[I realized too late after my last post that I have surpassed 100 blogs. Wow. No celebration but, to be honest, I never imagined I’d write that many when I started “Ten Things” back in November 2014. But, here we are, all dressed up and lots of places still to go. So, thanks for reading and keep those emails and suggestions coming!]
As an in-house lawyer, I was always interested in any legitimate way I could keep information generated by the company or the legal department confidential. Or, more importantly, out of the hands of our adversaries. All of which meant I needed to stay on top of many things, from trade secret protection to teaching the business to write smart. But, as a lawyer, I had a particular interest in how privilege might apply to the materials I – or my team – was working on. The most obvious was the attorney-client privilege, something I have written about in a past blog and which ranks first on my list in terms of protecting information. Somewhat less obvious, and not as sexy as its cool, buff older brother, is the work product privilege. While more limited in the circumstances in which it applies, it is pretty powerful and can save the day when something happens to make the attorney-client privilege fall away. Kind of how Batman can curb-stomp some villains when Superman’s having an off day. I think it’s time we gave the work product privilege some love and this edition of “Ten Things” discusses what in-house lawyers need to know about our new, best buddy:[1]