On January 23, 2023, the Supreme Court dismissed as improvidently granted an important case about the attorney-client privilege. This news was disappointing for WLF, which filed an amicus brief supporting the petitioner. The Ninth Circuit held that a document containing legal advice is not privileged if the primary purpose of the document is to provide tax advice. WLF’s amicus brief explained how this rule would cause companies to curtail internal investigations. And rather than object to the Ninth Circuit’s rule without providing an alternative, WLF’s brief gave two alternatives that better protect the attorney-client privilege. The brief also argued that even if the holding is limited to tax advice, it exemplifies tax exceptionalism, which the Court has recently rejected.
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