13 February 2020
Jean-Pierre Douglas-Henry & Bryden Dalitz consider recent developments on legal professional privilege
- Communications remain privileged even if the corporate privilege holder has been dissolved.
- Leaked email alleged to reveal dishonest conduct is not precluded from being privileged by the iniquity exception.
- A legal note partly read out in court by counsel may retain privilege.
At the end of 2018, the Court of Appeal in SFO v ENRC overturned a first instance decision that denied a claim for litigation privilege over legal and forensic documents generated as part of an internal corruption investigation. The judge at first instance found that ENRC did not contemplate criminal prosecution even though the SFO had commenced an investigation into the company. Interestingly, the judge went on to hold that even if a prosecution had been in contemplation, none of the documents had in fact been created for the dominant purpose of litigation; and litigation privilege does not extend to documents created in order to obtain legal advice as to how best to avoid anticipated litigation including regulatory or criminal
