L’[in]effectivité du secret professionnel – Peut-on protéger le produit du travail du service juridique dans les procédures?

The protection of the legal department’s work product is closely linked to the professional privilege of in-house counsels. Such a privilege exists in the United States and many European countries but is non-existent, respectively non-effective in Switzerland. After the abandonment in 2010 of a new federal law aimed at regulating the in-house counsels status and inter alia granting them such a privilege, the introduction of a new provision in the Swiss Code of Civil Procedure protecting the legal department’s work product is currently envisaged. Such a protection constitutes a step in the right direction, but should be extended to all types of proceedings, namely criminal and administrative pro­ceedings (and not only civil ones). Unfortunately, the amendment of the Swiss Code of Civil Procedure currently envisaged is poorly and badly justified by its authors (i.e. the Swiss government). It is indeed presented as a mere mean for Swiss companies to better defend themselves in US…