EU’s Top Court Rejects In-House Attorney-Client Privilege
Lawyers had hoped the European Union’s top court would rethink its position on the attorney-client privilege in an antitrust case involving a Dutch chemical company.
They were rebuffed today when the European Court of Justice ruled that communications between in-house lawyers at Akzo Novel NV and company employees were not protected by the attorney-client privilege, according to Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal blog Real Time Brussels.
“An in-house lawyer cannot, whatever guarantees he has in the exercise of his profession, be treated in the same way as an external lawyer,” the court said, “because he occupies the position of an employee which, by its very nature, does not allow him to ignore the commercial strategies pursued by his employer.”
Prior coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “EU Court: No In-House Counsel Privilege”
