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NYS Legislative Agenda: Extend Common Interest Privilege to Business Transactions
Extend Common Interest Privilege to Business Transactions
The City Bar supports revisions to New York’s statute on the attorney-client privilege in order to protect the sharing of privileged communications between parties with a common legal interest without regard to whether litigation is pending or reasonably anticipated. This proposal is in response to the New York Court of Appeals ruling in Ambac Assurance Corporation v. Countrywide Home Loans, 27 N.Y.3d 616 (2016) which found that the common interest doctrine extends only to communications related to pending or anticipated litigation, and not those relating to transactional matters. This change in the law will encourage candid collaboration between such parties and, in turn, facilitate compliance with the law.
