Sweden recognizes the concept of legal privilege for lawyers who are members of the Swedish Bar Association and their associates. For other lawyers, e.g., in-house lawyers, legal privilege only applies when they act as counsel at court, i.e., as trial lawyers.

According to the Swedish Code of Judicial Procedure, lawyers who are members of the Swedish Bar Association ("Advokats") are, when good professional ethics so require, bound by an obligation of confidentiality in relation to what they learn in the exercise of their profession. The Swedish Bar Association's Code of Professional Conduct, which all Advokats must observe, provides guidance concerning the issue of what constitutes good professional ethics.

The Code of Professional Conduct stipulates that Advokats as well as their associates have a duty of confidentiality in respect of matters disclosed to them in the context of their legal practice or that become known to them in connection with it. Moreover, Advokats are obliged to impose the same duty of confidentiality on their staff. The duty of confidentiality encompasses both legal communications, written or oral, and documents prepared by or for lawyers. There is a limited legal privilege available to lawyers who are neither Advokats nor associates of an Advokat as well. However, this privilege is only available when they are acting as trial lawyers. The Code of Judicial Procedure states that such trial lawyers may be heard as witnesses concerning matters entrusted to them in the performance of their assignment only if the client gives consent. This legal privilege for trial lawyers only protects confidential client communications entrusted to the lawyer for the purposes of the litigation in question.

Exceptions from the duty of confidentiality apply if the client consents to the disclosure or where there is a legal obligation to provide the information. An exception also applies if disclosure is necessary to enable the Advokat to defend complaints by the client or to pursue a justified claim for compensation in respect of the assignment concerned.

In addition, the Swedish Code of Judicial Procedure states that Advokats may not testify concerning matters entrusted to them or discovered by them in their professional capacity, unless the examination is authorized by law or is consented to by the person for whose benefit the duty of secrecy is imposed. An Advokat may be compelled to testify in cases concerning serious criminal activities, i.e., crimes for which a person may be sentenced to at least two years' imprisonment. However, this obligation to testify does not apply to defense counsel.

Further, documents containing information that is of such a nature that an Advokat cannot be compelled to testify, i.e., entrusted in confidence or otherwise learned by the Advokat in their profession, may not be produced.