2004 should prove to be an interesting year for the development of the law surrounding professional privilege at both a domestic and European level.
As many in-house lawyers will already be aware, an unexpected ruling of the Court of Appeal, in April last year, in the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI)/Bank of England litigation means that the ‘client’, for the purposes of privilege, is now limited to the individual who instructs the lawyer, rather than the company. It also raises questions as to the status of legal advice received by the individual that needs to be circulated beyond the ‘client’ but within the company. More recent decisions of the Court of Appeal and the European Court of Justice have muddied the water still further.
