Attorney Client Privilege With Former Employees In Philadelphia
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FAQ
In Pennsylvania, the doctrine protects the disclosure of mental impressions, conclusions, opinions, notes or summaries, or legal theories of a party's attorney, respecting the value or merit of a claim or defense or respecting strategy or tactics. Documents include emails, text messages, letters, and memoranda.
The Privileges provide that in either criminal or civil pro- ceedings, "counsel shall not be competent or permitted to testify to confidential communications made to him by his client.... unless . .. this privilege is waived upon the trial by the client."
(c) Preservation of records and computations. Enforcement Rule 221(e) provides that a lawyer shall preserve for a period of five years copies of all records and computations sufficient to prove compliance with the requirement of subsection (b).
It is a common practice for outside litigation counsel to represent current, and even former, employees of corporate clients during depositions. This practice, however, is governed by ethical rules (and opinions and case law) that must be considered in advance.
Unethical attorneys may breach attorney-client privilege for their own gain. If they have the chance to profit from your information or your case presents a conflict of interest for them, unbeknownst to you, they may intentionally divulge privileged information to benefit or protect themselves.
Employers Can File Many Kinds of Lawsuits Against Employees for Breach of Contract. In some circumstances, a relationship between an employee and employer is based on a contract. If an employment contract was the basis of the relationship between you and your employee, you can sue them for breaching the contract terms.
Commercial litigators are very familiar with the age-old client question: “Can the opposing party contact my former employee directly?” While there are several strategy considerations at play, the short answer in most jurisdictions is yes.