The first question seems simple, but it sometimes isn’t. In order for there to be an attorney-client privilege, you need to be your attorney’s client. The first thing this means is that the person investigating your complaint has to be a lawyer. If you have a private investigator who’s not a lawyer, or a human resources firm or some other non-lawyer investigator look into the complaint, then you won’t have an attorney-client privilege to protect the report that they produce.nnMost of the time, if you hire a lawyer to work for you, you will sign an engagement agreement. This engagement agreement will often state flat out that you and your lawyer now have an attorney-client relationship. Sometimes initial consultations with a new lawyer will not fall under the attorney-client privilege if you don’t end up hiring the lawyer. But once you hire a lawyer to work for you, there should be an attorney-client relationship.nnAn example of how this works was the case of Waters v. City of Petaluma. In that lawsuit, the City of Petaluma got a complaint from one of their firefighters that she had been the victim of sexual harassment and discrimination. The City wanted to find out what had happened. They hired a lawyer who had a lot of experience with employment law investigations. They signed an engagement agreement with the lawyer. This agreement said that the lawyer would investigate the complaint and give the City a report. This agreement was one factor the court used to decide the attorney-client privilege protected the report.