IS ATTORNEY CLIENT PRIVILEGE DEAD?

This last week we saw something we rarely see: an incredibly public raiding of a lawyer’s office with the express purpose of gaining information on their clients.

The confidence we hold in attorney client privilege, as well as things like doctor /patient, blood oaths and pinky swears, is seemingly something woven into the fabric of this country. Therapists could only operate with this hard fast rule in place, and children would never share the dead body they just found with their friends without the ironclad nature of a pinky swear. But there’s always a catch. Therapists have to report if the patient is going to do harm to themselves or others, and your next door neighbor Bobby will definitely rat you out if his parents threaten to keep him home from Disney Land.

But when is it ok to break the lawyer privilege? In the most recent case of Michael Cohen and the raid on his office, the loophole of “if the information being sought is useful in an ongoing criminal case” has been touted. But couldn’t that be said about EVERYTHING in a lawyer’s office? If I’m involved in a court case about a crime I may or may not have committed, then wouldn’t the prosecution LOVE to have all the information I’ve provided to my lawyer? Does that not blur the line?

What do you think? Was the raid last week a “disgrace” and “attack on our country” or is Michael Cohen a shady ass dude, involved in all kinds of dirt, and the government acted appropriately through it’s proper channels?



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