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Litigation Forum: Privilege - the definitive answer?
Thursday 9th December 2004
at 222 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8XF

The Litigation Department of SJ Berwin is holding a Breakfast Seminar on The House of Lords has now set the boundaries of legal advice privilege (in Three Rivers v Bank of England). For all lawyers and their clients, this may be the most important case to be decided in a decade.

Speakers
Tim Beale - Partner, Commercial Litigation Department, SJ Berwin
Robin Preston-Jones - Assistant, Commercial Litigation Department, SJ Berwin


Background
Two recent judgments decided the issues of "who is the client?" and "what is legal advice?" for the purposes of legal advice privilege. Both of these decisions caused widespread surprise amongst legal commentators. However, only one of them went to the House of Lords.

This appeal has now been allowed with the Law Lords reversing the Court of Appeal's decision. With appeals to the House of Lords a rarity, the position on legal advice privilege today is likely to remain the law for many years to come.

Legal advice privilege can apply to communications between lawyers and clients in all contentious and noncontentious areas of the law, not just litigation. Anyone involved in instructing in-house or external legal advisers must understand the effect of this decision.

Timetable
08.30  Registration/Refreshments
08.45  Forum opens
09.30  Q&A Session
09.45  Forum ends/Refreshments

Programme
The law on privilege, in particular legal advice privilege, has been evolving over recent months. Now that the House of Lords has given judgment in the renowned Three Rivers case it is unlikely that another case will go to the Lords for many years. Our first presentation will explain the impact that this case has on communications between clients (especially companies) and their legal advisers, and in particular

  • why not every employee of a client company can expect their conversations to be privileged
  • what sort of "advice" is protected by legal advice privilege.
Our second presentation will remind delegates of some of the many other privilege traps that lie in the path of the unwary, which are not resolved by the Three Rivers decision.

RSVP
For further information on this seminar please contact Katie Cowley on +44 (0)20 7533 5200 or by email katie.cowley@sjberwin.com

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