DealLawyers.com Blog

June 15, 2016

New York’s Highest Court Limits Attorney-Client Privilege in M&A Context

Here’s a teaser from one of the memos posted in our “Attorney-Client Privilege” Practice Area about a new court decision:

In a decision with important consequences for merger and acquisition transactions and the litigation resulting from those transactions, a divided New York Court of Appeals held last week that the common interest doctrine applies only to post-signing, pre-closing communications between parties to a merger agreement if they relate to pending or anticipated litigation. Other communications between separately represented parties to a merger (or other commercial transaction) are not entitled to privilege under New York law.