HOME EVENTS MEDIA CORPORATE COUNSEL ACADEMY MEMBERS & ORGANISATION PARTNERS CONTACT PROFESSION Lawyers working in Europe for a company as salaried employees in a legal department are company lawyers (except employees with legal training working in sales, HR, or finance). ‘Company lawyer’ is defined as a jurist employed as a lawyer within the legal department of a company. The terms house counsel, in-house counsel, corporate counsel, in-house lawyer, business lawyer, and juriste d’entreprise in French, are used synonymously. INDEPENDENT BY DESIGN The White Paper “Company Lawyers: Independent by Design”, which has been co-edited by former ECLA President Philippe Coen and Prof. Christophe Roquill, contains contributions from well over 50 authors, both ECLA members and non-members, originating from some 30 countries. The paper was officially presented to the ECLA General Assembly held in Tallinn on May 30, 2014 and afterwards to various ECLA members and other legal organizations. CODE OF ETHICS ECLA has a Code of Ethics, which contains common principles for the practice of company lawyers in Europe. The ECLA Code of Ethics was officially adopted by the General Assembly in Tallinn on May 30, 2014. The Code states, for example, that company lawyers acknowledge and promote the importance of the law and compliance thereof within the company or group of companies they work for and in the relations of the company with third parties. LEGAL PRIVILEGE From the start, legal professional privilege was the core issue for ECLA. It has since developed into broader discussions about the profession of company lawyers in Europe, attributes of this profession, and best practices for company lawyers in Europe. But legal professional privilege, or to put it in better and more general terms: the freedom of choice of qualified counsel for CEOs of all European industries, remains an important part of ECLA´s work. DOWNLOADS LEGAL PRIVILEGE In-house lawyers – issues of ethics and independance (1997) Legal privilege versus secret professional (1997) Position paper – Legal privilege for in-house lawyers (1997) Position paper – updated – Commission´s propsal (2000) The case for in-house legal privilege in EC law (2001) Legal privilege before national competition authorities (2001) Human rights implication of privilege denial (2002) The situation of in-house counsel in member states – comparative tables (2003) Position paper as featured in Global Counsel – Modernisation of Competition Law (August 2003) The position of AFJE (French association) on Legal Confidentiality (2003) European Parliament Vote on the Merger Regulation & Legal Privilege (2003) United States Council for International Business, Protecting the confidentiality of communications (2005) International Chamber of Commerce position paper : competition law and legal privilege (2006) In-House Counsel and the Attorney-Client Privilege – A Lex Mundi Multi-Jurisdictional Survey INDEPENDENCE Company Lawyers: Independent by Design AKZO NOBEL CASE DOCUMENTS Interim order given in Akzo Nobel case L’arrêt AKZO: le Tribunal de Première Instance refuse d’étendre aux juristes d’entreprise la protection du secret professionnel The Court of First Instance clarifies the extent of legal professional privilege in European Commission competition cases ECLA Intervention Statement in the AKZO Nobel Case (February 2008) ECLA’ s after ECJ Ruling Press Release (September 2010) ECLA European Company Lawyers Association Code of Ethics ECLA Articles of Association Celebrating 30 years of ECLA – A European Lawyer’s History ADDITIONAL LINKS Legal Notice Privacy Policy Contact LET’S CONNECT © European Company Lawyers Association 2021