Source: https://blog.ceb.com/2011/01/24/protecting-the-confidentiality-of-your-clients-fee-agreement/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 14:27:02+00:00

Document:
January 24, 2011 July 31, 2014 / Julie Brook, Esq.
You receive a written demand for documents in a case pending in a California state court. One of the documents sought is your client’s fee agreement. As a good lawyer, your first instinct is to protect the agreement’s confidentiality. You ask yourself: Can I object? and if I can, on what grounds? The answer is found in Bus & P C §6149.
A written fee contract shall be deemed to be a confidential communication within the meaning of subdivision (e) of [Bus & P C] Section 6068 and of Section 952 of the Evidence Code.
Section 6149 accomplishes two important things: First, it makes the Evid C §952 attorney-client privilege applicable to a written fee agreement. Second, it obligates an attorney to preserve the confidentiality of a written fee agreement, even in a context in which the attorney-client privilege does not apply. See Bus & P C §6068(e).
A “confidential communication between client and lawyer” under Evid C §952 is protected from disclosure by the attorney-client privilege. Evid C §954. By directing that a written fee agreement constitutes such a communication, Bus & P C §6149 expressly extends the protection of the attorney-client privilege to written fee agreements.
This confidentiality is not absolute. A client’s written fee agreement may lose its privileged status, for example, if it is “relevant to an issue of breach, by the lawyer or by the client, of a duty arising out of the lawyer-client relationship.” Evid Code §958. The attorney-client privilege may also be waived. See Evid C §912(a). In fact, a client may waive the privilege by calling an attorney to testify about the contents of the written fee agreement or by expressly consenting to disclosure.
So, a good lawyer’s first instinct is correct: Absent your client’s consent to disclose the agreement, you must oppose a demand to produce it and refuse to produce it unless ordered to do so by a final court order. See Evid Code §914(b). Section 6149 requires no less.
For more on this issue, go to CEB’s California Civil Procedure Before Trial, chap 3 on Representation Agreements. When it comes to drafting fee agreements, turn to our Fee Agreement Forms Manual.

References: §6149
 §952
 §6068
 §952
 §954
 §6149
 §958
 §912
 §914