In my previous column, “Appellate Advocates: Application of Attorney-Client Privilege to Government Communication and More,” NYLJ, Feb. 14, 2024, p. 3, col. 3, I discussed the applicability of the attorney-client privilege to confidential communications between government officials/entities and their attorneys in the context of the Court of Appeals decision in Matter of Appellate Advocates v. New York State Dept. of Corrections and Community Supervision, 2023 NY Slip Op. 06466 (Dec. 19, 2023). The court upheld the applicability of the privilege to governmental confidential communications relating to legal matters, and that such application was on par with the way it was applied to individuals and corporation and their private attorneys.

Subsequent to the publication of that column, I received several inquiries about the court’s focus on the privilege’s requirement that the communication must be made the purpose of obtaining legal advice or services, specifically distinguishing between legal and non-legal (business/political) advices, and whether the privilege is lost when the communication contains both legal and non-legal advice, so-called “dual purpose” communications.