In an article published by The New York Law Journal, Partner and Chair of Foley Hoag’s International Commercial Arbitration Practice Group Daniel Schimmel and co-author Fred Davis, principal of Fred Davis Law Office and lecturer at Columbia Law School, examine proposed legislation in France that would give a measure of protection to the work of in-house lawyers. 

Excerpt: The rapid globalization of the legal profession means that many of us deal with legal systems not our own. A classic problem in multijurisdictional matters is whether communications between a client and a lawyer are protected from disclosure to a third party by what in the United States is known as the “attorney/client privilege.”

The applicable principles in other countries are often quite different, causing the risk that a communication considered to be safely protected turns out to be vulnerable to forced disclosure when challenged abroad, or that parties face unequal treatment in international arbitration proceedings.

One well-known example relates to “in-house counsel,” that is, lawyers employed by a corporation or other entity. In the United States, legal advice and related conversations between inhouse counsel and the corporate “client” are covered by the privilege, in Europe they are often not.

Very recently, France introduced proposed legislation that would give a measure of protection to the work of in-house lawyers. While the proposal has some strict requirements and major limits, it takes a significant step toward a broader recognition of the value of such lawyers.

Read the full article.