Court Rejects Attorney-Client Privilege For Inadvertently Disclosed Exxon Document

NEW ORLEANS — An in-house Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) memorandum addressing radiation testing in oilfield equipment that was inadvertently produced in a toxic tort case in 2009 does not meet the criteria for attorney-client privilege, a federal judge has ruled.

Judge Eldon E. Fallon denied Exxon’s motion to enforce attorney-client privilege for the “Stein Memorandum,” but he limited his June 28 ruling to the case before him in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

The 1988 memorandum from Rosemary Stein to John Guidry has been the source of privilege claims by Exxon since the company …