New York’s attorney-client privilege, as codified in CPLR §4503(a), protects against disclosure of a “confidential communication made between an attorney or his or her employee and the client in the course of professional employment.” The attorneys’ duty of confidentiality established by this statutory privilege is complemented by New York’s Rules of Professional Responsibility, which incorporates the privilege, and provides, with certain exceptions, that the attorney shall not reveal “confidential information” relating to the representation of the client. Rule 1.6(a).

Due to the unquestionable importance of the privilege in the representation of a client by the attorney and the maintenance of the attorney’s professional ethical allegations, keeping abreast of judicial decisions addressing the application of the privilege is a must for New York attorneys. During the past several months several decisions have been issued regarding the privilege, which add to the corpus of privilege decisional law and, most importantly, provide guidance to attorneys regarding the protection of documents and communications under the privilege and the avoidance of missteps that would defeat the privilege. These decisions will be discussed in this column.