Attorney-Client Privilege Versus Mandatory Reporting by Psychologists: Dilemma, Conflict, and Solution ... Ethical and legal conflicts can be avoided if both attorneys and the psychologists they hire inform clients who are considering psychological evaluations that any evidence of child abuse that emerges during the evaluation must be reported ...
• The basic conflict rules, their application to corporate families, and the use of conflict waivers • The conflicts rules that apply to lateral lawyers, and how those rules can affect corporate legal departments • The lawyer’s duty of confidentiality • The attorney-client privilege, and the different tests used to determine
fundamental protections of attorney-client privilege, thereby encouraging consultation by the client with counsel as critical to pro-moting voluntary legal compliance. Thus, ... the other hand, under ASC 450-20, a com-pany may have to estimate the potential loss or range of losses and, if it cannot, explain why it cannot. The SEC has made
the attorney-client privilege.”2 The disclosure of information to the auditors destroys confi dentiality with respect to it. Although disclosure to independent auditors generally waives the attorney-client privilege as to that information, the separate protection conferred by the work-product doctrine may still apply, thus
Where a defendant alleges ineffective assistance of prior trial or appellate counsel as a ground for the illegality of his conviction or sentence, he shall be deemed to waive the attorney-client privilege with respect to both oral and written communications between such counsel and the defendant to the extent the defendant's prior counsel reasonably believes such communications are necessary to defend against the allegations of ineffectiveness. This waiver of the attorney-client privilege shall be automatic upon the filing of the motion for appropriate relief alleging ineffective assistance of prior counsel, and the superior court need not enter an order waiving the privilege.
A communication is not confidential when made in the presence of another person whose presence is not essential to the communication. State v. Van Landingham, 283 N.C. 589, 602 (1973) (wife); State v. Murvin, 304 N.C. 523, 531 (1981) (aunt and friend).
Dr. Eric Miller died from arsenic poisoning ;Shortly before his death, Miller was bowling with co-workers of his wife, Ann Miller;Bowling party included Mr. Willard, who was romantically involved with Mrs. Miller;While bowling, Miller took a drink of beer that he described as “tasting funny”Miller later hospitalized and died:Upon Miller’s death, Mrs. Miller directed that the body be cremated;Mr. Willard hired an attorney, met with him, then committed suicide before being interviewed by police;According to Mrs. Willard, attorney advised Mr. Willard that he could be charged with the attempted murder of Dr. Miller;District Attorney sought an order from the Superior Court compelling Willard’s attorney to disclose his conversation with Willard.
The attorney-client privilege is, strictly speaking, a rule of evidence. It prevents lawyers from testifying about, and from being forced to testify about, their clients' statements. Independent of that privilege, lawyers also owe their clients a duty of confidentiality.
The attorney-client privilege is a rule that preserves the confidentiality of communications between lawyers and clients. Under that rule, attorneys may not divulge their clients' secrets, nor may others force them to. The purpose of the privilege is to encourage clients ...
The duty of confidentiality prevents lawyers from even informally discussing information related to their clients' cases with others. They must keep private almost all information related to representation of the client, even if that information didn't come from the client.
If someone were to surreptitiously record the conversation, that recording would probably be inadmissible in court.
No matter who hears or learns about a communication, however, the lawyer typically remains obligated not to repeat it.
If, for example, if a client tells his lawyer that he robbed a bank or lied about assets during a divorce, the lawyer probably can't disclose the information.
Under that rule, attorneys may not divulge their clients' secrets, nor may others force them to. The purpose of the privilege is to encourage clients to openly share information with their lawyers and to let lawyers provide effective representation.
The underlying dispute involves a complaint in a bankruptcy proceeding brought against a second-tier par-ent corporation by the debtors: i.e. wholly-owned subsidiaries of what had been a wholly-owned subsidiary of the parent corporation. As related by the court, the complaint alleges that the parent corporation reneged on binding commitments to fund its wholly-owned subsidiary, and fraudulently or negligently induced its subsidiary and the second tier subs/debtors to continue to incur debt in reliance on these commitments, thereby harming the subsidiary, the second tier subs/debtors, and the debtors’ creditors.5 The complaint further alleges that the parent corpo-ration breached its fiduciary duties to the second tier subs/debtors, since the parent corporation was the control-
In holding that the parent corpora-tion could be compelled to produce the disputed documents to the debtors, the court of appeals ruled that, if the par-ties are found to have been coclients because jointly represented by in-house counsel,16 the adverse-litigation excep-
Auditors must make several determinations when it “detects or otherwise becomes aware of information indicating that an illegal act (whether or not perceived to have a material effect on the financial statements of the issuer) has or may have occurred”
In fact, “shadow investigations” by auditors are becoming increasingly common relating to matters subject to litigation or arbitration.
Majority Rule: Disclosure of work product to an auditor does not waive the work product privilege. The power to issue an adverse opinion or the need to scrutinize and investigate a company’s books and records does not rise to the level of an “adversary”.
Importantly, the work product privilege is not automatically waived by disclosure to an auditor. For a waiver to occur, the information must be disclosed to an adversary or create a risk that the information will be disclosed to an adversary.