Upjohn Co. v. United States
United States Supreme Court
449 U.S. 383 (1981)
- Written by Alexis Tsotakos, JD
Facts
In response to an independent audit reflecting illegal payments to foreign government officials by employees of Upjohn (defendant), Upjohn’s general counsel, Gerard Thomas, sent a questionnaire to Upjohn employees requesting any information they had concerning the payments. The Internal Revenue Service issued a summons requesting Upjohn’s production of the questionnaires, but Upjohn refused to produce the questionnaires on the basis of attorney-client privilege. The district court enforced the summons, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed, holding that the attorney-client privilege did not apply in the corporate context to those employees who were not directly responsible for directing Upjohn’s actions in response to legal advice. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Rehnquist, J.)
Concurrence (Burger, C.J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 821,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 989 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
