ACC advocates for LPP to extend to all in-house counsel globally so that they can fully participate in legal representation of their client. This full representation includes the ability to have confidential conversations, which allow in-house lawyers to provide accurate and relevant advice to their client, as well as proactively identify and address areas of concern before illegal or unethical events can occur.
Known as “attorney-client privilege” in the United States, legal professional privilege (LPP) is a foundational element of the legal profession. Especially in common law legal jurisdictions, LPP is a long-held protection of communications between lawyers and their clients. The U.S. Supreme Court in Upjohn v. United States recognized that LPP encourages “full and frank communication between attorneys and their clients and thereby promote[s] broader public interests in the observance of law and administration of justice.”
While most countries recognize some level of confidentiality between lawyers and clients, not all countries recognize legal privilege for in-house counsel communications. Generally speaking, countries with common-law legal systems (the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada, Singapore, etc.) recognize legal privilege for in-house counsel. Countries with civil law systems present more of a mix. For example, about half of the member countries of the European Union do not recognize privilege for in-house counsel. To learn more about which countries recognize privilege for in-house counsel, the European Company Lawyers Association and ACC produced this map.
ACC regularly participates in advocacy matters to advance universal legal privilege for in-house counsel. Through amicus briefs, comment letters, educational programming and meetings with government officials, ACC and its member volunteers urge policymakers to extend legal privilege to all in-house counsel and advocate for a robust interpretation of privilege to provide certainty and consistency to ACC members.
Recent ACC Amicus Briefs and Comment Letters