Apple's Epic Games court loss spawns debate over tech attorney & client privilege

The Epic vs. Apple judge declaring that including an attorney on an email chain doesn't invoke attorney-client privilege is concerning industry groups concerned that it violates previous precedent, and endangers clients and lawyers.

In April 2025, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers wrote that "adding a lawyer's name to a document does not create a privilege." The judge declared that Apple tried to hide business-related documents by doing just that — claiming that they were covered by attorney-client privilege.

But now, Bloomberg Law reports that two industry groups have filed an amicus brief to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The groups, TechNet and the Association of Corporate Counsel, argue that the precedent set by the judge could change how companies deal with compliance.

The issue would be especially problematic in fast-moving areas, such as Big Tech.

"Companies will be forced into a kind of blind compliance if they can't rely on in-house attorneys to help them navigate," Drew Hudson, vice president and general counsel at TechNet, said. "What you'll have instead is companies just kind of figuring it out based on a search or hoping that they figured it out. Or they won't bother to try. That's bad for compliance. It also creates a massive litigation risk."

Notably, TechNet has over 100 members, with Apple being one of them.

The original decision by Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, it's argued, "is a case where legal jurists live in their own world," Will Chuang, associate general counsel at software compliance company Relyance AI, told the outlet. "It's not pragmatic and doesn't align with the reality of the job."

Both TechNet and the ACC want the courts to adopt the primary purpose standard. That standard would allow any document that would normally require legal advice would automatically fall under attorney-client privilege.

Such a standard would mean that Apple did not abuse its attorney-client privilege, as previously ruled.

The oral arguments are currently scheduled for October 21, 2025.

Apple's long-running legal battle with Epic Games continues.