David vs. Goliath Battle Results in Step Forward for Open Government
Before this challenge, lawyers and clients have broadly used the privilege to make more things disappear than has David Copperfield, the famed illusionist.
August 11, 2017 at 10:05 AM
9 minute read
Michael C. Harrington, a labor lawyer at Murtha Cullina, took on formidable adversaries when he began attempting to use the Freedom of Information Act to get email correspondence between lawyer-lobbyist Tom Ritter and his client, the Connecticut Resource Recovery Authority.
Ritter is the former speaker of the House of Representatives, and a Hartford political power player. Harrington wanted emails and other communications between the CRRA and Ritter, in his role as its community liaison, helping it dispose of trash to steam incinerator ash and deal with landfill closings.
In battling to get Ritter's emails, Harrington challenged a widely held notion. It's the idea that as long as a lawyer is involved in a communication, it's undiscoverable and FOI-proof under the attorney-client privilege exemption.
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