We see privilege issues discussed in judicial decisions, legal commentary, and mainstream news.  Here is my Monthly Privilege Roundup of 
interesting privilege issues for March 2017.
- The Washington Post reports that that Trump administration, citing the attorney-client privilege and presidential communications privilege, sought to prevent former DAG Sally Yates from testifying in Congress’s probe into connections between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. Â Story here.
- Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, known as “America’s Sheriff,” asserts that the attorney-client privilege precludes his former attorney from testifying in the Sheriff’s trial for criminal contempt charges. Â Story from Arizona here.
- Well, it is baseball season. Â Law360 reports that, in a suit over failed expansion of the independent Frontier League, the Rockford Aviators’ CEO claims that the Washington (PA) Wild Things’ CEO improperly withheld documents under the attorney-client privilege. Â Law360 has the details here.
- The Global Legal Post reports on a British decision that purportedly “causes concern over privilege for internal investigations.” Â Read the report here.
- In a common-sense ruling, a West Virginia federal court ruled that transmitting privileged document via a file sharing site–without making it password-protected, waived the privilege. Â Interesting factual situation led to this decision, and you may read about it here.
- The Belmont Law Review published a Note discussing how the attorney-client privilege applies to a company’s former employees. Â You may recall that the Washington Supreme Court recently held that the privilege does not apply to former employees–an opinion that I discussed in this post. Â This law review article provides a good overview of the issue and is worth the read. Â Heath Henley, The Attorney-Client Privilege and Former Employees: History, Principle, and Precedent, 3 Belmont L. Rev. 229 (2016).