Legal Professional Privilege

Legal Professional Privilege

Having a thorough and clear understanding of legal professional privilege is essential to every Irish legal practitioner, but until now there has been no comprehensive guide to the subject. Legal Professional Privilege provides the first in depth treatment of this, the most prominent of evidentiary privileges, which entitles a client to withhold relevant information from disclosure in legal proceedings.

A range of issues relating to privilege are discussed including the role of privilege in discovery and disclosure and the circumstances in which privilege may be waived.

There are countless cases that have impacted on the law in this area. Legal Professional Privilege ensures you are fully up to speed with the latest developments and their implications.

Prominent Irish cases covered include: Smurfit Parisbas Bank Ltd v AAB Export Finance Ltd [1990] 1 IR 469; Fyffes plc v DCC plc [2005] 1 IR 59; Ahern v Judge Mahon & Others [2008] IEHC 118; Moorview Developments Ltd v First Active plc [2009] 2 IR 788. Also detailed, is the impact of a significant recent decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union: Case C-550/07P Akzo Nobel Chemicals Ltd v Commission, judgment of 14 September 2010, [2010] 5 CMLR 19. In addition, the rules of court relating to discovery also bear on the subject, most notably, the Rules of the Superior Courts 1986 as amended, O 31, r 12 & r 29.

About the author

Liz Heffernan, LLB (Dublin), LL.M. (Dalhousie), LLM & JSD (Chicago), BL, admitted New York & US Federal Bar, is an Associate Professor and Fellow at Trinity College Dublin. She was formerly a lecturer in law at University College Dublin (2001–2007), Visiting Professor at Washington and Lee University School of Law, Lexington, Virginia, USA (1995–1996 and 1999–2000), and Law Clerk at the US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit (1998–1999) and the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (1997–1998 & 2000–2001).

Previous publications include:

Heffernan, Ryan and Imwinkelried, Evidentiary Foundations: Irish Edition (Tottel Publishing, 2008)

Heffernan, Scientific Evidence: Fingerprints and DNA (First Law, 2006)

Heffernan, Evidence: Cases and Materials (Thomson Round Hall, 2005)