Lawyer’s Presence Made Firing Deliberations Privileged

The presence of an in-house lawyer on a company’s “Termination Review Committee” was enough to render the committee’s deliberations privileged, per a ruling in the Southern District of New York. A woman who had been fired from the company had wanted to depose each of three members of the committee as part of her claim of discrimination and a hostile work environment. In its ruling, the court accepted the contention of the in-house attorney, who testified that the other two members of the committee were there to provide her with information so that she could carry out the committee’s mandate, which was to analyze the matter of the proposed firing and opine on the risks it would entail.