It pays to be privileged

• The significance of legal professional privilege.
• Why is it not clear that privilege extends to the relationship between a client and their lawyer if that lawyer is a paralegal?
• The grey area: no guarantees of legal professional privilege.

‘Are paralegals covered by legal professional privilege?’ My ears pricked up when this interesting and important question was raised in the office this week.

Well, those paralegals who work for solicitors and barristers are covered under their employer’s umbrella, but what about those paralegals who work as independent legal advisers? Where do they fall?

Under the Legal Services Act 2007, provision of legal advice is no longer a reserved activity (ie, one that can only be undertaken by an ‘authorised’ person or body, such as a solicitor, barrister, legal executive or actuary, etc). If you couple that with the virtual removal of the availability of