What an excellent discussion!  I've lost count of how many insightful observations have been made on this issue.  And, yet, I keep on pondering something John Montana wrote a few posts back:  "The passage of time may have rendered the point moot, but the donation of case files to an archive, museum or college without client consent would be improper under current ethics law."

I've seen so many attorney/client documents in 19th and early 20th Century archival collections that I'm convinced that in times past it was not unethical for attorneys to mix legal and personal correspondence and for them or their descendants to donate the collection to research institutions.  

And this makes me ask the questions, (1) when--or at what date--did legal ethics evolve to the point that archivists must worry about accepting collections including legal documents and (2) when/how do files now shielded by client/attorney privilege become available for historical research?  Will it be at 75 years?  A hundred years? Two hundred years?  Or when we are "one with Nineveh and Tyre?"

While I shall not gainsay John's opinion that most legal files are on the whole boring and transitory, some are highly relevant to the development of 20th Century society.  Think the Civil Rights Movement, the oil business, the entertainment industry and other important human pursuits that must be squared with the law.


Paul R. Scott, CA, CRM
Records Management Officer
Harris County, TX
713 368-0039

Under the Texas Public Information Act most written communications to or from public employees are considered to be public records and will be made available to the public and the media upon request.  This e-mail and any direct reply may be subject to public disclosure.

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