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Jurisprudence Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Courts

2016

Brooklyn Law School

Attorney-client privielge; In-house consel; Content of communication; Role of In-House consel; Non-legal functions; Protected Attorney-Client communications discoverable; Business advice; Purpose and content of speech

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Full-Text Articles in Jurisprudence

When You Come To A Fork In The Road, Take It: Unifying The Split In New York's Analysis Of In-House Attorney-Client Privilege, Thomas O'Connor Dec 2016

When You Come To A Fork In The Road, Take It: Unifying The Split In New York's Analysis Of In-House Attorney-Client Privilege, Thomas O'Connor

Journal of Law and Policy

As one surveys the vast and ever-changing landscape of law and litigation, few things stand out as so unanimously exalted and carefully guarded as the privilege protecting attorney-client communications. Yet there is today a surprising lack of uniformity and predictability in the reasoning by which New York courts determine whether a communication made by in-house counsel to its corporate client will – or will not – enjoy the protection of that privilege. Rather than follow a single and predictable analysis to resolve the question, New York courts have oscillated between one line of decisions focusing primarily on the purpose of …