Brooklyn Law Review Volume 82 | Issue 4 Article 9 1-1-2017 Reevaluating Attorney-Client Privilege in the Age of Hackers Anne E. Conroy Follow this and additional works at: http://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/blr Part of the Evidence Commons, Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons, Litigation Commons, Privacy Law Commons, and the Science and Technology Law Commons Recommended Citation Anne E. Conroy, Reevaluating Attorney-Client Privilege in the Age of Hackers, 82 Brook. L. Rev. (2017). Available at: http://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/blr/vol82/iss4/9 This Note is brought to you for free and open access by BrooklynWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Brooklyn Law Review by an authorized editor of BrooklynWorks. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Reevaluating Attorney-Client Privilege in the Age of Hackers “Dance like no one is watching; email like it may one day be read aloud in a deposition.” 1 INTRODUCTION In 2014, a group hacked Sony Pictures Entertainment servers and made public Sony’s financial information, along with engrossingly candid email exchanges between its executives.2 A year later, hackers released the email addresses, partial credit card information, and sexual preferences of over thirty million Ashley Madison users.3 Shortly after the release of this data, two different search tools appeared online4 allowing interested Internet users to discover who had an account with the “Life is Short. Have an Affair” dating website.5 In 2016, over 100 media organizations published coverage of 11.5 million documents obtained through a hack of a Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca.6 The documents revealed financial assets of celebrities, athletes, and world leaders and came to be known as the “Panama Papers.”7 In the final weeks leading up to the 2016 presidential election, WikiLeaks8 released a treasure trove of 1 Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi), TWITTER (Dec.