In-House Counsel

In-house attorneys face occasional challenges to their professional status, notably as to the attorney-client privilege when they give business advice, the degree of their objectivity as employees of their client, and whether they are admitted to practice in a given state or court. A further limitation I had not known about came to my attention in Robert Haig, Ed., Successful Partnering Between Inside and Outside Counsel (Thomson Reuters/West 2009 Supp.), Vol. 2, Chapter 27 at §27:38.

?A number of recent decisions have explored the question whether in-house counsel can be precluded from having access to the adversary?s confidential information in litigation even when the information is protected by a confidentiality order.? The paragraph cites three decisions in District Courts and comes to no conclusion and makes no predictions. I would hope that courts do not make in-house lawyers litigate with one hand tied behind their back, having access to highly relevant information found during discovery barred from their view.