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Privilege

Courts Address Work Product Protection for Non-Testifying Consulting Experts: Part I

Many courts address the discovery available from a litigant's testifying experts. Fewer courts assess discovery of a litigant's consultant retained to provide background expertise rather than testifying.

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Legal Operations

TBT: Motivating A Team To Teach Me

In this #ThrowbackThursday interview from 2018, McGuireWoods Chairman Jon Harmon, a veteran of Desert Storm, discusses his reliance on “servant leadership.”

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Privilege

Do Regular Attorney-Client Principles Apply in the Governmental Setting?

Courts' application of the attorney-client privilege to government lawyers' communications reflects the tension between the public interest in government transparency and the societal benefit of public officials and employees obtaining legal advice.

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Privilege

Courts Apply the "Intensely Practical" Work Product Doctrine: Part II

Last week's Privilege Point described a court’s rejection of work product protection for a preprinted post-accident form with seemingly helpful boilerplate language about its purpose and a lawyer's involvement — but without any follow through.

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Privilege

Courts Apply The "Intensely Practical" Work Product Doctrine: Part I

The work product doctrine has been described by many courts as "intensely practical." Several decisions highlight this understandable adjective, and explicitly provide useful guidance for lawyers representing litigants and clients who anticipate litigation.

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Privilege

Northern District of Illinois Helpfully Explains The Work Product Doctrine Protection’s Contextual Basis

As these Privilege Points have repeatedly emphasized, privilege protection depends on communications' content — which must be primarily motivated by a client's request for legal advice, or the lawyer's responsive provision of legal advice.

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Privilege

May Litigants Advance Their Case Using Purloined Privileged Documents?

Given the vulnerability of electronic communications to intrusion, lawyers sometimes obtain and may be tempted to use documents that their clients have inappropriately obtained from an adversary – even privileged documents.

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