorney-client privilege · client-attorney confidentiality
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The protection that applicable law provides for confidential communications between a client and a lawyer for the purpose of obtaining or providing legal advice.
When Andre Antoine left his old firm to join Alliance Holdings, the new firm's ethics counsel asked for limited details about prior matters to screen for conflicts. The lawyer disclosed only the names of parties and general subject matter without revealing substantive advice or strategy. The check proceeded without any prejudice to former clients because the information stayed within the narrow bounds needed to avoid conflicts.
Alan Ackerman's lawyer prepared detailed memos after interviewing potential witnesses in anticipation of a contract dispute. When the opposing party sought those memos in discovery, the court denied the request because no showing of substantial need had been made. The memos remained protected even though they contained factual summaries rather than pure legal analysis.
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Ava Adebayo sought to compel production of emails between Alpine Mining's in-house counsel and project managers. The court first applied the definition of attorney-client privilege to determine whether the emails qualified as confidential communications made for legal advice. Only after that threshold determination did the court address any waiver issues.
Anika Anand, a police officer, met with a licensed social worker for trauma counseling after a shooting. When a civil plaintiff later sought the session notes, the court refused production because the communications occurred during diagnosis and treatment. The protection operated in the same manner as the attorney-client privilege would have applied to similar confidential exchanges.
Amelia Amari, a mid-level engineer at Aurora Biotech, provided information to corporate counsel at her supervisor's direction about product testing protocols. The resulting memos were later sought in litigation. The court held the communications privileged because they were made for the purpose of securing legal advice regardless of the employee's rank.
Ariana Azizi died after consulting her lawyer about estate planning. Years later, a family member sought to discover the communications in a will contest. The court ruled that the privilege continued to protect the conversations because termination of the relationship by death does not end the protection.
Confidentiality is lost when a communication is intentionally shared with people outside the group reasonably necessary to obtain or implement legal advice. A board chair who forwarded a legal analysis to 140 volunteers, including casual event staff with no governance role, destroyed the required confidentiality. The privilege therefore no longer protected the email thread.
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Yes. When an agency official invited outside executives into a meeting and asked counsel to provide legal analysis in their presence, the communication was no longer confidential. The outsiders were not agents of the client and were not necessary to the consultation, so privilege never attached.
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The court examines whether the communication was made in confidence for the purpose of obtaining legal advice. A recorded call between a company representative and in-house counsel discussing coverage positions qualifies as a confidential attorney-client communication even though it was spoken rather than written.
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The party must expressly assert the privilege and describe each withheld item in sufficient non-conclusory detail for the court and opposing party to evaluate the claim. A privilege log that merely labels every entry as a claim file note without distinguishing legal advice from routine business activity is inadequate.
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