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EU must resolve the issue of in-house privilege

In House Privilege The basic problem here is that continental legal thought tends to the view that only external counsel are truly independent & for that reason privilege only extends to them. Internal counsel do not attract the same privileges & very often even lose their rights of audience. It is one of those areas where form seems to be much more important than substance. It is also a sign of the somewhat ossified approach on the continent to structural issues solved years ago in the more flexible Anglo American world where the increase in the number of & influence of in house counsel was paralleled by a grudging acceptance in the courts that "once a lawyer & once an officer of the court; always a lawyer & officer of the court".

13-Nov-2007

1:28 pm