Entry by JoeDerhake

Entry

Clients often engage us to do Phase I Environmental Site Assessments and/or Phase II ESAs through their attorney to maintain attorney client privilege.     At times, I have even advised clients to hire an attorney for this reason (as well as to get good legal advice).   If the work and communications are privileged, the client enjoys a lot of benefits.   However, from what I understand the attorney client privilege is often quite narrow and a lot of clients think that they have it when they don’t.    I came across this simple blog that explains some of the basics about attorney client privilege.   

 

http://blog.ceb.com/2011/05/11/7-simple-rules-to-preserve-attorney-client-privilege/ 

 

The fact is that environmental consultants are asked to play lawyer all of the time and while we really need to tell our client to get a real lawyer, a little education on legal matters makes us better consultants. 

Keywords

Phase I Environmental Site Assessment, Phase I ESA, Attorney Client Privilege, environmental consultant