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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF MAINE

IN R E NEW M OTOR V EHICLES CANADIAN E XPORT A NTITRUST L ITIGATION

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MDL DOCKET NO. 1532

ORDER ON FORD'S OBJECTION TO MAGISTRATE JUDGE'S ORDER COMPELLING PRODUCTION OF MEETING NOTES

Ford of Canada's General Counsel attended two meetings with the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association ("CADA") and other manufacturers. He took handwritten notes of what was said there. Magistrate Judge Kravchuk has ordered that the notes be produced, but has offered to review them in camera to determine if any of them are privileged. Ford has objected to her ruling on

attorney-client privilege grounds (not work product). I A FFIRM her ruling.
Applicable Law

The parties have not addressed what law applies to this assertion of privilege, a complicated subject for this multidistrict case. For the federal

Sherman Act claim, federal common law applies. See Fed. R. Evid. 501. For the state damage claims, state attorney client privilege law applies, state by state for the 20 plus states where damage claims remain. Since the lawyers have not distinguished among the various state laws and federal common law, neither shall

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Law of Attorney Client Privilege

Attorney client privilege protects communications between lawyer and client (in either direction). See, e.g., Me. R. Evid. 502(b) (Maine law); United States v. Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., 129 F.3d 681, 684 (1st Cir. 1997) (federal common law); Restatement (Third) of the Law Governing Lawyers

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Maine Law