Out of constituent guarantees protecting professional secrecy in the practice of the attorney under US law

Abstract

The subject of the article is the types and characteristics of guarantees created to protect legal professional secrecy in the USA. It is inseparable from its character and role in the performance of the legal profession. These guarantees are one of the most important factors in the protection of legal professional confidentiality – crucial not only for the client, the lawyer himself, the client, but also for the entire legal protection system. The attention was paid primarily to non-constitutional guarantees protecting professional confidentiality: legal ethics and the so-called evidence privileges. The increased need to protect the right to privacy was also underlined. The main purpose of the article is to present the function and role of legal provisions placed outside the US Constitution, which not only provide a kind of envelope for the sources resulting from the Amendment to the Constitution, but also as its core. It seems that both the Model Rules of Professional Conduct act and the evidentiary privileges constitute sets of principles that are key to professional confidentiality under American law.