In-House Counsels – Not So Privileged
This article is a humble attempt to understand whether under the Indian laws, Attorney-Client Privilege applies to communications between employees of a corporate entity and their in-house legal counsel, and compare the Indian Scenario with that of the United States of America.
The Statute
The Indian Evidence Act, 1872 is the relevant legislation that governs the admissibility of evidence in any proceeding before a court of law and Sections 126 to 129 are the relevant provisions that govern the concept of Attorney-Client Privilege. Under Section 126, no barrister, attorney, pleader or vakil, is permitted to disclose any communication made to him in the course and for the purpose of his employment as such barrister, pleader, attorney or vakil, by or on behalf of his client without his client's express consent. He is also barred from stating the contents or condition of any document with which he has become acquainted in the course and for the purpose of his professional employment or to disclose any advice given by him to his client in the course and for the purpose of such employment. Under Section 129, he cannot be compelled to disclose to the Court any confidential communication which has taken place between him and his legal professional adviser, unless he offers himself as a witness in which case he may be compelled to disclose any such communication as may appear to the Court necessary to be known in order to explain any evidence which he has give, but not others.
The question of whether the above provisions would apply in the context of an in-house legal counsel in the employment of a company depends on whether such a professional would fall within the scope of the terms “barrister,...
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...the two in-house counsels are provided with the two different roles. It is important to note that merely copying the in-house counsel on an email to non-lawyers is not the best way to request legal advice. Requests for legal advice should be addressed preferably only to the in-house counsel. If non-lawyers have to be notified that a request for legal advice has been made or that legal advice has been received, they can be copied on the e-mail. However, it is best to consider explicitly stating the purpose for which the non-lawyers have been copied.
Please note that this article is not a legal advice. Please request the in-house counsel for advice in case of any doubts. On a lighter note, the request for clarifications on any doubts that this article may leave you with, clearly entails legal advice, and thus, will itself be protected by attorney-client privilege.
A Paralegal is defined by the American Bar Association as a person, qualified by education, training or work experience who is employed or retained by a lawyer, law office, corporation, governmental agency or other entity and who performs specifically delegated substantive legal work for which a lawyer is responsible. Paralegals work under direct supervision of an attorney and follow the same ethical rules of the ABA as a lawyer does. ABA Rule 5.3, states that a lawyer must give such assistants appropriate instruction and supervision concerning the ethical aspects of their employment, particularly regarding the obligation not to disclose information relating to representation of the client, and should be responsible for their work product. Per the State B...
9. Woodgate, R., Black, A., Biggs, J., Owens, D. (2003). Legal Studies for Queensland, Volume 1, ForthEdition, Legal Eagle Publications: Queensland. 10. Woodgate, R., Black, A., Biggs, J., Owens, D. (2003).
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The High Court focused primarily on the nature of the employment relationship between Vabu Pty Ltd and its cour...
The logical way to solve an ethical dilemma is to analyse it in terms of the various duties. A good rule of thumb is that if the barrister cannot carry out one duty without breaching another then their proposed course of action cannot properly be
Miller, Roger LeRoy., Meinzinger, Mary. Paralegal Today: The Legal Team At Work. Clifton Park, NY : Delmar Cengage Learning, 2010. Print
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A law firm, which does not have to be located inside the compound, be available to take care of their legal matters.
Professionals are people who have equipped themselves with the knowledge and skills in a given field. The interest of improvement of the professional identity is an evidence of how high standards are placed upon the professionals in the community (Johnson et al., 2012). Each profession creates its norms, values and scope of practice that distinguishes it from any other profession. Different legal ethics are upheld and everyone needs to work as per the stipulated ethics in the field to be part of the profession. People in the field are expected to be knowledgeable and independently use decision
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My understanding of case management comes from an accumulation of lecture, readings, and a little bit of research. At first I thought case management meant to manage a case, which it kind of does, but it is a lot of background work that goes unnoticed from the workers part. One thing for sure I can say about case management is that is a very stressful and demanding job for the worker, therefore, you have to be a responsible worker, so that your client can hopefully get the services and resources he or she may need. As a case management worker your responsibilities are many, for example you are to educate, empower and enable your client to be self sufficient.
In company law, registered companies are complicated with the concepts of separate legal personality as the courts do not have a definite rule on when to lift the corporate veil. The concept of ‘Separate legal personality’ is created under the Companies Act 1862 and the significance of this concept is being recognized in the Companies Act 2006 nowadays. In order to avoid personal liability, it assures that individuals are sanctioned to incorporate companies to separate their business and personal affairs. The ‘separate legal personality’ principle was further reaffirmed in the courts through the decision of Salomon v Salomon & Co Ltd. , and it sets the rock in which our company law rests which stated that the legal entity distinct from its
[7] Cavendish Lawcards Series (2002) Company Law (3rd edn), p.15 [8] [1976] 3 All ER 462, CA. [9] Griffin, S. (1996) Company Law Fundamental Principles (2nd edn), p.19 [10] [1990] Ch 433. [11] Lecture notes [12] Lecture notes [13] [1939] 4 All ER 116.
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