Commercial Division Blog

Posted: July 14, 2016 / Categories Commercial, Privilege/Work Product, Law Firms and Professional Ethics

Communications by Defendant's Counsel to Defendant's Agents Held to be Privileged

On July 5, 2016, the First Department issued a decision in BEW Parking Corp. v. Apthorp Associates LLC, 2016 NY Slip Op. 05350, holding that communications by counsel to a client's agents were privileged.

In BEW Parking Corp., the "Defendant, which had[d] no employees, established, through specific affidavits of persons with knowledge, that its counsel had to communicate with defendant's agents in order to provide legal advice regarding, among other things, the repairs to the garage it owned and the vacate order regarding the garage." The court held that such communications were privileged.