Opinion ID: 4554025
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: from a professional legal adviser in his

Text: capacity as such, (3) the communications relating to that purpose, (4) made in confidence (5) by the client, (6) are at his instance permanently protected (7) from disclosure by himself or by the legal adviser, (8) unless the protection be waived. Graf, 610 F.3d at 1156. “The attorney-client privilege may extend to communications with third parties who have been engaged to assist the attorney in providing legal advice,” Richey, 632 F.3d at 566, as well as to communications with third parties “acting as agent” of the client. United States v. Landof, 591 F.2d 36, 39 (9th Cir. 1978). “If the advice sought is not legal advice, but, for example, accounting advice from an accountant, then the privilege does not exist.” Richey, 632 F.3d at 566 (citation omitted). Thus, we have recognized several contexts in which communications with attorneys for the purpose of non-legal advice are not 14 UNITED STATES V. SANMINA CORP. privileged. 1 In general, however, “[i]f a person hires a lawyer for advice, there is a rebuttable presumption that the lawyer is hired ‘as such’ to give ‘legal advice,’ whether the subject of the advice is criminal or civil, business, tort, domestic relations, or anything else.” United States v. Chen, 99 F.3d 1495, 1501 (9th Cir. 1996). This “presumption is rebutted when the facts show that the lawyer was ‘employed without reference to his knowledge and discretion in the law.’” Id. There are “several ways by which parties may waive the privilege.” In re Pac. Pictures Corp., 679 F.3d 1121, 1126 (9th Cir. 2012) (citations omitted). First, “voluntarily disclosing privileged documents to third parties will generally destroy the privilege.” Id. at 1126–27. Also known as an “express waiver,” this type of waiver “occurs when a party discloses privileged information to a third party who is not bound by the privilege, or otherwise shows disregard for the privilege by making the information public.” Bittaker v. Woodford, 331 F.3d 715, 719 (9th Cir. 2003). “Disclosures that effect an express waiver are typically within the full control of the party holding the privilege; courts have no role in encouraging or forcing the 1 See, e.g., United States v. Rowe, 96 F.3d 1294, 1297 (9th Cir. 1996) (noting “[w]here the attorney was asked for business (as opposed to legal) counsel, no privilege attached,” but “fact-finding which pertains to legal advice counts as ‘professional legal services’” (citations omitted)); United States v. Huberts, 637 F.2d 630, 640 (9th Cir. 1980) (“Generally, an attorney who serves as a business agent to a client may not assert the attorney-client privilege, because no confidential relationship attaches.”); see also Harris v. United States, 413 F.2d 316, 320 (9th Cir. 1969) (applying “the general rule that ministerial or clerical services performed by an attorney are not within the privilege”). UNITED STATES V. SANMINA CORP. 15 disclosure—they merely recognize the waiver after it has occurred.” Id. In contrast, waiver by implication, or implied waiver, is based on the rule that “a litigant waives the attorney-client privilege by putting the lawyer’s performance at issue during the course of litigation.” Id. at 718; see also Weil, 647 F.2d at 24 (“[T]he federal cases presuppose that waiver may be effected by implication.”). Waivers by implication rest on the “fairness principle,” which is often expressed in terms of preventing a party from using the privilege as both a shield and a sword. . . . In practical terms, this means that parties in litigation may not abuse the privilege by asserting claims the opposing party cannot adequately dispute unless it has access to the privileged materials. Bittaker, 331 F.3d at 719 (citation omitted). This fairness principle also animates the concept of subject matter waiver, in which “voluntary disclosure of the content of a privileged attorney communication constitutes waiver of the privilege as to all other such communications on the same subject.” Weil, 647 F.2d at 24; see also Plache, 913 F.2d at 1380 (finding disclosure of a privileged communication waived the privilege “on all other communications on the same subject”). Under this rule, “disclosure of information resulting in the waiver of the attorney-client privilege constitutes waiver ‘only as to communications about the matter actually disclosed.’” Chevron Corp. v. Pennzoil Co., 974 F.2d 1156, 1162 (9th Cir. 1992) (quoting Weil, 647 F.2d at 25)); see also Mendelsohn, 896 F.2d at 1189 (affirming decision confining testimony based on waiver to the subject of the waiver). 16 UNITED STATES V. SANMINA CORP.