Attorney-client privilege can attach to communication between a lawyer and a third-party contractor who worked closely enough with a company to be seen as the functional equivalent of an employee, a federal district judge in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has ruled.
Without a clear Third Circuit standard on the issue, U.S. District Judge Anita B. Brody of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania relied on U.S. Supreme Court case law in ruling that a contractor for GlaxoSmithKline could be the equivalent of a GSK employee who had communications with company attorneys.
