SodexoMAGIC, LLC v. Drexel Univ.

291 F. Supp. 3d 681
District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania·Decided February 23, 2018·No. CIVIL ACTION NO. 16–5144·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

Baylson, J.

I. Introduction

The Court has reviewed the 50 documents submitted in camera by both Plaintiff and Defendant, as samples of disputed claims of privilege, and has assessed each party's privilege determinations.

For civil matters, the Pennsylvania Code provides: "Counsel shall not be competent or permitted to testify to confidential communications made to him by his client, nor shall the client be compelled to disclose the same, unless in either case this privilege is waived upon the trial by the client." 42 Pa.C.S. § 5928 (civil) ; see also Loutzenhiser v. Doddo, 436 Pa. 512, 260 A.2d 745, 748 (Supreme Ct. Pa. 1970) (quoting the same words). The Third Circuit has articulated the required elements to establish the attorney-client privilege under Pennsylvania law:

(1) the asserted holder of the privilege is or sought to become a client;
(2) the person to whom the communication was made
a) is a member of the bar of a court, or his or her subordinate, and
b) in connection with this communication is acting as a lawyer;
(3) the communication relates to a fact of which the attorney was informed
a) by his client
b) without the presence of strangers
c) for the purpose of securing primarily either
i. an opinion of law or
ii. legal services or
iii. assistance in some legal proceeding, and
d) not for the purpose of committing a crime or tort; and
(4) the privilege has been
a) claimed and
b) not waived by the client.

Montgomery County v. MicroVote Corp., 175 F.3d 296, 301 (3d Cir. 1999).

In the present case, the challenged communications involve internal emails within Drexel and SodexoMAGIC, i.e., corporate attorney-client privilege. Pennsylvania courts have stated that communications between in-house counsel and the *684corporate client are protected to the same extent as communications between the corporation and outside counsel. In re Westinghouse Elec. Corp. Uranium Contracts Litig., 76 F.R.D. 47, 57 (W.D. Pa. 1977) ("[T]he attorney-client privilege protected all communications to or from legal counsel, whether outside or in-house counsel, so long as they were not acting principally as business advisors giving only incidental legal advice ...."); see also Upjohn Co. v. United States, 449 U.S. 383, 389-90, 101 S.Ct. 677, 66 L.Ed.2d 584 (1981) ("Admittedly complications in the application of the privilege arise when the client is a corporation, which in theory is an artificial creature of the law, and not an individual; but this Court has assumed that the privilege applies when the client is a corporation."). Moreover, the Third Circuit has reiterated that "communication between a corporation's counsel and the employees of the corporation are covered by the attorney-client privilege." In re Grand Jury Investigation, 445 F.3d 266 (3d Cir. 2006) (citing Upjohn ). Many courts have held that privilege is to be narrowly construed.

Communications with the subordinate of an attorney, such as a paralegal, are also protected by the attorney-client privilege so long as the subordinate is "acting as the agent of a duly qualified attorney under circumstances that would otherwise be sufficient to invoke the privilege." Dabney v. Investment Corp. of America, 82 F.R.D. 464, 465 (E.D. Pa. 1979) (citing 8 Wigmore, Evidence § 2301 (McNaughton Rev. 1961) ). In fact, "[a] document need not be authored or addressed to an attorney in order to be properly withheld on attorney-client privilege grounds." SmithKline Beecham Corp. v. Apotex Corp., 232 F.R.D. 467, 477 (E.D. Pa. 2005). Nonetheless, to successfully assert the attorney-client privilege, the corporation "must clearly demonstrate that the communication in question was made for the express purpose of securing legal not business advice," AAMCO Transmissions, Inc. v. Marino, No. 88-cv-5522, 1991 WL 193502, at *3 (E.D. Pa. Sept. 24, 1991), and the party asserting the attorney-client privilege "bears the burden of proving that it applies to the communication at issue." Sampson v. Sch. Dist. of Lancaster, 262 F.R.D. 469, 474 (E.D. Pa. 2008) (citing In re Grand Jury Empanelled, 603 F.2d 469, 474 (3d Cir. 1979) ). Notably, the party seeking to assert the privilege must "identify [a] specific attorney with whom a confidential communication was made" in order to satisfy this burden. SmithKline, 232 F.R.D. at 477.

Where lawyers (or their non-lawyer subordinates) are acting in a purely "scrivener-like" role, their emails and documents (including draft agreements) are themselves not privileged communications. Sargent v. Johns, 206 Pa. 386, 55 A. 1051, 1052 (Supreme Ct. Pa. 1903) (where attorney who acted merely in clerical capacity did not afford privilege to communication); Brennan v. Brennan

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SodexoMAGIC, LLC v. Drexel Univ., 291 F. Supp. 3d 681 (E.D. Pa. 2018).

291 F. Supp. 3d 681 (SodexoMAGIC, LLC v. Drexel Univ.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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