The Corporate Attorney-Client Privilege: A Study of the Participants

Empirical research on the practical effects of the attorney-client privilege in the corporate context has been almost nonexistent. This Article seeks to help fill the gap by synthesizing traditional doctrinal analysis with the results of a survey of individuals with first-hand information about the subject: corporate attorneys, corporate management, and federal judges and magistrates. The survey, which consisted of 182 interviews in New York City, produced a broad range of information about some of the assumptions underlying the corporate privilege, the forms and processes of corporate attorney-client communications and the adjudication of privilege claims.