Unprivileged Communications

I find myself reading a lot more legal news these days, since law is at the core of the Day-Job. And, amazingly, I find that I can still become even more jaundiced about the world than I thought possible.

For example, I was reading this Corporate Counsel article on recent rulings on attorney-client privilege. (As you do.) And it seems to me that all of the rulings aim towards one direction: the outside counsel needs to control all aspects of an investigation, and directly control any subcontractors (accountants, forensic investigators, etc.) to maintain attorney-client privilege. (That privilege is the thing that means you or your lawyer can't be forced to testify about your conversations -- it's a big, big deal.)

A business, on the other hand, would prefer to have the choice of how to run those functions -- some companies would want to do them internally.

So it's really convenient for outside, bill-by-the-hour lawyers that the lawyer rules say they absolutely have to be in charge of everything, and bill for the hour on every last bit of them. Mighty damn convenient, if you ask me.