Communications between a law firm's attorneys and its in-house counsel regarding a client's potential malpractice claims against the firm may be protected by the attorney-client privilege, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.
The unanimous decision, which sets several criteria for when the privilege shields talks with a firm's general counsel, is a win for law firms in that it rejected a position taken by several courts around the country—that a law firm doesn't enjoy attorney-client privilege with its own general counsel when a client wants to view internal communications about the client's malpractice threat.
