A Court Grants Privilege To Non-Attorney Emails

A federal court in Kansas has ruled that communications between employees can be privileged, even if no attorney was directly involved in the communication. “The court took notice that corporate employees often consult with each other in preparation for consulting the corporation’s in-house lawyer,” writes attorney Todd Presnell, in his Presnell on Privileges blog. But, he warns, practitioners should note this decision and others along similar lines are far short of a blanket recognition of privilege for emails between non-attorney employees. There are two important conditions that must be met before such a communication will be privileged.