International companies lose out on privilege protection in US

Some international businesses are losing the protection of legal privilege in US court battles because their in-house counsel do not have a law licence.

Chinese companies are losing out in US courts estherpoon

Through a range of recent US court rulings, companies from Russia, China, the Netherlands and India have had to produce documents because their in-house lawyers have not had a licence. Bank of China was recently required to produce information relating to an internal investigation when the judge involved, Shira Scheindlin, said that lawyer-client privilege was inapplicable. 

Unknown in China

Lawyer Laniel Saperstein, who acts for Bank of China, said: 'The notion of US-style discovery is simply unknown in China and other civil law jurisdictions.' Source: ABA

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