Don’t Let Working From Home Compromise Attorney-Client Privilege

As a public health matter it’s become a no-brainer, but as a legal matter working at home comes with its own set of risks. There is one in particular that is hard to avoid, although it can be managed. Remote communication – whether by email, text, video conference, or some other platform – leaves tracks and is potentially discoverable. Without minimizing significant public health concerns (now widely understood to be even more pressing than they were a few days ago, when this piece was posted), attorney Todd Presnell write in his privileges blog: “Let’s not let poor practices during the current pandemic evolve into a privilege-loss epidemic in the months and years to come.” What follows is a review of what privilege actually is in terms of its “foundational elements,” followed by a discussion of several specific pointers to keep in mind in order to maximize the chances you will preserve privilege when working remotely.