Although McGuireWoods normally sends out Privilege Points on Wednesday, and limits them to three paragraphs, we want to alert you to two very important recent privilege decisions that could affect every in-house lawyer. One of the decisions highlights the need for in-house lawyers to carefully define the scope of their representation of corporate affiliates. The other decision found that the way Merck’s in-house lawyers internally communicated by e-mail with their business clients caused Merck to lose its attorney-client privilege protection. This decision should prompt all companies to analyze and perhaps alter their method of internal corporate e-mail communications. We will continue our weekly Privilege Point circulation this Wednesday.
