Gordon v. Boyles

In Gordon v. Boyles, 9 P.3d 1106 (Colo. 2000), the supreme court recognized that communications with an attorney concerning a matter of common interest to a joint defense of co-defendants or joint clients may be privileged. In Boyles, a journalist and his employer were jointly represented by an attorney defending them in a civil defamation suit. In the course of that representation, the attorney told the employer the names of the journalist's confidential sources. The employer asserted attorney-client privilege in resisting its compelled testimony identifying the journalist's sources. The supreme court vacated the trial court's order compelling the employer to reveal the journalist's sources. Because the employer learned the identities of the journalist's sources only in the context of confidential communications with a co-defendant and joint counsel, the court concluded that the attorney-client privilege applied as the communications concerned matters of common interest to their joint defense. Gordon v. Boyles, supra.