Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons^™

Corporate Attorney-Client Privilege - New Emphasis On The Lawyer's Need To Know: Upjohn Co. V. United States, Michael J. Viscount Jr.

University of Richmond Law Review

In seeking the advice of legal counsel, the corporation may, out of necessity, communicate through its representatives confidential secrets about its conduct in business. As is the case with individuals, it is well settled that a corporation may avail itself of the evidentiary privilege which allows concealment of such confidential communications. This so-called attorney-client privilege is the oldest of the privileges for confidential communications known to the common law. However, its application in the corporate context has been quite unpredictable for the past twenty years.