Massachusets Supreme Court recognizes in intra law firm privilege

The Legal Profession blog is reporting (here) on an important new decision from Massachusets on whether confidential communications between law firm attorneys and a law firm's in-house counsel concerning a malpractice claim asserted by a current client of the firm are protected from disclosure to the client by the attorney-client privilege.  The court concluded that they are, provided that (1) the law firm has designated an attorney or attorneys within the firm to represent the firm as in-house counsel, (2) the in-house counsel has not performed any work on the client matter at issue or a substantially related matter, (3) the time spent by the attorneys in these communications with in-house counsel is not billed to a client, and (4) the communications are made in confidence and kept confidential.  The case is called RFF Family Partnership, LP v. Burns & Levinson LLP.  The Legal Profession blog has more on the story and a link to the case here.  The Legal Ethics Blog also has more here.