Why Chinese companies need to understand US attorney-client privilege

For over 25 years, Alton Logan was locked behind bars for a murder he did not commit. Since arrested, he had denied his involvement in the killing of the victim – an off-duty police officer moonlighting as an undercover security guard at a McDonald's restaurant. Authorities knew that a different criminal, Andrew Wilson, owned the shotgun used in the killing. Nevertheless, Logan was tried and convicted by a jury and sentenced to life in prison. What's even more shocking is that before Logan's trial and conviction, two criminal defence attorneys, Jamie Kunz and Dale Coventry, knew that Logan was innocent because their client, Andrew Wilson, secretly admitted to them that he, not Logan, killed the off-duty officer at the McDonald's restaurant. However, neither attorney could reveal this information to the court because they were bound by the rules of law in the US, or attorney-client privilege.

A legal tradition

The case shows how sacred attorney-client privilege has become in the US. Not surprisingly, this American legal tradition is not universally shared by other nations. If this story were told to an audience in China, it would surely stir the conscience of the crowd and even generate some perplexed and negative comments on America's justice system. In a country like China, where no such legal tradition exists and very few people understand the policies behind this privilege and its positive contributions to achieving justice, such reactions seem quite natural. After all, even the two American attorneys in the story felt morally compelled to tell the truth and had been haunted ever since for not being able to legally disclose it.