France has introduced new confidentiality protections for certain legal consultations prepared by in-house counsel. The framework creates a limited confidentiality regime for internal legal advice, subject to specific conditions and limitations, including requirements relating to the nature of the advice, the status of the author and the proceedings in which confidentiality may be relied upon.
The Conseil national des barreaux has adopted a normative decision clarifying the exceptions to confidentiality for correspondence between lawyers. The decision is intended to clarify Article 3.2 of the National Internal Regulations, promote more consistent practice across the French Bar and address misuse of “official” correspondence between lawyers.