Clients’ agents and consultants are almost always outside privilege protection — unless they are necessary for the clients’ communications with their lawyers, such as translators or interpreters. Can a non-lawyer acting for someone under a power of attorney satisfy that standard?
In In re Echtenkamp, File No. 2023-3913/B, 2026 NY Slip Op 50031(U) (N.Y. Sur. Ct. Jan. 9, 2026), a New York Surrogate’s Court dealt with a typical family feud following a parent’s death. An elderly widow executed a power of attorney (POA) designating her son Jonathan as her agent. When she died, her daughter Debra petitioned to become the estate’s administrator — which Jonathan opposed. Debra similarly opposed Jonathan’s accounting of his POA work and sought discovery of his communication with their mother’s lawyer. The Surrogate’s Court held that in his POA role “Jonathan was acting as [his mother]’s agent in communicating with [her lawyer]” and thus could successfully claim privilege protection. Id. at *4.
If the family doesn’t patch things up, it would be interesting to see how a court would handle communications between Jonathan and his mother — some of which presumably would involve her dealings with her lawyer, and some of which would not.