Privilege logs are awful(ly expensive and time consuming). Is there a way to make them painless? No. Is there a way to make them less awful? Yes. Lots, in fact. There are two general ways to accomplish this, which we’ll explore below:

  1. Reducing what must be included on the privilege log by agreement; and
  2. Some tips and advice for getting them right in the first place.

First, why privilege logs. For those of you who may have forgotten—or tried to block it out of your memory—Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b)(5)(A) requires the party withholding privileged (or otherwise protected) information to “describe the nature of the [withheld] documents … and do so in a manner that, without revealing [privileged] information … will enable other parties to assess the claim.” Over time, courts have generally interpreted this rule to require a document-by-document log that includes a brief description of why the document is protected, the senders or receivers of the document, and the document’s date. Because the rule does not explicitly require this approach, there is some room for alternative arrangements.