The Accountant-Client Privilege in Multidistrict Litigation: Does It Apply?

Abstract

Analysis of state-created accountant-client privilege laws and their applicability in the pretrial proceedings of cases that are consolidated into one multidistrict litigation action where jurisdictions of original filing have conflicting approaches to the privilege. The privilege is explored under state choice-of-law rules and under the Erie and Byrd doctrines. This paper ultimately concludes that a state-created accountant-client privilege should apply to pretrial proceedings of multidistrict litigation.