Rather than relying on evidence suggesting that Morgan’s outside counsel individually represented the company’s employees, including Norris, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the restrictive five-factor test set forth in its 1986 opinion in Matter of Bevill, Bresler & Schulman Asset Management Corp. must be satisfied before the attorney-client privilege may be successfully asserted by corporate officers and employees and a company’s outside attorneys.
The decision marks a drastic expansion of Bevill , and carries profound implications for individual employees and officers anywhere within the 3rd Circuit, and indeed around the country and the world. Indeed, Norris himself is a British national who was extradited to the United States in connection with a criminal antitrust proceeding brought by the U.S. Department of Justice.
