Hacker News Reader

Comment by verve_rat | Hacker News Reader

That makes sense to protect the rights of individuals, but why should those same rights be extended to businesses?

Maybe the world would be a better place if companies (and government departments) couldn't protect communications with legal counsel?

I haven't put in enough thought to have a coherent position, but the argument for the current arrangements seem to boil down to "because that is how it always was". Maybe corporate personhood brought along the rights of human personhood and maybe that is a good thing, but it seems to have just happened by default. Maybe we should debate if attorney client privilege is a privilege of clients, or of humans?

View on HN

The point of attorney client privilege is to encourage the client to get the advice of counsel, who can hopefully guide the client to staying within the law.

That policy goal applies equally well for both individuals and corporations.

It is not some handout to corporations.

I had a law professor say in his opinion the reason there is no mandatory reporter exception for attorney client privilege like there is for doctors and teachers is simply the fact that attorneys write the laws and are protecting each other.

> That makes sense to protect the rights of individuals, but why should those same rights be extended to businesses?

Why are individuals stripped of their rights when they congregate together towards a common purpose?

A corporation is not a group of people with a common purpose.

It's a legal and financial instrument to control other people's money with minimal accountability or oversight.

Maybe the multi-billion dollar ones, yes. But the idea of a corporation, at its heart, is to collectively work towards a goal. Crony Capitalism just warped that goal to be about the betterment of the ultrarich. If FAANG or whoever is violating the law, that’s because of the company, not attorney-client privilege. The solution isn’t to kneecap every company by removing their rights, but to enforce the laws on the books against the anti-competitive corporations, and maybe write some new consumer protection ones.

The idea that a corporation is just a collective groups of folks is simply wrong.

Take this situation, nobody is going to poll Google employees and ask if they would prefer if Google waived attorney client privilege in this manner and act accordingly.

It's not just a group of folks making decisions, it's a structure for a small group of folks to manage the asset and labor of others with minimal oversight.

Why give it to humans either? I suspect if you can't answer this question, you won't be able to answer the other.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com