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14 July 2017 / David Burrows
Issue: 7754 / Categories: Features , Profession
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Limits on the art of advice privilege

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​David Burrows reflects on the limits of legal professional privilege, particularly in relation to legal advice privilege

  • Legal advice privilege (LAP) does not apply when a lawyer acts only as a ‘person of business’.
  • When may the ‘iniquity exemption’ exclude operation of LAP?
  • Legal advice to a party’s employees is not always covered by a legal professional privilege (LPP) exemption.

A blaze of press publicity greeted the judgment of Haddon-Cave J (a QBD judge) dated 15 December 2016 AAZ v BBZ & Ors [2016] EWHC 3234 (Fam), remarkable because in the absence of BBZ (H) he was ordered to provide to AAZ (W) assets worth just over £453bn. This sum included a modern art collection (estimated value £90,581,865). Less attention has been paid to a later judgment (20 December 2016) published at the same time as the first in which Haddon-Cave J considered the extent to which the dealings of the then solicitor for H (S) with the insurance of the art collection was covered by legal advice privilege

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