17 Mar ECLA/ICAM – Legal Professional Privilege Workshop
High-level expert workshop 💡 with colleagues from across Europe 🇪🇺 and the European Commission on the evolution of our profession …
On Friday, 14 March 2025, 40 experts on the legal professions, including in-house lawyers and the European Commission met in Madrid, Spain 🇪🇸 to discuss the latest developments and challenges for attorney-client-confidentiality, professional secrecy and legal professional privilege at large. The focus was on national developments since the well-known Akzo Nobel decision both in Europe and other OECD countries, the currently pending case at the Court of Justice of the European Union on the transposition of the whistleblower directive, and future developments on the legal profession.
Main conclusions and key take-aways:
⚖️ The legal profession must take a more active role in defending professional secrecy and recognizing it as an essential right of citizens
⚖️ The profession evolved significantly since the year 2010 and most probably a decision like the one in the Akzo Nobel case would not be possible today
⚖️ Thus the Akzo Nobel jurisprudence needs to be revisited to reflect the current standards of the in-house legal profession today
⚖️ Today, the majority of Member States of the EU guarantee some sort of confidentiality to in-house counsel
⚖️ Trust is key for a transparent communication between in-house legal departments and the internal client
⚖️ Therefore, confidentiality in the communication with in-house counsel supports effective compliance structures across Europe
⚖️ Terminology upgrade: It is not the legal privilege of the lawyers, it is a privilege of the client and therefore an obligation for the lawyers (There is an obligation arising from the privilege)
The workshop took place in the impressive building of Ilustre Colegio de la Abogacía de Madrid and we thank the colleagues for their outstanding hospitality.
We would like to also thank our keynote speakers: Daniel Calleja Crespo, Stephanie Fougou, Teresa Minguez Diaz, Marcus M. Schmitt as well as our contributors Simon Vander Putten, Jonathan Marsh, Marc Mossé, Stéphane BARTHE, Dr. Timo Hermesmeier, Carlos Menor, Richard Bacek, Víctor Gamero Cabo, Alexis Kendall Aranda and all of our participants. Many thanks also to Julie Dutordoir, Max Gröning, Eric Lennerth, Silvia Bonacossa, Mark Cockerill, Waldemar Koper, Laure Lavorel, Claudia Biedermann, Giuseppe Catalano, Javier Ramirez Iglesias, Giovanni Cerutti, Aldo Scaringella, Marie Brejchova, Philippe Coen and many more.
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