Legal Professional Privilege Seminar

Legal privilege refers to the protection that is afforded to particular types of communication between a lawyer and client and manifests itself in many forms, depending on the nature of the communication and relationship involved.

It is a fundamental tenet of the relationship between a lawyer and their client that a strong bond of confidentiality must attach itself to their communications and the provision of legal advice. Essentially the doctrine of legal privilege operates on the basis that there are certain matters relating to a client’s legal position on which advice should be sought in complete confidence and without disclosing details of the client’s situation to third parties or a court. A client must feel the freedom to fully disclose its position to a legal advisor in order to get the best possible legal advice and to consequently decide what course of action to take once that advice is received.

For organisations in the public sector, there is a constant pressure for access to the documentation and materials on which key decisions are taken as they affect public administration. This is no less the case where a public sector body acts on the basis of legal advice, or mindful of legal exposure.  In addition, the Freedom of Information Acts provide an additional mechanism for securing access to documents that are generated by prescribed bodies. There are also specific types of legal privilege that only apply to public sector bodies and recent court decisions have also clarified the extent to which legal professional privilege attaches to advice provided by in house counsel within organisations. Public bodies exercising regulatory or prosecutory formalities also encounter the issue of legal professional privilege in the context of document disclosure and seizure of documents, particularly electronic documents. Of key relevance in this context is the issue of asserting the privilege against self-incrimination.

This focused seminar will address issues such as:

• A general introduction to privilege
• A focus on the main types of legal privilege
  • Litigation privilege
  • Legal Advice privilege
  • Executive privilege
• Discovery & privilege including an update on discovery
• Freedom of Information & privilege
• Accessing documents from regulatory authorities, the impact of asserting legal professional privilege and the privilege against self-incrimination in the investigations context
• Practical steps to ensure the protection of communications
• The role of in house counsel/legal advisors and privilege
• Investigations and the practical impact of privilege

This will be a focused and targeted seminar which will be of keen interest to people in the public sector who regularly access legal advice or who are involved in the provision of legal advice to public bodies.