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Privilege
Privilege and Work Product Protection for Corporate Investigations After Clark Hill: Part III
McGuireWoods partner Thomas Spahn's last two Privilege Points addressed privilege and work product protection for corporate investigations. Here he picks up where he left off.
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Privilege and Work Product Protection for Corporate Investigations After Clark Hill: Part II
In his last Privilege Point, McGuireWoods partner, Thomas Spahn, noted a large law firm's failure to protect its own data breach investigation as privileged or as work product. Wengui v. Clark Hill, PLC, --- F.R.D. ---, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5395 (D.D.C. Jan. 12, 2021). Courts assessing such protections normally first examine what initiated the corporate investigation — applying the "primary purpose" tests mentioned last week. Here, he picks up where he let off.
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Privilege and Work Product Protection for Corporate Investigations After Clark Hill: Part I
In this entry of his Privilege Points series, McGuireWoods partner, Thomas Spahn, explores the large Detroit-based law firm of Clark Hill that recently lost its effort to protect as attorney-client privileged and work product doctrine-protected its own investigation into its own data breach.
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The Fascinating Work Product Implications of Surveillance Videos
In his latest privilege point, McGuireWoods partner Thomas Spahn explains how lawyers representing insurance companies and others sometimes seek evidence that plaintiffs claiming injuries, disability, etc., are faking it.
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Corporate Governance
The Next Generation of ESG Disclosure Consumers
Investors are increasingly applying environmental, social and governance factors in analyzing risk and growth opportunities. In this interview, McGuireWoods partners Aaron Flynn, Allison Wood and Katherine DeLuca discuss the growing demand for ESG disclosure and how disclosure requirements could change in the Biden administration.
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Court Gets the Diversity Case Choice of Law Analysis Right: Part II
In his last privilege point, McGuireWoods partner Thomas Spahn described a wise Connecticut court's recognition that federal courts sitting in diversity should not automatically apply their host jurisdiction's privilege law — but instead apply their host jurisdiction's choice of law principles when determining applicable privilege law. Here, he picks up where he left off.
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Court Gets the Diversity Case Choice of Law Analysis Right: Part I
As in other areas, a privilege analysis should always start with a choice of law assessment. In federal courts, federal common law governs federal question cases' privilege issues. In diversity cases, many federal courts reflexively apply their host jurisdiction's privilege law. This is wrong.
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