NACDL

Government Attorney-Client Privilege

Patricia E. Salkin & Allyson Phillips, Eliminating Political Maneuvering: A Light in the Tunnel for the Government Attorney-Client Privilege, 39 Indiana Law Review 561 (2006):
Perhaps one of the hottest topics between the government and defense bar is the Thompson Memo. When making a determination whether to bring charges against a corporation, the Thompson Memo provides that the government should consider, among other things, whether the corporation waived its attorney-client privilege. This article presents a very different perspective of an issue related to the attorney-client privilege.

Instead of the private defense bar arguing for the privilege, this article examines the law related to government attorneys who seek to enforce the attorney-client privilege. The authors, Associate Dean Patricia E. Salkin and Professor Allyson Phillips, advocate that “[a]lthough it is true that government attorneys, like all other government officials, have a hig