In the Commonwealth, the principle of legal professional privilege (the privilege) has been treated as almost sacrosanct and in consequence, derogations from it have been rare. The traditional view that, despite resulting unfairness, the rule must be absolute in order to achieve its stated goals is challenged here through an examination of the theoretical structure of and common law derogations from the privilege. Auburn argues that the claims made of the rule in the past have been overstated and that the privilege is more robust than widely assumed. Being dependent on patterns of client...