Hunton Andrews Kurth Acted ‘Poorly’ But Not Disqualified Over Privileged Documents

Hunton Andrews Kurth attorneys won’t be disqualified from an insurance law case where they received 10 inadvertently produced, privileged documents, a Florida district court ruled recently, according to Bloomberg Law.

But the judge had harsh words for both parties, reports Bloomberg’s Melissa Heelan Stanzione:

“The facts underlying this disqualification motion establish that, unfortunately, lawyers on both sides of the litigation acted poorly,” Magistrate Judge William Matthewman said, adding that the attorneys’ conduct didn’t help their clients and was “downright unproductive and silly.”

The motion was the result of defendant’s attorneys mistakenly producing some documents that appeared to be attorney-client privileged between the defendant and its attorneys. The defendant’s counsel filed a disqualification motion against Hunton Andrews over the documents.

The magistrate judge said the defendant and its counsel took reasonable steps to prevent disclosure and to rectify the error. But the court concluded that Hunton Andrews disqualification was not justified.

Read the Bloomberg Law article.