The SFO has this week confirmed that it will not appeal the Court of Appeal’s recent decision addressing, in particular, fundamental issues as to the ambit of litigation privilege in investigations (ENRC v SFO [2018] EWCA Civ 2006). A more detailed summary of the case and its practical implications is available here.

The decision of the SFO not to appeal the decision means that English law will be left with a narrow concept of legal advice privilege for the foreseeable future. The Court of Appeal indicated that it did not agree with the current law in relation to the narrow definition of a “client” for the purposes of lawyer/client communications, but that this was a matter for the Supreme Court to decide.