Ethics

The Gucci Case

SDNY District Judge Shira Scheindlin has overturned the magistrate judge's rejection of privilege in the Gucci case. Quite right. (Also, I avoid embarrassment because I've been critical of the magistrate judge's opinion at numerous  CLEs and predicting reversal.) This is the case where Gucci lost privilege before the MJ  for communications with its GC who, it turned out, was an inactive member of the CA bar and not a member of any other bar, while practicing in NY. I have no sympathy for him. He jeopardized his client's interests across years of work (what other communications would have been open to discovery in other cases had the court upheld the decision -- too awful to consider). Good case for evidence and ethics classes. 

Full post as published by Legal Ethics Forum on January 06, 2011 (boomark / email).