In Connecticut, communications between attorneys and clients that are linked to the giving of legal advice are protected by the attorney-client privilege.
The privilege protects the giving of information to the lawyer to enable counsel to give sound and informed advice. While the attorney-client privilege can be waived by the client if you are not careful, the privilege is yours to waive or not waive. The privilege is not your lawyer’s to waive without your authority.
In fact, with limited exceptions, attorneys have an ethical duty not to reveal any information relating to their representation of a client,, whether privileged or not, unless the client gives informed consent or the disclosure is impliedly authorized in order to carry out the representation. A lawyer’s duty to protect client information extends beyond attorney-client privileged communications, and applies not only to matters communicated in confidence by the client to their lawyer, but also to all information relating to the representation, whatever its source.
