The Court of Appeal ("COA") has handed down a judgment dealing with a number of important points regarding the scope of legal professional privilege and the iniquity exception.

The judgment is in the case of Karam Salah Al Din Awni Al Sadeq v Dechert LLP and others. We have set out the full detail of this decision here, but have summarised key findings on privilege below.

The Claimant was unsuccessful on its appeal on all points, save for the iniquity exception issue, which has resulted in the disclosure exercise in the case having to be revisited. In making its findings, the COA has provided welcome clarity on some important privilege points: 

  1. the test for the engagement of the iniquity exception; 
  2. that litigation privilege is not limited to parties to the litigation; 
  3. that the restrictive interpretation of ‘client’ taken in Three Rivers (No 5) in respect of legal advice privilege would not be extended to litigation privilege; and 
  4. that legal advice privilege will apply to investigations by law firms (also involving non-lawyers), provided they bring their “lawyers' skills” to that process and “conduct it through lawyers' eyes”.

For a discussion on privilege issues, including our interactive and informative training offering to legal and business teams, please contact Neil Parkes.