All Articles
Legal Services
Amendments to CARES Act Paycheck Protection Program
On May 28, 2020, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 7010, which affects a number of amendments to the CARES Act impacting the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) term and forgiveness provisions. Late on June 3, 2020, the Senate also passed H.R. 7010 without revision, and H.R. 7010 is expected to be signed into law by President Trump, according to media reports.
Read MorePrivilege
Accountants Implicate Subtle Privilege and Work Product Issues: Part II
Last week’s Privilege Point described a case applying the generally-accepted view that accountants assisting clients rather than the clients’ lawyers are outside privilege protection -- so copying them on privileged emails waives that fragile protection. An equally well-settled rule is just the opposite on the work product side -- disclosing protected work product to a non-adverse accountant does not waive that robust protection.
Read MorePrivilege
Accountants Implicate Subtle Privilege and Work Product Issues: Part I
Accountants can help clients and clients’ lawyers – in ordinary business transactions, in explaining complex issues to lawyers who are giving legal advice, and in litigation. These differing roles at different times can trigger complicated attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine analyses.
Read MoreInternal Corporate Investigations May Deserve Work Product Protection If They Differ From The Corporation's Normal Procedures: Part II
The previous Privilege Point described a court's finding that the work product doctrine protected a corporation's investigation of a gender and age discrimination claim -- because the investigation was neither "routine nor ordinary." Heckman v. TransCanada USA Services, Inc., Civ. A. No. 3:18-CV-00375, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7293 (S.D. Tex. Jan. 13, 2020). Here, pick up where it left off.
Read MoreCourts Agree That Historical Facts Do Not Deserve Privilege Protection, But What If Those Come From A Lawyer?
Historical facts do not deserve privilege protection – something either happened or it didn't happen. The attorney-client privilege protects communications about those facts. But surprisingly few courts have dealt with what would seem to be a common scenario – clients asked during a deposition about historical facts they obtained only from their lawyer.
Read MoreAnswering Clients’ Questions About COVID-19 Relief
When the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S. in February, McGuireWoods swiftly established a Response Team to answer their clients’ most pressing business questions.
Read MoreInternal Corporate Investigations May Deserve Work Product Protection If They Differ From The Corporation's Normal Procedures: Part I
The work product doctrine can protect documents primarily motivated by a corporation's involvement in or reasonable anticipation of litigation. Documents created in the corporation's ordinary course of business normally will fail to satisfy this standard, as will documents motivated by some external or internal requirement. Thus, corporations asserting work product protection normally must show that the withheld documents are different in some way from what the corporations would normally create.
Read More