In the six years that have elapsed since my third edition, there has been no let-up in the numbers of cases concerning the scope and application of legal professional privilege reaching the senior Courts of England and Wales—as well as senior courts of many other common law jurisdictions. Privilege remains a truly incredible and fascinating subject: of ancient origin but of continuing modern relevance, and a subject that continues to develop at pace that is sometimes difficult to keep up with. Thus, whilst I have sought to state the law as at September 2019, I am already aware of some important cases from the summer and autumn of 2019 that I have only been able to note in the fourth edition, publishing deadlines dictating that fuller consideration will need to await either an online update (perhaps) or even a fifth edition. These include the High Court of Australia’s important decision in Glencore International AG v Commissioner of Taxation (2019] HCA 26 and the English Court of Appeal decisions in Lee Addlesee v Dentons Europe LLP [2019] EWCA Civ 1600 and Curless v Shell International Limited [2019] EWCA Civ 1710. I am aware that there are further potentially important appeals to the English Court of Appeal pending from The Financial Reporting Council Ltd v Sports Direct International Plc [2018] EWHC 2284 (Ch), Raiffeisen Bank International AG v Asia Coal Energy Ventures Ltd, Ashurst LLP [2019] EWHC 3 (Comm) and Jet2.Com Ltd, R. (on the application of) v Civil Aviation Authority [2018] EWHC 3364 (Admin) (see Chapters 1 and 2 respectively).

Contents

1. Legal Professional Privilege: Core Principles
2. Legal Professional Privilege: Advice Privilege
3. Legal Professional Privilege: Litigation Privilege
4. Privilege and Third Party Communications: Further considerations
5. Pre-Existing documents
6. Joint and Common Interests
7. Losing Privilege
8. The Crime-Fraud Exception
9. Claiming Privilege
10. Without Prejudice Communications
11. International Arbitration Privilege