> Our lawyer said emails with the lawyer in the conversation will have client attorney privilege, is not court admissible.
That's too-sweeping a statement [0]:
1. Privilege attaches only to communications in the course of seeking legal advice.
2. Privilege is waived — and thus the emails are discoverable by adversaries and admissible in court — if people outside the decision-making group are in the conversation.
3. Privilege doesn't attach if the lawyer is functioning as a business executive or -advisor.
4. Privilege won't apply if the conversation is determined to be part of a crime or fraud.
All that said: If a lawyer is involved in the conversation, then the company's litigation counsel will almost-automatically withhold the emails from being produced to an adversary and will list them on a "privilege log." That will often set up an ancillary court fight over whether the emails should be produced to the adversary. In that ancillary fight, the judge might end up reviewing the emails "in camera," i.e., without the adversary seeing them, to decide whether the privilege applies — and depending on the content of the withheld emails, having the judge read the emails could do as much damage to the company's case as anything.
That's too-sweeping a statement [0]:
1. Privilege attaches only to communications in the course of seeking legal advice.
2. Privilege is waived — and thus the emails are discoverable by adversaries and admissible in court — if people outside the decision-making group are in the conversation.
3. Privilege doesn't attach if the lawyer is functioning as a business executive or -advisor.
4. Privilege won't apply if the conversation is determined to be part of a crime or fraud.
All that said: If a lawyer is involved in the conversation, then the company's litigation counsel will almost-automatically withhold the emails from being produced to an adversary and will list them on a "privilege log." That will often set up an ancillary court fight over whether the emails should be produced to the adversary. In that ancillary fight, the judge might end up reviewing the emails "in camera," i.e., without the adversary seeing them, to decide whether the privilege applies — and depending on the content of the withheld emails, having the judge read the emails could do as much damage to the company's case as anything.
[0] https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/attorney-client-priv...