Another federal judge in Philadelphia has extended a company's attorney-client privilege to independent consultants who communicated with its general counsel.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit hasn't yet spoken on the “functional equivalent doctrine”—which attaches attorney-client privilege to communications from contractors who are the functional equivalent of company employees—but U.S. District Senior Judge Michael M. Baylson of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania adopted the reasoning of another Eastern District judge, Anita Brody, in applying the doctrine.

He denied a motion to compel discovery filed by a former employee of Unilife Corp. after finding that the documents sought would be covered by the attorney-client privilege. Talbot Todd Smith brought a whistleblower suit in 2013 under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act against Unilife, a York-based medical device manufacturer. Smith claimed he had been fired after objecting to alleged shareholder fraud and failure to comply with U.S. Food and Drug Administration requirements.