Solicitor-Client Privilege

by Adam Dodek

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Solicitor-client privilege is the oldest and strongest legally-sanctioned safeguard protecting confidential communications. Yet, lawyers today know very little about the ways in which solicitor-client privilege can be overridden or rendered inapplicable. Most practitioners assume that all lawyer-client communications are protected – they aren't.

Solicitor-Client Privilege is the only Canadian textbook of its kind to explain key aspects of lawyer-client confidentiality. With a Foreword written by former Supreme Court of Canada justice Ian Binnie, this distinctly Canadian law textbook analyzes the exceptions to privilege, conditions where privilege is unclear, and situations of competing interests that might bring into question the application of privilege.

Especially useful is the examination of privilege in specific contexts, such as in civil litigation, administrative law, corporate settings, and government. Portable and immediately accessible, this useful hardcover book gives lawyers the answers they quickly need, and assurances as to when they can rely on solicitor-client privilege and when they can challenge it.

What This Book Features

Analyzes the impact of globalization and new technology on solicitor-client privilege
Discusses what constitutes privileged communication, and how it is interpreted by Canadian courts
This book provides in-depth coverage on every significant aspect of solicitor-client privilege, whereas other reference sources only provide a superficial treatment
Affordable, easily portable, this book serves as a quick reference guide for practitioners in all areas of law
Written by a Canadian professor of law who specializes in the study of solicitor-client privilege, providing expert insight into this fundamental aspect of legal practice

Who Should Read This Book

Legal practitioners – Find out when and how solicitor-client communications are protected, and the circumstances when privilege does not apply.
In-house counsel – When your only client is your employer, you will want to know the extent to which your communications – emails, reports, memos – are legally protected from disclosure.
Law schools, Law Firms and libraries – Obtain the latest reference source on the law of solicitor-client privilege, updated with current case law.
Judges

Hardcover

First published May 1, 2014

About the author

I’m a proud Canadian, teacher, scholar, husband and father.

At the University of Ottawa’s Common Law Faculty, I teach courses in Public Law, Constitutional Law, Legal Ethics and a seminar on the Supreme Court of Canada. I love teaching and have been fortunate to teach so many great students at the University of Ottawa and before that at Osgoode Hall Law School and at the University of Toronto where I began my teacher career before moving to Ottawa. One of the highlights of my career was receiving the Capital Educators Award as one of the top teachers in Ottawa in 2012.

I have been fortunate to have had many great opportunities in my career. I grew up in Vancouver and will always be a lifelong Canucks fan. I then went off to McGill University and then Harvard Law School. I received a Fulbright Scholarship to research Israeli constitutional law while clerking for the Supreme Court of Israel. After being called to the bar in California, I practiced law in San Francisco and then clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Pasadena. I returned to Canada and clerked for Justice Claire L’Heureux-Dubé at the Supreme Court of Canada. After being called to the bar in Ontario, I joined the Public Law Working Group in Borden Ladner Gervais LLP’s Toronto office where I practiced until the fall of 2003. At that time, I joined the staff of Ontario’s Attorney General, first as Senior Policy Adviser and then as Director of Policy and from 2005-06 as Chief of Staff.

I also love researching and writing. My areas of research include Canadian constitutional law, the Supreme Court of Canada, the legal profession, the judiciary and legal ethics.

Some other research projects involve Conflicts of Interest, the regulation of the legal profession, judicial ethics, the ethics of the expert witness, the enactment of the Canadian Charter Rights and Freedoms and the Supreme Court of Canada.

I spend a lot of time watching baseball and have enjoyed going on baseball road trips with my son. We cheer for the Toronto Blue Jays, the Vancouver Canucks and the Ottawa Senators.