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How Legal Tech Can Help Lawyers Protect Privilege and Better Serve Their Clients

By Daniel Farris
March 01, 2021

A recent UK High Court ruling in The Financial Reporting Council Ltd v Frasers Group plc, [2020] EWHC 2607 (Ch) has provided lawyers everywhere with a stark reminder on the scope of privilege for electronic communications: just because an email itself is privileged does not automatically render the documents attached to that email privileged. In other words, despite carefully worded disclaimers and self-proclamations of privilege, if any attorney-client communication or its attachment(s) are shared beyond the initial or intended scope, privilege may be broken.

While this single court decision may be somewhat limited in scope, it highlights longstanding problems with lawyers using email to conduct communications and share confidential documents. Once a lawyer hits send, he or she loses control of the sensitive material the email contains. Some newer messaging platforms widely used in the business world, such as Slack, for example, allow for even more multi-directional conversations as well as the easy sharing of documents, further compounding the challenge of maintaining confidentiality and managing privilege.

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