Attorney-Client Privilege Essay

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I. Attorney-Client Privilege

A. Purpose Attorney-client privilege “prevents a lawyer from being compelled to testify against his or her client” (Attorney Client Privilege 2011). Therefore, the underlying purpose of attorney-client privilege is to enable a lawyer’s ability to provide clients with competent and accurate legal advice by encouraging them to knowingly divulge information that will remain confidential. Attorney-client privilege applies to oral and written communications and it also protects corporate and individual clients. For example, ABC Company discussing a new contract with a lawyer is covered under the attorney-client privilege. However, there is a crime-fraud exemption that states that mentioning intentions to commit or conceal a criminal or fraudulent act during a meeting with the lawyer results in the waiving of attorney-client …show more content…

Is his communication still covered under attorney-client privilege? If a client voluntarily discloses communications normally covered under attorney-client privilege to an outside third party, the communication is no longer confidential, which mean it is not covered under attorney-client privilege. Therefore, courts across the country are having difficulties determining the limitations of the subject matter waiver. The purpose of the subject matter waiver doctrine is to “prevent partial or selective disclosure of favorable material while sequestering the unfavorable” (DiVito, Haussmann, & Fitzgerald 2013). In other words, litigants are unable to offensively utilize certain communications covered under attorney-client privilege, while also granting attorney-client privilege to remaining communications that block its discovery. In 2012, The Illinois Supreme Court decided to broaden subject matter waiver doctrine limitations as they applied to communications outside the judicial setting (DiVito, Haussmann, & Fitzgerald

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