In re Cokinos, Boisien & Young, 523 S.W.3d 901 (Tex. App.—Dallas 2017, no pet.).
The court ordered a law firm to turn over to an
attorney’s executor e-mails between the attorney and the firm concerning
a lawsuit that may be relevant to a fee-sharing dispute between the
attorney and the law firm. The order included a protective order to
preserve potentially confidential and privileged communications. The law
firm petitioned for a writ of mandamus to prevent enforcement of the
judge’s disclosure order.
The appellate court denied the petition. The court
explained that the executor had a duty to collect all debts due the
estate and the e-mails were relevant to the claim for fees against the
law firm. If the attorney were alive, the attorney would have had access
to the e-mails and thus so does the executor. Note that the court did
not address whether any specific document might be privileged or subject
to the attorney-client work product doctrine.
[The court decided this case without reference to
the newly enacted Texas Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital
Assets Act as it was decided prior to the Act’s effective date.]
Moral: An attorney may find it prudent to
keep paper copies of documents relating to fees so that the attorney’s
executor can have unfettered access to them.