Legal Privilege

When seeking legal advice, communication between the Legal Services lawyer and you will normally be protected by legal privilege. This means that it cannot normally be referred to in court proceedings or otherwise disclosed to third parties, for examples as part of a Freedom of Information request.

Please note that legal privilege only extends to legal advice, and does not cover commercial advice. It is therefore important that when seeking advice from Legal Services, such communications are kept separate from wider communications. When you receive legal advice from Legal Services, it is important that you do not forward it or share it with anyone, including both external parties and University of Reading colleagues, without the clear agreement of Legal Services. This is because such sharing may cause the legal privilege to be lost and the advice to be potentially disclosable to third parties. For the same reasons, email circulation should be limited to only those who need to receive the legal advice.

Please note that communications with people who are not lawyers cannot be legally privileged, even if marked as such and even if the advice is tantamount to legal advice.