Ethics/Professional Responsibility
Aug. 21, 2026
Meta judge draws line between legal, business advice in privilege fight
A federal judge rejected Meta's bid to broadly block a former researcher's testimony about communications with in-house lawyers, while questioning whether his work is relevant to the social media addiction case.
Meta can't broadly invoke attorney-client privilege to prevent a former employee from testifying that its in-house lawyers interfered with his research, Chief U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said Friday.
But Gonzalez Rogers also ruled that some communications were protected by the privilege and questioned whether the former employee's testimony is relevant to the case at all.
"Lawyers who give business advice cannot shield business advice even when...
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