On 24 May 2022, the Dutch Supreme Court passed judgment in a case between a multinational company with a large number of both national and international in-house counsel and 15 of its in-house lawyers on the one hand, and the Dutch Public Prosecution Service on the other.^[1] Although the parties' complaints were inadmissible, the Supreme Court took the opportunity to provide some insights in relation to the scope and application of legal professional privilege of in-house lawyers by way of obiter dictum. The Supreme Court ruled that in-house lawyers have the right to privilege, subject to certain conditions.

One of these conditions is that in-house lawyers sign a professional statute or a similar agreement that sufficiently ensures the independence of the in-house lawyer. Once signed, visiting in-house lawyers (i.e., lawyers registered to the bar in an EU member state, jurisdictions within the European Economic Area, and Switzerland) may invoke the right to legal professional privilege in the Netherlands when they enjoy the same right in their home jurisdiction as well. Foreign in-house lawyers (i.e., lawyers registered to the bar in jurisdictions outside the EU, the European Economic Area and Switzerland) should additionally be able to demonstrate that their work in the Netherlands is of such a nature that were it to be performed by a Dutch lawyer, that lawyer would be entitled to invoke the right to legal professional privilege.

[1] HR 24 May 2022, ECLI:NL:HR:2022:760.