Hard Lesson In Privilege For Marriott Legal

A federal court in Colorado found that analysis and sensitive advice about strategy and “Risks/Opportunities” was not protected by privilege, even though it had been drafted and reviewed by in-house lawyers, because it was contained in two sections of a larger document that was more generally about a strategic business plan.  Marriott attorneys wanted the two key sections redacted before the more general plan document was produced, but the judge wouldn’t have it. The post from Presnell on Privilege looks at the court case, the precedents the judge invoked in his ruling, and what the in-house team might have done differently in order to garner privilege.