ABA President Urges HUD to Drop Requests for Waivers of Attorney-Client Privilege
ABA President Stephen N. Zack has written a letter urging the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and its inspector general to bolster attorney-client and work-product protections for public housing agencies and other grantees.
According to the letter (PDF), HUD guidance “urges” public housing agencies to include an addendum in contracts with outside counsel that restricts the lawyers’ ability to assert the attorney-client privilege, the work product doctrine, or any other discovery privileges.
The letter also says the ABA has more recently learned that the agency has been suspending its approval of contracts with legal counsel when public housing agencies decline to waive the privilege.
The letter notes that several other key federal agencies have reversed their privilege waiver policies in recent years.
