In a hotly contested issue of first impression, the Appellate Division, First Department, has joined a multitude of jurisdictions and has ruled that attorneys who seek the advice of their own law firm’s in-house counsel on their ethical obligations in representing a current client of the firm may invoke the attorney-client privilege to resist subsequent disclosure to the client of those communications.
The First Department’s decision in Stock v. Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis, 2016 N.Y. Slip Op. 05247 (1st Dept., June 30, 2016), unanimously reversed a December 2014 ruling by the Supreme Court, New York County, and is a hugely important development for lawyers and law firms in the state. Stock resolves the question of whether law firms should have the same right as other clients to protect confidential communications with in-house counsel. After hearing from the parties and amicus on both sides of the question, the First Department answered in the affirmative.
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