Itâs no secret Iâm a huge Taylor Swift fan so of course I jumped at this opportunity to use this to discuss board meeting minutes, agendas, and attorney-client privilege.
Letâs say this was a real board meeting agenda, as many Swifties would likely argue that it is. And letâs say Taylor Nation wanted to keep the discussion of the evidence privileged.
What practices should The Tortured Poets Department use to preserve privilege?
Itâs good that the agenda mentions the purpose of reviewing evidence during the meeting. However, Iâd highly recommend making it abundantly clear that an attorney(s) will attend the meeting, participate in this review, and provide legal advice.
Iâd either advise keeping the subject matter simple so it doesnât reveal too much information, but enough to make the topics of the meeting clear. The department did pretty well in that regard.
Any further legal detail should either get sent separately, or put in a distinct section to make it easier to facilitate necessary redaction.
The department should only send the agenda and subsequent minutes on a âneed-to-knowâ basis, likely only including board members and attorneys. The department should also specify very clearly that the information must remain confidential and the recipients are not to distribute it to third parties.
If the meeting minutes include legal advice, the department should include a very clear legal section in the minutes and specify that its contents are protected by attorney-client privilege. If the discussions pertain to a litigation, I also advise labeling it as attorney work product, in case an argument is made that meeting minutes arenât a âcommunicationâ and therefore wouldnât have attorney-client privilege protection. However, since the notes would constitute a summary of a communication, I donât know how much success an attorney making that argument would have. BUT it doesnât hurt to take the extra step to be on the safe side!
All credit for the photo and its contents go to Taylor Swift and Taylor Nation. And for a fortnight I get to feature Taylor Swift in my law blog⊠đ¶
Anyone else listening to TTPD ? Iâm loving it so far, what about you?
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