The Professional Secret, Confidentiality and Legal Profession ...

34. For the same reason also, the law protects communications Ez
the lawyer to his clients and, in some cases, to other people.
Thus, a UK lawyer can give written advice to his client in the
knowledge that the document containing that advice cannot be
used as evidence against his client. The document is equally
protected whether it is in the hands of the lawyer, or in those
of the client, or in those of a third party. Even if it is in
the hands of the police or the prosecutor, it cannot become
'evidence' because the communication which it contains is
privileged.
35. Similarly, communications between lawyers may be privileged.
What matters is the relationship between the lawyers concerned.
Communications between two lawyers acting for the same party
(e.g. barrister and solicitor, or solicitor and French Avocat)
are privileged because the relationship between those two
lawyers is a confidential relationship for the benefit of
their mutual client. Communications between two lawyers
acting for different parties may, or may not, be privileged
according to the circumstances of the case. Thus, a
confidential discussion between two barristers or two solicitors
who are seeking to settle a dispute between their clients would
be privileged, provided that the discussion was intended to be
a confidential one between lawyers for the mutual benefit of
their clients and in order to assist the administration of
justice. But the same discussion would not be privileged if it
were not intended to be confidential - for example, if one
solicitor were making a formal proposal to the other with
a view to settlement of a litigation. Special rules also apply
where lawyers have been involved in the 'conciliation' of
matrimonial disputes.
36. In the case of written communications between solicitors
(barristers and advocates do not write letters to each other),
the normal method of indicating that a letter is intended to
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