Regimul juridic al privilegiului avocat-client şi regula confidenţialităţii în relaţia avocat-client. Consideraţii teoretice şi practice
The legal regime of the lawyer-client privilege and the rule of confidentiality in the lawyer-client relationship. Theoretical and practical considerations

Summary/Abstract: The professional privilege and confidentiality of the attorney-client relationship constitute true guarantees of the lawyer’s professional secrecy and of ensuring the independence of the defense. At the same time, respecting the attorney-client privilege and the confidentiality of this professional relationship is meant to ensure and strengthen the confidence of the public society in the lawyer profession and in its role, as anindispensable participant in the act of justice. This article summarizes an analytical approach of the concept of attorney-client privilege and the notion of confidentiality in such relationship from a pragmatic perspective, with examples from both the domestic, European and international areas. Also, considering the fundamental importance of the lawyer profession in the Romanian legal society, the emphasis is placed mainly on the analysis of the Romanian regulations regarding professional secrecy and its internal protection mechanisms. The lawyer must be protected against any public interference, which could impede the defense and counseling of the client, regardless of the nature of the case in which the lawyer provided legal assistance or services of representation and regardless of the form or nature of the support that contains or reflects the data and information exchanged between the client and the lawyer and, respectively, the result of the lawyer service. This standard has been interpreted restrictively by the German authorities in a relatively recent case, in which it was held that the protection of the attorney-client relationship between a law firm and the client - a parent company in a group of companies - cannot be extended to the affiliates of the client. Thus, although the documents seized by the German local prosecutor had been drawn up within the professional relationship between the law firm and the client, the parent company of the group, they were not subject to professional secrecy, being seized by the investigation body for further use as evidence within the criminal case initiated against the client’s affiliate.

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