National Law Journal Quotes Locke Lord’s Rusty Perdew on U.S. Supreme Court’s Dismissal of Attorney-Client Privilege Case

Rusty Perdew, Chicago Partner and member of Locke Lord’s Board of Directors, was quoted by the National Law Journal on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to dismiss rather than decide In Re Grand Jury, in which an unnamed law firm sought to prevent disclosure of communications with one of its clients that is subject to a criminal tax investigation. Perdew notes the court’s order means that privilege review in trial courts will continue to be time intensive in certain cases that involve large volumes of dual-purpose communications.

“Leaving the test as is means that attorneys are going to have to spend a lot of time reviewing those documents, picking out the specific parts of their privilege and having arguments about individual sentences,” Perdew explains. “I don’t think that’s a great use of attorney time or client money. I wish that the court could have provided a test that made it a little bit easier to determine privilege without such a detailed review.”

Read the full National Law Journal article here (subscription may be required).