In-House Counsel, PR Consultants And The Privilege

Formerly PR, and PR crises in particular, were handled internally and with extensive involvement of the legal department. Today the handling of PR crises is often outsourced, and crisis management is a recognized specialty industry. “Unfortunately,” writes Todd Presnell in this Today’s General Counsel article, “lost in the crisis shuffle is the key question of whether the attorney-client privilege protects company lawyers’ communications with outside PR firms from disclosure. Fortunately, front-end strategies exist to increase the chances that lawyer consultant communications never enter a court of law.” These strategies largely depend on an understanding of two key privilege concepts – the Kovel doctrine and the functional equivalent doctrine.