The privilege covers a communication, made in confidence, between privileged persons, for the purpose of seeking or delivering legal advice. It protects the communication itself, not the underlying facts.
The client holds the privilege and alone may waive it, though counsel asserts it on the client's behalf.
Alternative Names:
Legal Privilege, Lawyer-Client Privilege
Why it Matters?
The distinction between protected communications and unprotected facts is the one most often misunderstood by clients and witnesses. A deponent may be asked what happened but not what they told counsel about it, and a document does not become privileged by copying a lawyer on it. In corporate settings the dual-purpose problem is constant, since business communications routinely include legal input.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
Does copying a lawyer make a document privileged?
Are the underlying facts privileged?
