privileged documents

There are few things more dreaded in discovery than the time-consuming, tedious, onerous, beastly privilege log – especially in complex litigation matters involving thousands of pages of documents. These logs, however, are a critical component of the E-Discovery process that requires careful attention to detail in planning, analysis, and preparation. In this blog post, we will explain what a privilege log is, discuss the various types of privilege logs, recommend pre-privilege review strategies, and address post-submission concerns.

As anyone faced with discovery requests knows, one of the most important parts of producing documents is determining what documents are subject to attorney-client privilege or work product doctrine and must therefore be redacted or withheld. Failing to conduct an effective privilege review can have dire consequences -- from exposure of highly confidential information to even waiver of the privilege. In Part One of this blog post, we discussed how difficult it can be in a corporate context to determine whether an individual document should be withheld or redacted as privileged.  In this Part Two, we discuss how employing technology in our privilege review reduces risk and makes this process easier and more efficient.

“But in-house counsel was copied on the email, isn’t that enough?”

When a business faces the prospect of producing documents in litigation, determining which documents are protected by the attorney-client privilege and preventing those documents from inadvertent disclosure is of paramount importance. Such a disclosure can have serious consequences for both the attorney’s and the client’s interests, including a court finding the privilege has been waived. At the same time, if an attorney is overly restrictive or indiscriminately withholds documents, they risk losing credibility with opposing counsel and the court, which can make it more difficult to assert the privilege when necessary.